20 Tips to Stop Your Dog From Digging Under Fence
If you are worried about your fenced yard and thinking to stop your canine friend form digging it, you are worried about something wrong. You probably must be thinking about the reason why your dog is Digging Under Fence. There are some breeds which love digging but in most of the cases, there are reasons behind it. Try to overcome those issues, with time these may cause some serious behavioral issues.
Table of Contents
- Lack of activities:
- Attempt to escape:
- Separation of any family member:
- Lack of minerals in their diet:
- Natural preservation instinct:
- How to keep dogs from digging?
- Problem Diagnoses:
- Give Attention To Your Dog:
- Reduce Boredom:
- Positive discouragement:
- Seek Professional Assistance:
- How do you stop dogs from diffing in the yard?
- Construct a sandbox for digging:
- Create Shadow Area:
- Eliminate any animal that your dog can chase:
- How to stop a dog from digging pepper?
- Stop dog from digging home remedy:
- Spices:
- Coffee grounds:
- Vinegar and lemon juice:
- Border Garden with Plants:
- How to stop a dog from digging for moles?
- Will ammonia stop dogs from digging?
Lack of activities:
Dogs are always great attention to seekers and playful. They need to be with you for different activities like walk, chasing game, and for other games. There are even some breeds which are crazy about these activities.
If dogs don’t get enough exercise and activities they get bored. Chewing and digging are the most common and favorite activities of dogs when they get bored. It is profoundly visible in puppies, which is most of the time ignored because most of the people believe that this is normal puppies love digging.
In such condition what you need to do is to give your dog some playtime. You should go with him for a walk or running and other activities like swimming and fetching. These activities help your dog work off their nervous energy.
Attempt to escape:
Some dogs specially bred for hunting love escaping activity. They do so by dinging your fence yard near the wall. If they are successful they repeatedly will attempt to do so.
Hunting breed dogs can also smell their prey like mice or something buried in the ground. They will start digging for it. They even can dig if they hear the sound of some underground creatures or bugs.
Separation of any family member:
Dogs develop a deep devotion to their owner. They never can think of missing a person who has been with them from their puppyhood. This is the reason it is never good to leave your dog alone for a big period of time. It will cause anxiety and depression in them.
In such a situation, dogs try to distract their mind. Best suited activity for that can be digging. Some dogs are as sensitive that they get depressed with changing home.
Lack of minerals in their diet:
Dogs are gentle and intelligent. Their body can sense any missing mineral. It is possible they dig to find that mineral from the soil. Usually hunting dogs like terrier breed love to dig for prey.
Natural preservation instinct:
Dogs are highly intelligent and social animals in sense of making their living comfortable. They probably can dig to store food or make a shelter. Especially a female dog digs to make a comfortable when she is about to give out her babies. This natural preservation instinct is also found in many some other animals but prominently can be seen in dogs.
How to keep dogs from digging?
If your dog is digging and has made your yard to look like a battlefield, keep calm because to an extent dogs love to do so. you too should allow your dog digging to an extent. However, if digging is instantly it may be because of several reasons including:
- Boredom
- Hunting
- Comfort
- Attention-seeking
- Simple instinct
- Etc
There are several ways you can keep your dog from making the yard look like a pockmarked or a trenched out the battlefield.
Here are some simple steps you need to follow to keep dogs from digging:
Before taking any step make sure to address the behavior of your canine friend. Addressing behavior can be done in following these simple steps.
Problem Diagnoses:
Once you figure out the reason why the dog is digging, it becomes pretty easy to change his behavior. However, there are some random diggings whose cause is difficult to determine. But yet there always is a reason behind such behavior.
Before looking for the reason behind digging keep in mind that digging also is a natural instinct for most dog breeds. Meanwhile, some dogs are specially bred to have good digging character, like terriers and dachshunds.
However, dogs mainly can dig for entertainment, physical comfort, attention-seeking, escape, or prey-seeking. If you really are curious about your garden, you must cheek breed before adopting a pet.
Give Attention To Your Dog:
A devoted canine and a kid are not so different. Both of them have a deep desire to seek attention and love. Through his intelligence, your dog knows digging in the garden make you turn to him. No matter you come to him in anger.
If this is the reason you can save your yard and change your canine friend’s behavior easily by spending regular time with him. You need to take your dog for a regular walk and outdoor games like chasing and hide and seek.
Reduce Boredom:
Commonly dogs dig in the case when they get bored due to lack of activity or loneliness. If you find him staring out at the garden without any reason be sure your dog is a victim of boredom
You can provide entertainment with toys and other chewing things like bones. Socialization can also play a vital role in reducing the boredom of your dog. Bring him another dog for company. Make sure to enroll your dog in organized activities like flyball and other games.
Positive discouragement:
Try to keep eye on your dog. If you find him digging make him feel it is prohibited to do with positive reinforcement. Punishing the dog on found digging will cause more anxiety instead of solving the problem.
You can change his behavior by burying rocks at the place of frequent digging or covering frequently dug areas with garden fencing. Another way to stop your dog from digging is to bury chicken wire where he is habitual of digging.
If you fail to prohibit your dog with a positive and polite way you can use some tough ways to keep him from digging. it is found that dogs hate the smell of their feces. You can bury it at the place of digging.
Here are some other ways you can use:
- You can bury a small inflated balloon with a layer of dirt.
- You can make use of motion sensor for unpleasing movement
- You can use citrus peels to cover the area
Seek Professional Assistance:
If you have tried tirelessly but could not find the cause or failed to stop your dog from digging, this is where you need to seek professional assistance.
You should enroll your dog for basic training and teach him basic commands like stop and sit. Use negative reinforcement when you see him digging without making yourself visible to him. For this, you can use electric shock.
