Digging

[christielee]

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Can anyone help before I give up the will. 1st out of 4 dogs to dig like this. I have 9 holes in my garden, 2x over 30cm deep. Any tips welcome.
Tried cayenne pepper and he ignored it, came in and it stained my floor.
He knows its wrong because when I catch him and tell him off, then put him in his naughty place, he's started to instead of me putting him there, he takes himself off there 1st. Nearly 8 months, golden retriever. I'm dreading the next 4-6 months as he's a right royal pain in the arse at the moment.
He has every toy going. Licky pads, kongs, Interactive, balls. Is only left once in a blue moon for no more than 1.5hrs. He has yak chews.
He's played with, in the house and in the garden by me and my 2x teenagers.
And yes, he has plenty of exercise.

 

[JoanneF]

Have you thought of giving him a place where he can dig, so its at least contained and restricted to one place?

 

[christielee]

I've been advised not to do that. He started digging at my mums yesterday too, she would not be able to do that. Thanks for your reply though.

 

[JudyN]

I also second finding a place that he can dig, even if it won't work when he's at your mum's. Either way, when he did start to dig when he shouldn't, rather than tell him off I would simply lead him back indoors and give him a short timeout. Digging is such a strong instinct, though, that it would require a lot of consistency for this to work, and you'd need to supervise him in the garden at all times.

 

[Hemlock]

A child's sandpit - one of those seashell types that can be closed to stop cats messing in it - filled with soft earth or sane, is a useful substitute for his digging needs. Some dogs just have to dig - you won't stop it but yours might grow out of it - or not - best thing ever is not to leave him on his own in the garden.

 

[Ted74]

Can anyone help before I give up the will. 1st out of 4 dogs to dig like this. I have 9 holes in my garden, 2x over 30cm deep. Any tips welcome.
Tried cayenne pepper and he ignored it, came in and it stained my floor.
He knows its wrong because when I catch him and tell him off, then put him in his naughty place, he's started to instead of me putting him there, he takes himself off there 1st. Nearly 8 months, golden retriever. I'm dreading the next 4-6 months as he's a right royal pain in the arse at the moment.
He has every toy going. Licky pads, kongs, Interactive, balls. Is only left once in a blue moon for no more than 1.5hrs. He has yak chews.
He's played with, in the house and in the garden by me and my 2x teenagers.
And yes, he has plenty of exercise.

Every dog will be different and yours sounds like he has a quite a strong drive to dig. Ours used to dig and then one summer we spent 2 weeks focusing on stopping it... one of us would always be in the garden with her, soon as she pawed the ground we would make a set sound, then either distract with a toy or give a reward. Worked for us.