Remedy for digging dogs

[monkeybreath]

I thought I would share this for what it's worth. One of our pound dogs, despite having acres of land outside of the yard area to dig in, continued to dig up flower beds and lawn. Some of it was well motivated - catching gophers and moles, but some of it was not. Motivation did not matter to the CFO - so I had to solve the problem. It sort of came down to the dog or the wife. Because I wanted to find a way to also keep the wife, I gave the problem some thought. I blew up a few balloons and put them in holes the dog had already dug and covered the balloons with leaves and a light dusting of dirt. When the dog went to dig again, BAM - and this seemed to cure the dog from digging for the most part. He would still dig a new hole once and a whille, but a lot less often. To those of you who may feel this is a bit cruel, remember, it was a way to keep the wife, and also not as cruel as what I had been told to do by others - i.e., to fill the holes with water and hold the dog's head under water for a while. Anyway, now almost no digging except for moles - he just can't resist them.

 

[DavidJ]

I broke a Irish Setter from digging holes once but will spare the details here /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif , let's just suffice it to say that when he dug himself out he never dug another hole. Oh /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif and he was no worse for the wear. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

My big concern with that plan would bethe possibility of a part of the balloon lodging in the dogs throat. I prefer the classic wooden mousetrap placed upside down. A little movement and it'll not only snap but leap into the air from the force of the spring. No one gets 'snapped' but the sound and fury works wonders. This method also works great on beds, sofas, chairs, etc., in the house.

I hope this helps. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[bgott]

When you find a hole the dog has started, spray it with straight liquid ammonia. The ammonia will stop them from digging in that spot, anyway.

 

[Bird]

We used to have a problem with loose dogs in our neighborhood tearing up the trash bags that were set out to be picked up, and your method was the remedy my wife used; set the bags out then gave them a couple of shots of ammonia from a spray bottle.

 

[herbenus]

Cayenne pepper works too. But my solution is an electric fence wire around all flower beds. I haven't had to turn it on in about 10 months. And I have one bed where I just ran the wire and never hooked up to box. Dog still has a couple of places in lawn where he digs. I let him have those spots as he's just trying to get cool.

 

[Boondox]

Wow, what an innovative approach! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Pete

 

[Richard]

I have exact problem and asked the vet when there one day. His comment was, 'dogs dont dig where they go to the bathroom, and they dont go to the bathroom where they dig".. soooooooo, go find some dog deposits (or any other he clarifed) and toss them in the flower beds and the dogs ought not dig there anymore (ewwwww) /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

What I DID do was take some little 10" high landscape fencing, and placed them in the spots the dogs would lay down to sleep (same place as digging usually) and with these metal items on their beds, they have never gone back, nor dug any new places.

Oh..and if you came to visit "today", you'd maybe notice the fencing parts, but since it is landscape fencing, you'd think nothing of it and not realize it's ulterior purpose /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Richard