How To Prevent Dog Digging

August 25th, 2009 at 8:34pm

I have learned about an easy and effective way to stop your dog digging in the yard and garden. I went with my neighbor to run some errands the other day. When we returned to his house about 3 hours later we couldn’t even drive through the gate. The crazy pack of dogs he keeps in his fenced in yard had dug an enormous hole, at least 2 feet deep, with a diameter of probably 5 feet. Since we live at the beach, his driveway is just sand, so it wasn’t difficult for the dogs to excavate a huge hole in front of the gate. This was not the first time my pal’s dogs have done something like this. Obviously my buddy needed to learn how to stop his dogs from destroying his yard and driveway.

There are more than one reason why a dog may be digging in the yard or garden. It could be because of boredom, or separation anxiety, an attempt to escape, an attempt to dig down to cooler moister soil during hot weather, or a predisposition based on the type of breed you have . I’ve got some good tips on how to prevent dogs from digging up their yard or the garden. Because my neighbor’s dogs had dug up right in front of the gate, it was probably a mass escape attempt. However, on other occasions these same bored dogs have dug holes in the middle of the yard. It is also very hot at the beach, so the dogs will also dig up recently watered areas of the yard to get at the cooler soil underneath. The need to prevent these dogs from digging up the whole place at my friend’s house was long overdue.

Following some of the advice I found on solving digging problems in a great dog training book I have, we decided was to build the dogs their own area where they were free to dig without it being a problem. Because my neighbor’s lot is sandy, he didn’t need to do anything beyond enclosing a nice sized area with fencing to create the enclosure. We made sure the enclosure had some shade so it wouldn’t be uncomfortable for the dogs on hot days. My neighbor even put in a wading pool and some chew toys. These dogs get a lot of love. He keeps his dogs in their enclosure while away, and they are having a pretty good time, and no longer digging up the yard while he’s gone.

Although your yard may not be a natural sandbox like my friend’s, you can still easily make a special area and stop your dog digging up your yard. Inside the area that you have chosen to enclose just put in a sandbox with some loose soil mixed with sand. Try to make sure the chosen area has some shade and that you can enclose it to keep your digging dog where you want him to be, with water and some chew toys to keep him occupied and not bored.

This is a great way to prevent dogs from digging up your yard and it provides them a nice place to hang out when you are away. Some dogs will stop digging up the yard once they get used to just digging in their play area, and you might be able to once again let him out in your absence. If your dog is digging to escape, though, he should probably stay in the enclosure while you are away. If you follow this tip, you’ll have stopped the yard from ever getting dug up again.

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