How do you stop dogs from diffing in the yard?
Along with addressing the behavior of your canine friend another way to change his habit is to change physical conditions and living environment. There are some simple changes which are capable of bringing greater change in the behavior of your dog.
Here how you can make use of changing condition to keep dogs from digging:
Construct a sandbox for digging:
If your dog is not going through any behavioral disorder, you can save your yard or garden from being dug by making a particular place for your dog to dig. A better option is to make use of a wooden box filled with sand.
Initially, your dog may not accept it as a digging place but you can make it his favorite place by burying treat for him in there. Meanwhile, if your dog is well trained and you find him digging in the yard instead of digging designed area, use stop command or leave command.
Now take your dog to the designed area and ask him to dig. Your pet digs in the designed area reward him.
Create Shadow Area:
In the summer season, the most common reason behind digging is to make a shelter to hide from starching rays of the sun. Avoid such digging you need to make him a dog home outside. Dogs are usually are very prone to heatstroke, so make sure his house be nice comfortable and well heat protective. Your dog house must contain a bowl of water and some bones to chew.
Eliminate any animal that your dog can chase:
Dogs specially bred for hunting like terrier breed dogs love chasing their prey. They start chasing whatever animal they see like rodent, squirrel or something else. If you find your dog digging at the roots of the plant or digging to make a hole to the tree be sure that he has spotted some prey wants to chase.
In such case you need to trap the prey using the safe tactic, transfer it to some other place or what else you can do is make your garden unfavorable and unattractive for such animals. You can call an expert to do this for you.
You may heir free advice to use any poison to kill these animals but it is never advisable because any poison that can harm these animals can also harm your dog. If your poison killed the rodent and your dog eats that rodent, it definitely will bring bad consequences for your dog. You should instead consider getting a pest control company (like one who does terminix termite control and other control methods) in to help keep the pests under control.
How to stop a dog from digging pepper?
A green garden or lawn is more attractive for your dog to dig. They can convert your thrilling lawn into a stretched battlefield. It’s a conundrum because as homeowners a green lawn is what we strive for, and it’s always disappointing when our furry friends ruin our hard work. If this has happened to you then you could look into lawn care california. The good news is there is a way you may be able to get your pup to stop and in turn preserve your lawn. One of the cheaper ways to stop your dog from digging is the use of pepper. Its proper working is not guaranteed for all breeds of dog but is hoping it works much better.
What you need to do is just sprinkle cayenne pepper or ground black pepper in your garden. When your dog will start smelling the garden for digging he will get in a whiff of the hot stuff. This will make him move back and never think of digging there. you don’t need to sprinkle in the whole garden just do it in the place he loves for digging.
Stop dog from digging home remedy:
If you love both your canine friend and your garden you definitely have to face a challenge. A beautiful garden is attracting your dog for both running and digging. Even running around constantly will vanish its beauty, then how about digging. It will completely destroy it. The dog will make holes in to hide which is very hard for you to bear. Here are some home-made remedies you can use to prevent it to happen.
Spices:
Spies are completely safe for the garden or yard and strongly disliked by dogs. You can keep your dog away from the garden simply by sprinkling black or cayenne pepper or chili powder around the edges of your lawn.
Favorite place for a dog to sniff is the edges of the lawn. If spices are sprinkled dog will intake it with a sniff. This will cause irritation and the dog will leave the garden. You can also make a solution of spices and spray around the garden but make sure it is not too strong. It is so because it can cause inflation and pain in the nose of the dog.
Coffee grounds:
Coffee grounds have a bitter scent which dogs has allergy with. It irritates them if in taken. Approximately a cup of coffee grounds is enough to protect a 40 square feet lawn. You just need to sprinkle around the corners and place prone to be dug. You can make use of Coffee grounds plant beds which are bordering the lawn. This will work as a boundary wall and prevent your dog from crossing it.
Vinegar and lemon juice:
The smell of lemon and vinegar is deadly irritating for dogs. Vinegar or lemon alone is unsafe for the garden. Vinegar kills grass while lemon juice causes sunburn to blades. So these are mixed together and sprayed on the border of the garden.
Border Garden with Plants:
There are some plants which dogs can never come close to. Coleus Canina is one of them. it has a pungent odor. This plant is commonly known as “scaredy cat plant”. This name is given to it because it repeals cats and dogs.
Some other trees which can keep dogs away from the garden include:
- Pot marigold (calendula)
- Lemongrass
- Citrus trees
Essential Oils:
Some oils like eucalyptus and citronella can also be used to keep dogs away from digging the yard. They have a strong scent odor. Eucalyptus along with deterring dogs can keep away fleas. This is the reason it is used around the garden and in the home as well. It is easy to use just spread the oil on the entrance and borders of the garden. It is strong resistance to dogs from entering the garden.
How to stop a dog from digging for moles?
Dogs specially bred for hunting and fighting have aggressive behavior and love chasing their prey. If your garden has moles, then you will know what mole damage looks like. Add a dog which will chase them and make its own holes in the garden into the mix, and you will have a complete mess. They will turn the yard into a war zone.
Best ways to avoid such thing to happen to try to eliminate moles from your garden. There are several ways you can do it. Like, you can make use of Molemax. It comes in glandular form and is quite capable of repelling moles from the garden alive.
You can use poison. It will kill moles but it can also be dangerous for your dog as well. Therefore it is not preferred to use when other options are available there.
Will ammonia stop dogs from digging?
If you soak a cloth in Ammonia and place it around the garden or places where dog digs repeatedly it will resist him to come inside. The odor of the ammonia will definitely repeal the dogs. Try to make use of natural remedies instead of poison.