In today’s article, we will see “Effective Ways To Stop Dogs From Digging Up Your Yard?”. If your canine is digging up your yard, it is important for you to understand the cause. There are several reasons behind a dog digging up the yard.
Why do dogs dig? 4 Valid Reasons
1) For storing objects and food
Many dogs have a strong instinct to hide things that they value. These things may include toys, food, bones, etc. canines do this because they want to keep their favorite things safe.
2) Out of stress and anxiety
There are different things that show your canine is anxious. If a stressed fido is pushed over a certain limit, it may start digging to escape from the situation.
3) Predatory instincts
All canines have a predatory instinct in them. Therefore, dogs love to chew things, chase squirrels, and sometimes dig holes.
When your canine is in our yard, he may hear or smell other animals under the ground. This can motivate him to dig and find out what it is.
4) Temperature regulation
Dog breeds like Husky, Elkhound, and Malamutes usually dig to get rid of the heat inside them.
If there is a warm day, many dogs tend to stabilize their body heat by doing some heavy exercises like digging.
How to stop your dog from digging up your yard?
1) Understand the problem
Canines usually dig holes for one of these reasons: physical comfort, entertainment, prey-seeking, escape, or attention-seeking.
Make sure to watch where, when, and how your pooch is digging. Also, understand that digging is a natural instinct and hence cannot be stopped. Therefore, try to understand the root cause of the problem.
2) Give more attention to your pooch
Dogs aren’t all that different from kids in lots of ways, including a preference to get attention by something.
Your canine may also have found out that digging a hole in your yard attracts your interest, despite the fact that that attention is of the bad variety.
If you think this is probably the case, ignore the canine after the digging and extravagant your canine with attention for other, right behavior.
Additionally, make sure your canine has lots of time with you on different occasions. A satisfied canine might not want to find attention in all the incorrect places.
Punishing your canine for digging by banishing him out of your presence is probably the handiest thing for this behavior.
3) Create discouragements
Catch your pooch in case you want to disapprove of his digging. Pushing him away after digging will not work. In fact, it can make your dog anxious.
To solve this issue, you can use garden fencing to close the area. Even a small barricade can help you.
You can also bury rocks in the location of frequent digging. This will make the digging difficult and less enjoyable for your pooch.
4) Mitigate the boredom
Dogs usually dig for no reason. In fact, when they are bored. If your canine is digging out of boredom then you should work on it.
Give him enough playtime and toys. You can also make him do exercise. This may include walking, running, fetching, etc. Walk your pooch at least 2 times a day. Also, play fetch with a ball launcher. Let your canine socialize with other canines. Take him to the dog park and let him saunter, socialize, and sniff around.
5) Take professional help
If you are finding it difficult to find out why your pooch digs, then you must seek professional help. Animal behaviorists and trainers can provide techniques to address the cause.
You can enroll in a basic dog training class. It will help you to implement a decent approach to teach your fido a few things. You should teach your pooch some basic commands like “sit”, “stop”, etc.
When you see your pooch digging a hole, use negative reinforcement. Make loud noises that will distract your canine.
6) Make a digging sandbox
This sandbox is a designated part of your yard that allows our pooch to dig. Hence, encourage your canine to play in that area.
You can use low fencing or wooden beams to make the boundaries of the sandbox.
You can also bury treats in the sandbox to grab your pooch’s attention. If you find you’re canine digging the area out of the sandbox, then use negative reinforcement.
7) Discard any prey
Some canines are hunters and love to chase. If your canine digs the roots of plants or trees, it is possible that he is hunting something.
Hence, find a safe way to eliminate other unwanted animals from your yard. Do not use poison to do this.
8) Create a shaded area outside
Make a shaded area in the yard for your canine.
You can also make a dog house for the dog. Make sure your fido is not going outside without any protection.
Also, make sure that your dog has access to water all the time.
9) Remove temptations
Temptations make it difficult for the dog to control digging. If you make a yard that is less tempting to dig, then this behavior will be in control.
Canines love digging in fresh soil. Hence, if you are working in your yard, remove the fresh soil from his reach. Dig out everything that your pooch has buried.
Do not let your pooch see you digging the ground. This may make him consider it as positive reinforcement.
10) Save our pooch from escaping
Your pooch may try to escape to get something. In this case, digging happens around the fence.
Hence, try to understand the cause of escaping first.
Bur the chicken wires under the bottom of the fence. Also, line the fence with rocks that block digging.
Final words
In conclusion, I would say that you just need to teach your pooch to stop him from digging.
First, understand the reason behind the digging behavior of your canine. Once you know it, you can easily find a solution to tackle the problem.
One of the best ways to stop your dog from digging up your yard is to teach him to stop command. This will make your pooch understand that digging is not the right thing to do.
I hope you enjoyed the article. We will be back with more interesting articles. Till then, stay connected. Thank you.
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