Digging dog.......NFR

Big Smizz · 05-07-2002, 08:45 AM

Hey all....just thought I would draw on your wealth of knowledge and information on this subject. I have a Saint Bernard pup who is just a little over a year old. Love the dog but the stupid thing will not stop digging holes, huge holes, and destroying our back yard. He is free to roam the yard while my wife and I are away at work, and we cannot really afford a dog run right now. Basically has anyone out there had any success in stopping a digging dog? I have tried putting his doo-doo on the holes, tried cayenne pepper on the holes, tried "No-Dig" spray on the holes.........nothing works. Any advice?

Thanks.

bait boy · 05-07-2002, 09:09 AM

try cutting his or her toenails really short then it hurts when they dig.

STGRule · 05-07-2002, 09:13 AM

Had a "vet" suggest that toenail thing once, he did the clipping... The dog limped around for two weeks and then he went back to digging. Don't be cruel.

jet · 05-07-2002, 09:19 AM

Big

place a mouse trap at the bottom of the hole and partially refill the hole. When fido re-diggs the and he will, the snap will startle him and make him quit. Dogs learn quickly...

let us know what works for ya.

Jet~~~

Cool Texan · 05-07-2002, 09:23 AM

Dont do the toenails...odds are you will cut them way too close and hit the quick....which will bleed like a stuck pig and cause a lot of pain for the dog. :depressed:

:depressed:

I know this wont be much help...but here it goes. Your dog suffers from a serious condition which is causing the digging and related behavior. That condition in the medical world is known as "lupus youngus", which in layman terms means "you have a puppy". Dogs are the most amazing creatures on earth...full of love, and joy, and peace. A puppy is the spawn of some uncontrollable demon. They will dig, chew, bite, destroy...that is all they know.

Do not hit the puppy for its behavior...you will see the results of that for the rest of the dogs life and it is not worth it. Repremand it, let it know you are not happy, scold it....other than that, deal with it. The good news is that they eventually out grow it.

ANother possible solution is to block off part of your yard...sacrifice part for the sake of the whole.

Good luck!! And thanks for the chuckle...it brings back memories of all the things my Golden did as a puppy!!! :shocked: :grin:

garyk · 05-07-2002, 09:29 AM

Your dog is bored. So there's two choices:

1. Get another puppy to keep him occupied.
2. Buy acreage. As in giving him acres to dig.

Tanner · 05-07-2002, 09:30 AM

Big Smizz,
I have two great diggers, a beagle and a Bassett Hound. Here is how we dealt with the problem. You are gonna have to spend some money. We bought two Innotech training collars. The ones we bought have 4 levels of electrical stimulation with a simultaneous tone and two tone buttons, positive tone and negative tone. It takes some time and lots of observation so pour yourself a cup of Java (preferrably Panache') let your pooch go in the back yard, pull up a lawn chair and when he starts digging ZAP!!!!!!!!!!!!! You will find that you will only need to zap him a couple times and after that you should just be able to use the tone. Be patient and reward him with treats and love when he responds.

Another thing I have found in using the collars is the dogs respond real well to the positive tone button also. I will give my dogs lots of affection while pushing the positive tone button and now when the collars come out of the drawer my beagle comes right to me waiting for me to put on her collar. For some reason my bassett doesn't like the collar at all, even with the positive tone reinforcement that I give him.

Many people recommend that if you have a dog that likes to dig you should give him an area that is OK to dig in. I would imagine that you could use the same methods as above only reward him rather than stimulating him when he digs in the assigned area.

Good luck and be patient with him.

