YNP#007: Why Do Dogs Dig and What You Can Do About It
Your New Puppy: Dog Training and Dog Behavior Lessons to Help You Turn Your New Puppy into a Well-Behaved Dog
Debbie Cilento: Dog Trainer | Dog Behavior Consultant | Owner of Playtime Paws | Belly Rub Specialist
4.8 • 917 Ratings
🗓️ 24 May 2017
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Does your backyard look like someone has been digging for gold? Having a crater filled back yard is frustrating, not pretty and can even be dangerous.
Digging is one of those things that dogs just love to do. It’s right up there with barking and chewing and being with us.
The most common reasons why a dog digs is boredom or has too much energy and he is looking to entertain himself. Other reasons could be to cool dog, chase an animal or even escape.
Because this is such a natural behavior your best bet is to redirect or distract from the digging instead of trying to just stop it.
In this episode, I talk about the reasons dogs dig and some ways to help save your yard.
I talk a little about using a “sandbox” which is a designated place in the yard where your dog is allowed to dig. This is what I do and it works well.
In fact, here is Lucy sitting in one of her holes. It’s her favorite because it’s nice and cool and she can watch the street.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You are listening to your new puppies podcast. |
| 0:07.0 | Starting you and your dog Off on the Right Paw. |
| 0:15.0 | Here's your host, Debbie Salinto. Hello and welcome to episode 7 of your new puppies podcast. I'm Debbie and today we're |
| 0:38.0 | going to talk about digging. Why dogs dig and some things we can do to help? |
| 0:45.0 | So if your dog is making craters in your backyard, |
| 0:48.0 | if it looks like maybe somebody's been digging for gold, |
| 0:51.0 | you are not alone alone my friend. In fact digging is one of the top |
| 0:57.3 | training questions out there. According to Google it's one of the most topped top |
| 1:01.7 | dog training subjects and there's a reason why it's so common and it's so hard to stop |
| 1:07.6 | is because digging is just one of those things that dogs love to do. It is in their DNA. They love doing it. It's |
| 1:16.4 | satisfying to them. It's natural for them. And they don't really understand the appeal of a nice lush green yard. |
| 1:26.5 | Because it's so natural for them, it's also very hard to get them to stop, especially if you |
| 1:32.2 | want to get them to stop completely. |
| 1:34.8 | I do have a few things that are going to help, a few suggestions for you to try, but unfortunately |
| 1:40.5 | there's no real like magical cure to this one. |
| 1:43.8 | I've seen people suggest, you know, oh, bury their poop |
| 1:46.7 | where they're digging, they won't, they'll stop, |
| 1:49.4 | or put fencing down, or bury rocks, |
| 1:52.4 | because then it then it stops the the actual digging but |
| 1:55.9 | what's going to happen your dog's just going to turn and find somewhere else to dig |
| 1:59.5 | eventually so we actually have to look at the dog and try to stop the actual behavior, which if you have a puppy, if you have a new dog, we're going to try to knit this in the bud. |
| 2:10.0 | It's going to be easier to prevent this. But don't worry, if you already have a dog, if your backyard |
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