pup digging holes!

[sniperjon]

So good news e collar training goning great with my britt pup. Thanks for the help from the forums. Now that she is free to play in the yard her main mission " besides stalking every thing that flies into the yard" is digging holes in my nice lawn. I have read somethings about it and was looking for your folks opinion. At first I thought it was she needed some attention or more play time but thats not the case. Is it shes just a pup being a pup and she needs to be corrected or maybe she smells worms or moles. Im not sure any thoughts?

[marysburg]

Any pup left outdoors with nothing to do and nobody around will invent its own entertainment. Sounds like she is doing the normal puppy stuff. More exercise and more mental stimulation would help. Nuisance barking, chewing and digging are all signs of a bored puppy who is not tired enough. She also can't dig holes if she is with you instead of by herself. I wonder if your expectations of her are realistic considering her age and activity level? You have chosen a hunting breed with stamina, drive and endurance; your job is to shape it into constructive pursuits and make it fun for both of you.

[DonF]

+1

[JWP58]

Oh lord dont start in with the "your expectation" b.s., i'm sure someone is going to come along and say he isnt fit to own a dog......

I've found with my Britt that if i keep his nails short all the time he wont dig. As soon as they start getting long, he starts to dig.

[Ralph Ford]

Jon, Since the e-collar work is progressing nicel, keep that collar on your dog in the yard and zap him when he digs.

[Jiminla]

Pour you a concrete slab with a pen, then let him dig through that!

[Sharon]

Don't overuse that e-collar for house problems. You said he's coming along fine on the collar. Leave it at that. . I have a JRT - enough said about digging.

He has a penned in area in which he can dig. You have to realize that if you have a dog in a back yard , it may never be beautiful again.

[JIM K]

throw his poo in holes or in spot that he is digging.that should do it

[LtsHnt]

my 3mo old viz pup is a digging fool as well...the poo works, however she just finds a new place to dig ground red pepper works well too...as far as her being bored or not tired..i take her out for a long walk in the am and evening....its the in between times she digs. just hope she grows out of this...or my back yard will be full of turd landmines before too long she has more than enough toys to keep her occupied and i try and change them up from week to week...im sure she will figure it out eventually

[Doc E]

Pour you a concrete slab with a pen, then let him dig through that!

There ya go. Nice kennel run is the ticket.


.

[snips]

throw his poo in holes or in spot that he is digging.that should do it

+1

[Ruffshooter]

Any time my brits dig it is because there is something there. Grubs, worms, moles etc.
Or Janets flower bulbs.

[deseeker]

Since it has been so hot, she might be digging for cool dirt to lay in to stay cooler. I've got my dogs on concrete, but if I had them on grass, they would dig an underground den to get out of the heat.

[birddogger]

If a dog is a digger, you are not going to stop it. Boredom, needing exercise, etc. may be a part of the problem but I don't care how much exercise they get or how much you give them things to do, they are still going to dig. The only thing you can do is confine him to an area where he is allowed to dig or, as others said put him in a run with a floor he can't dig through or keep him in the house. You can't have a nice lawn and keep a dog on it at the same time. BTW, I wouldn't use the e-collar for this. All of this is JMO and experience.

Charlie

[jwnissen]

In one of the training books I have, it said that if you dog likes to dig, then give it an area where they can dig. Kind of a sandbox area where the dog can dig to its hearts content. I have a spot in my yard, an old garden spot, where I let her dig and it has slowed down the digging in the yard.

[dakotashooter2]

I had a digger. Once she started a spot she would continue to dig no matter how many times I filled it. Eventually I filled the areas in and covered them with a wire mesh. It stopped her from digging in those spots and eventually she quit digging all together.

[Byrdgirl]

Our 5 1/2 month old GSP puppy has turned into quite the hole digger. I just recently wrote a blog post about it if anyone cares to read a non-serious take on our pup destroying are yard.

http://gsphuntingdog.blogspot.com/2012/ ... le-in.html

Edit: Just realized the link won't work because it says d@mn in the heading. Oh well! Sorry.

[rinker]

Some dogs like to dig.

Years ago I had a kennel with a gravel floor. I had a pointer female that loved to dig, and she was good at it. When I would go to the kennel and she had a big hole started, I would toss a concrete block in the bottom of the hole and try to fill it back in. She would choose another spot and start over. So, over a period of several years there were a lot of buried concrete blocks around that kennel. I later hired a guy to build a concrete floored kennel on the same spot. The guy told me that he was going to have to dig some spots out to make it level and he was going to dig a footer on one end to keep water from running under it. He told me he was going to do all of this digging by hand. I smiled and nodded. That poor guy never imagined what he was getting in to. It took him several days to get all of his digging done and then they couldn't drive the form supports in to the ground because they kept hitting those blocks. I don't think that guy would do another concrete job for me if I offered him a million dollars.