[ 05-07-2002, 10:54 AM: Message edited by: Tanner ]

blackdog · 05-07-2002, 10:10 AM

Another thing to try is getting your dog some exercise in the morning. Take him to a school or park and run his rear off. Boredom and pent up energy are major players in a pups actions, so limiting these factors is crucial. Also, try getting him something to play with or chew on. My lab absolutely loves his 'Kong' toy, and hasn't been able to destroy it and he's had it over a year. All the other toys I've tried were demolished immediately, but the 'Kong' is tougher than heck. Good luck

TundraIII · 05-07-2002, 10:21 AM

Every day after work I would grab my shovel and fill holes that my pups had dug. Seemed like the more I filled them, the more they would dig

I got to the point
where I would fill them at the end of the week or every two weeks to save my sanity!
Tried all kinds of stuff including store bought remedies. The only thing that worked was
TIME. They both outgrew it by about 1 1/2 to 2 yrs.

p.s. If he's still doing it 1 yr from now and you havent shot him yet, he might be bored
or have anxiety problems. Our lab had some anxiety problems from being left alone most of the day(pretty serious anxiety actually, he once pulled apart an entire door frame in my house). We ended up picking up another dog for a playmate. The anxiety
problems pretty much disappeared. Our mistake was buying another big lab! We should have picked up some little ankle biter of some sort. On the bright side (I guess)
St. Bernards' have a shorter life span and slow down fairly dramatically by 4yrs or so.
Also, we never had any luck with the toenail thing. You cant keep taking the dog in for a toenail clip and doing it yourself can be a real pain. My black lab will let me trim his nails as long as I get it done in less than 5 minutes, my chocolate on the other hand, well lets just say I better have my jogging shoes on.

Bigdog · 05-07-2002, 12:35 PM

Big Smizz, I have a golden retrevier puppy he dug holes all over my yard. Find some tree branches or sticks, cut them to a size he can chew on for a while and then teach him to chew on them. My dog still digs once in a while but more often now he chews on the wood. He is still only a little over a year old but, like you, I tried everything. I think most are everyone is

right they dig out of bordem, try the stick thing it works doesn't solve it but gives them another choice when their bored besides digging.

Thumper · 05-07-2002, 02:39 PM

The electronic collar is amazing. About 2 zaps at exactly the right instant and the pooch will be cured for life.

Smily · 05-07-2002, 07:45 PM

I feel for ya. I too have a digging dog. She is now 6 yrs old and she still digs. When we got her we were living in Estacada on an acre with lot's of space with a little bit of pasture and a big yard. We ended up getting a border collie. We heard they are smart and somewhat obedient. I tell you now that after we moved into the city she loved her digging. What I ended up doing is getting a 6X6 kennel for $69.00 (now I think there $109.00) and putting down brick so she can't dig. She stays in there probably 60% of the time and we play with her the rest of the time. When we leave her alone sometimes, she still goes into the digging mode from time to time at a lesser level though.

I wouldn't have any other dog to play with my 3 1/2 yr old daughter. She is very good with kids and everyone else for that matter. The other thing she does is yap all the time. We ended up getting her a barking collar that zaps her when she barks and that works great. There has been too many barking nights without it. All is well now. We're all happy as can be.

:smile: Smily :smile:

AngleThis · 05-07-2002, 08:06 PM

HERE IS YOUR SOLUTION....

This is proven with an adult doberman pincher I grew up with that would dig in front of you, even knowing it would get it's butt kicked.

Determine the dog's favorite digging sites. Buy two dozen mouse traps. Set them and burry them shallow there. Watch and laugh your a** off as your dog learns not to dig.

DC

STGRule · 05-07-2002, 08:22 PM

Angle, you are one sick (speaking of dogs) puppy. :whazzup: While the mousetraps may work, it isn't for your amusement.

Small Fry · 05-07-2002, 08:34 PM

My lab mix did the same thing after about a year I noticed most of the mole and gophers were gone out out of may pasture. It's not all bad, Maybe there is a reason for the digging.

periwinkle · 05-07-2002, 10:36 PM

I have a German Wirehair pointer. She loves to retrieve. When my wife's students or anyone else comes to our house she looks for something to take to them. When she's in the house it is usually a magazine, catalog, book, anything. then when the person disappears she eats the material. So we have mouse traps all over the family room on every pile of mags etc.. Smart dog never sets one off -- mostly my wife and I get snapped about once a week. The dog, Emma, always finds something 'untrapped'!!!!!!!

