REASONS ARE:
*BOREDOM
*HEAT
*BURYING BONES
*AGGRAVATION FROM INSECTS
*FEAR / ESCAPING
*EXCITEMENT
*STRESS
*THE BREED.
FEAR / ESCAPING:
Digging holes to escape.
A dog that is frightened, for whatever reason may need to escape from its living environment. This could be a new dog received from another owner. It needs time to settle in but, if it gets scared or lonely in its new environment, it may try to escape.
A thunderstorm may induce fear into the dog. It may dig holes to escape under fences. However it may cause more harm to itself on the outside and also bring the law down on the owner. Bring it inside if you feel the storm is particularly bad.
Prevention is better than the cure for this one. In any case make sure it cannot dig down or around the fences. Dog obedience classes will work well for the dog and the owner. There are electric fences on the market, which give out a small voltage shock to the animal that can be put near the place where it escapes. These can be purchased from the local stock feeder. Or there are underground electric containment systems, which consist of a collar that zaps the dog if the animal breaches its boundaries.
See the advertisement on this disk.
But, the most important thing is to find out what is causing the fear in the dog and get your local dog trainer to desensitise it. Your local vet and dog trainer are always there to help you so don’t hesitate to ask for advice.
BOREDOM:
When you leave your dog home for hours at a time, it can be destructive to relieve its boredom. A Dog can go through many unwanted behaviours to occupy its time. One of which is where it will dig for something to do, depending on the breed, of course. If you have two dogs they tend to keep themselves company, which can reduce the amount of holes that are dug, but more often this can lead to disaster on a hot day when it digs to cool off, especially Rottweilers. The damage can be huge!
If you place a box of toys in the yard when you leave home, the dog can retrieve toys out of the box when it gets bored. Place items in the box that it enjoys playing with but it is very important that these toys are removed from the animal when the owner gets home. These toys that are in the toy box are used as a reward for it to play with when the owner leaves the house. If the toys are in the dog’s company all the time then it will get tired of playing with these particular toys and start practising destructive behaviour.
Dog obedience lessons are great ways to solve this problem, and if you have time before you leave the house, try to set aside 20 minutes to play, walk, or train your dog. The animal does not try to dig holes just to annoy the owner. It will do it through boredom or the other reasons.
Try to examine the behaviour and use my ideas to the best of your ability. Remember the more you put in the more you will gain. Also what works for my dog may not work for your dog because of the differences in personality. Try to find the best solution for your animal, and remember that preventive measures put in place to stop it from playing or digging in the area that you don’t want it to, will be better than trying to change it’s behavioural pattern.
Try fencing off the area where it digs.
Allow it a section of the garden where it can dig holes like a sandpit.
The electric fence units from a stock feeder can be a temporary fence which can deter it from going to that area where it digs.
Analysing your dog’s behaviour for digging holes:
Is it sterilised?
Does your dog get left alone for long periods.. over 6 hrs at a time?
Do you train your dog in obedience?
Do you walk your dog?
Does your dog have plenty of shade?
Do flies or other insects annoy your dog?
These can be some of the questions you need to ask yourself when combating this problem.
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