Is your dog hunting for land mines around your yard? Digging in the yard is a dog behavior problem that many of my clients have complained about. It ruins the grass, flowerbeds, and generally gives a lousy look to your yard. Train it correctly and your dog can learn to hate digging in the yard.
Digging is a natural behavior for your dog. Members of the canine family in the wild dig to hide their treasured possessions and to build their shelters. In our domesticated world, however, digging is not an acceptable behavior.
The first thing to do is to understand that your dog is digging to fulfill one of his needs. Start out by giving your dog something else to do. Make sure that he has safe toys to play with in the back yard and that he gets plenty of exercise. This probably will not cure him of his digging behavior problem but it is only fair to help him occupy his time.
Second, you must change his association to digging. Right now your dog sees digging as a fun activity. It is up to you to make it an activity that brings no pleasure.
You are going to need a partner to help out with this exercise. Have your partner take the dog out of the back yard. He can't see what you are about to do. With your dog out of the yard gather as much of his stool as you can. Fill the holes he has dug with his own stool and cover it up with dirt. Do this to every hole.
Most dogs are repulsed by their own stool. Most dogs will also return to their previously dug holes. So when he goes back to his old hole to re-dig, he will find his own stool and have a negative association to that hole. If he then re-digs another hole and again finds his own stool he will once again be repulsed. If this happens often enough he will soon believe that every time he digs he will be confronted with his own stool. This should stop his digging.
Sometimes it isn't as easy as that, though. Some dogs get clever and dig in a new place. When that happens, repeat the same process of removing him from the yard and filling in his hole. You may have to repeat this process numerous times before, by virtue of the law of statistics, he keeps having bad experiences with his own stool while digging.
Stay consistent. Keep at it. Persistence and patience is the keys with removing this unwanted dog behavior problem.
Author Tyler Brown is a renowned dog trainer whose training adventures and clients have taken him to 18 states and 5 countries to teach others how to properly train their dogs. Go to dogbehavioronline.com for more dog training articles, advice, tips, and answers from a professional dog trainer.
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