Some of you may remember my dd adoptiong a puppy right before her knee surgery a few weeks ago.
Well, alas, this puppy is quite the digger. He has “escaped” to my very understanding neighbor’s yard several times. Every time I cover one hole, he digs another a couple of feet away.
I’ve googled this topic and have a couple of things I am going to try, but I was wondering if any of you have successfully conquered this problem.
One thing that I found suggests putting the puppy’s doo in each hole and covering it with dirt. The premise is that dogs don’t like the smell of their own waste and won’t dig further in this spot. However, I can just picture myself having to dig a “latrine” around the perimeter of my fence. YUCK!
He’s a pretty smart little fellow and tends to learn quickly, so one of two things is going to happen:
Do you walk him everyday? (Please don’t take that as sounding accusatory.) I’m just curious. I’m sure if you don’t walk him then that will help the situation. Not cure it, just help it a little bit.
I’m sorry, I don’t have too much to offer here, other than it’s in their nature? :??
I read that dogs need to be exercised a lot. But I figured that since I have an older dog, they play really hard. I would think he is getting quite a bit of exercise. BUT, he does spend the day in a crate, although either my dh or I go home to let him stretch and pee every three or four hours. I only work six hours a day, so he’s not in there too long. Still, I could see the need for exercise.
I really think he’s either getting bored or can smell the dog next door and wants to play. They have a doggie door to their house and Pele (my puppy) goes in “unannounced.” :teehee:
Is he neutered? When we had a dog, once we got him fixed, he quit digging all together. It’s a territory thing and “natural” males are very prone to exploring, especially if there’s a female anywhere in the vicinity.
If you want to keep him natural, you can do a little clever landscaping… lay chicken wire on the ground around the perimeter of the fence. You can tack it down with dirt, but eventually the grass will grow up through it and hold it in place.
That poop in the holes never worked for me. He just found another spot to dig.
He hasn’t been neutered yet. He’s about four months old. As soon as he’s old enough, he will be, though.
I was really, really hoping to avoid doing chicken wire thing. Call me lazy. It just seems like soooo much work!
He only seems to be digging in spots that don’t have grass. I thought about buying tufts of sod for these areas, but he’ll probably dig right through them…not allowing them to “take.”
I can’t really offer any advice, but I can sympathize .
Our second family dog, a female Samoyed adopted from a shelter, took it upon herself to turn our entire yard into a crater park. We tried many of the things mentioned here and they all helped to some degree–but still, she was a hard worker and loathe to give up her pursuits.
When he’s old enough (like as soon as he gets all his shots and neutered, I forget when that happens), long leashed walks will help. It’s a much more structured exercise for him than playing with another dog (which is still great! especially for socialization). The long walks will help tucker him out and also introduce him to some discipline and whatnot. So all these things will probably help–but as others have said, looks like you’ve got a digger! :shrug:
I can at least tell you there’s probably relief somewhere on the horizon, our dog eventually grew out of digging on her own…[size=1]when she was oh, 9 or 10 years old[/size] :teehee:
Oh doggies…it’s a good thing they’re so stinkin’ cute!
I happen to be very suspicious of mine at the moment. I have a feeling there’s a surprise somewhere in the apartment because pup is currently engaging in his “guilty” behavior…meaning he’s cuddling up behind me in the comfy chair and getting all snuggly like an :angelgrin: :whistle:
Oh doggies…it’s a good thing they’re so stinkin’ cute!
I happen to be very suspicious of mine at the moment. I have a feeling there’s a surprise somewhere in the apartment because pup is currently engaging in his “guilty” behavior…meaning he’s cuddling up behind me in the comfy chair and getting all snuggly like an :angelgrin: :whistle:
:nails: :out:[/quote]
Yes, the cuteness of this puppy has my neighbors forgiving him easily right now.
And I suggest that you allow your nose to lead you…
[color=indigo]I have a chow and nothing worked until we dug a trench at the base of the fence, dropped in concrete blocks on end and the filled in the trench.[/color]
Well, this morning I put the dogs out nice and early and went back to sleep. When I woke up an hour and a half later, I could see him sticking his head under the fence…just about through that hole again.
I got on up and filled his latest hole with his dog doo. I watched him later, and he was funny. He went over to it, sniffed at it, walked away, walked back, looked at it, and walked away. This has happened a couple of times today.
Sorry if I missed it but what breed of dog has your daughter got?
Some dogs, such as beagles and spaniels, are scent driven and so pay alot of attention to the niffs neighbouring dogs give off.
Whatever the breed of dog though, he needs excercise - it needn’t be too long and taxing for you but a walk around the block or to the park will fill his mind with other sights, sounds and smells.
It’s also maybe a good time to introduce some loose leash training and a bit of basic obedience, such as ‘sit’ and ‘stay’; nothing heavy - make it fun for him!
Pele is a lab-heeler mix. I realize that we should probably take him out for walks. We’ve just had such a crazy schedule lately, but that would actually be a good thing for both the puppy and my daughter, who could use an easy-paced walk each day to work her knee.
I’ve already been teaching him some basic commands. He caught on to sit very quickly. I’m working on “stay” and a couple of others. Today I noticed that he is now responding to his name. That’s definitely progress given the fact that he was used to a different name (he’s adopted from our local animal shelter).
So…one step at a time.
Thanks for all of the suggestions and encouragement. This is just like having a baby again. Gotta re-train myself as well as the little guy. :teehee:
if you have a good neighbor
the chicken wire is best
you can get cheap tent spikes to hold it down until your grass grows in
If your neighbors are cool, you should overlap under the fence by about a foot
2 - 3 feet into your yard is pleanty
its cheap and it will work for ages
your dog gets its claws caught in the wire 2-3 times and learns but good
we had an English Springer Spaniel, she DUG horribly, my Neigbor did the cinder blocks and lumber along the fence, never worked well enough
but the wire did wonders
the grass gew through it in about a month, and after 9 years it was still somewhat in eveidence (when I dug to plant flowers, I found pieces of rusted out wire) but she would try to dig with me, and STOP as soon as she hit the wire, and would NOT try again
Must absolutely have enough exercise and physical and mental stimulation. Neutering may help. I’m not real fond of these but have you considered an electric fence? Good luck.
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