How to stop your dog from digging your yard

Dogs’ digging is a problem many of my clients keep asking for lasting solutions. Some of them have complained about their dogs digging up their ornamental plants and gardens which often results to making a mess of the yard. On proffering solutions, I discovered each solution to be unique and require different approach. 

Dogs, especially some breeds of dogs are diggers by nature and some others dig due to boredom and excessive energy needing to be exhausted quickly. This is peculiar to dogs that are mostly locked up in the day and released in the night to protect the house against intruders as mostly practiced in Nigeria here.

Solutions

Many dog trainers and experts have proffered solutions regarding this unpleasant behavior of dogs which includes:

1.       Using the dog’s “poop”: Some experts recommend burying the dog’s faeces in the digging spot. The dogs tend to come back to where he has been digging to dig more so by burying his poop there, he digs again to discover his disgusting poop which makes him stop digging.

2.        Covering the entire yard with concrete tiles or interlocks. This is an expensive solution though but it works excellently.

3.       Cesar Millan of “dog whisperer” recommends you give the dog a portion where he is allowed to dig due to the fact that these dogs are diggers by instinct. This will free up other spots from being messed up. Let me add that you can enclose the said portion.

4.       I will recommend you give the dog some work to do in other to use up the excess energy which might include: taking the dog for walks especially evening walks to try and use up the excess energy, having a training session within a particular period to use up the energy or just to engage the dog in a useful energy filled activity. After this, the dog might want to rest for a long time and therefore save you the agony of destructive digging.

A technique I once used is to release the dog in the day after locking him up at night, then watch for the bad behavior and punish the dog for it. Please be warned that you can only punish the dog effectively when you catch them in the act NOT after the deed has been done. Strive to catch the dog doing it before you punish.  Punishment is only advised if the dog is still a puppy because older dogs might misunderstand you and attack you.

A command like “stop!” followed by an alternative activity given to distract the dog helps a great deal. This makes the dog understand that it is an undesirable behavior to dig.

In conclusion, I will advise you to try these recommended solutions you might be lucky and one of them will work for you. Thank you and goodluck.