:grin:

smoky · 05-07-2002, 11:04 PM

Big Smizz:

I have a coffe cup that reads: "I dig my dog, my dog digs holes."

Tex was right. You have a puppy. I just bought a 38k Truck. My Rotty scratched up the back cargo area right away. I knew it would happen. I live with it.

Anyway, my friend has a big cage with a house inside. I think he'd let it go pretty cheap.

Email me, if you are interested.

twags · 05-08-2002, 08:34 AM

i cured my dogs digging my throwing it's feces in the holes it dug and likely areas. another dog i cured by throwing rose branches in the holes. both were effective.

you have to be smarter than the dog......

Boedy · 05-08-2002, 09:21 PM

Another cheap fix is a small plastic kid pool. Or a tetherball works to. Dogs dig because they are bored you have to try and give him something to keep his mind busy, a game to play or something he can do to pass the time chew toys, big balls things like that. E collar will work but those things are not cheap and in the wrong hands can do more harm the good. Doesn�t take most dogs to long to figure out who�s finger is on the juice button and some dogs will try and take said finger. If you have a Chesapeake you know what I mean. Good luck

HORNBLOWER · 05-08-2002, 11:03 PM

Noted animal trainer, WARREN ECKSTEIN, has a very good book entitled "How to Get Your Dog to Do What You Want". It should be available at any bookstore In this book he covers a myriad of problems & training procedures,including "Digging Dogs" with proven methods to stop the digging. His national radio program, "The Pet Show"is on KXL. He also has a web-site, which you may be able to get from KXL by emailing for information.

BigFish · 05-09-2002, 07:20 AM

I like the feces idea that would probably work. But I wouldn't want it around. The rose branches, my good ol' boy snacks on like tooth picks.

The cheap fix is chickenwire. Fill in he's favorite hole, and then put the wire down with a thin covering of dirt. Dogs do not like the wire on their pads.

BigFish · 05-09-2002, 07:22 AM

I like the feces idea that would probably work. But I wouldn't want it around. The rose branches, my good ol' boy snacks on like tooth picks.

The cheap fix is chickenwire. Fill in he's favorite hole, and then put the wire down with a thin covering of dirt. Dogs do not like the wire on their pads.

Big Smizz · 05-09-2002, 07:30 AM

Thanks all for the tips and tricks. Very helpful ideas. I have just procured mouse traps for that idea and so far so good. I will let you know about the progress. Thanks again for all the help. Now, go catch some fish! :grin: :grin:

Cool Texan · 05-09-2002, 08:03 AM

Mouse traps?? Holy crap, I figured you guys were joking on that. Talk about not right...that is just cruel. :depressed:

[img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/icon_argue.gif[/img]

Grant Scheele · 05-09-2002, 08:20 AM

Putting your dogs crap in the holes he just started to dig works awesome. I have done it twice myself and both times the dog started relating digging holes to nasty stuff on his paws. Both were done with their digging careers in less than a week. I have had many friends find almost intant success with this methods after many frustrating months of holes in the yard it seem like a miracle. Give it a shot, at least you have a place to put the stink bombs for a couple of weeks.

Big Smizz · 05-14-2002, 12:36 PM

It works! It works! It works! The mousetraps have been in place for about a week and he has not dug, in fact avoids the spot all together. Thanks so much for the help. It works!!!

pdxkevin · 05-15-2002, 08:43 PM

Use a balloon instead of a mouse trap.

Louder bang and dirt flies when it pops.

Flatfish · 05-15-2002, 08:51 PM

Man,
you fellas are missing the bigger picture.My dog digs.He does this because he is a dog and is rather easily entertained.I rent him out to a landscaper friend and he does the work of 2 ditchwitches!!!Now my dog has a social security # and 401k.

I dig my dog cause he is my dog.
Mark.

Seefood Man · 05-17-2002, 07:05 AM

Hey! I have 1600sqft of topsoil to take out for a driveway....Send in the hounds :grin: :grin: