Redirect Their Drive to Dig

A natural behavior needn't render your lawn a moonscape

By Pat Miller
Reprinted with permission from Your Dog, Tufts University
Copyright 2005, Tufts University

With four dogs who spend a fair amount of time playing in the back yard, we have no expectations of an immaculately manicured lawn. Still, I was a bit taken back one afternoon when I walked out to the yard to find a patch of previously respectable grass converted into a 6foot diameter bare-dirt, hole-pocked moonscape.

Dubhy the Scottish Terrier's dirtencrusted whiskers and paws betrayed him as the culprit. A closer inspection of the area told the story: Small rodent trails riddled the ground around the remnants of an old tree stump. A family of moles had moved in, and Dubhy was simply doing what he was genetically programmed to do seek and destroy small critters. Along the way, he destroyed a portion of our lawn.

It's the human's role in the dogowner relationship to teach the dog how to behave appropriately in a world run by Homo sapiens. Far too often, owners seem to assume dogs come programmed with good manners. Then they become frustrated and angry when their dog engages in behavior that seems perfectly acceptable to him. If we're ever to make headway in reducing the seemingly endless numbers of dogs who end up looking for new homes in shelter kennels, it's critical that canine caretakers gain a realistic perspective on what it means to he a dog.

Ch. O'Mara's Sorcerer Merlin Some owners misinterpret a Terriers' strong hunting instincts, which include barking and digging, as bad habits and give them up.

Make the Effort

Dogs dig. They bark. They chew. They roll in smelly stuff and chase things that move. They eat garbage, and they eliminate. Most owners understand that dogs eliminate and wisely redirect the behavior so that urine and feces are deposited in an acceptable location. Owners need to understand that dogs also must satisfy their need to perform other natural dog behaviors. It's possible to teach your dog to restrict his digging to acceptable locations just as it's possible to housetrain him. You simply need to make the commitment to the effort.

It's always easier to prevent an undesirable habit from developing than to try to change it once it's established. Good management is the key. If you don't want your dog to turn your back yard into a moonscape, don't give him unlimited access to the yard when you're not there to redirect his digging behavior.

Irresistible Motivator

Gophers and moles may he an irresistible motivator for digging and a strong reinforcer if your dog ever actually catches one. If you don't want him to rototill the zucchini in your absence, fence the garden so he doesn't have access to it. Soft garden soil is infinitely tempting to a dog who has an inclination toward excavation.

You accomplish prevention through management, with the judicious use of crates, baby gates, exercise pens, kennels, dog walkers, leashes, direct supervision and, if necessary, doggie daycare. If your dog spends the first six to 12 months of his life learning that digging is a fun, satisfying and rewarding, you'll struggle with resolving or managing that behavior for a long time. If on the other hand, your dog spends the first year of his life learning to dig when and where it's appropriate, before long you'll be able to trust him home alone without worrying that he's re-landscaping.

When you faced with a digging challenge, your best route to success is understanding why your dog digs and creating a management and training solution to the problem. Dogs are compelled to dig for a variety of reasons, including:

• Pursuing critters
• Attempting to escape
• Burying or retrieving valuable objects
• Making a den
• Creating a cool spot
• Having fun

Northern breeds in particular have a natural inclination to dig to make depressions in the tundra to escape inclement weather. In each case, you can take steps to reduce or eliminate the dog's motivation for digging and modify or extinguish the digging behavior. Here's how:

When a dog is pre-programmed to pursue rodents, as most of the Terriers are, your best solution is effective critter removal. In our hack yard, a few days of Duhhy torture convinced the mole family to pack up and leave. We never found evidence that our Scottie actually caught one, and he hasn't dug a hole since. If your dog does capture and ear rodents, lie's likely to acquire tapeworms which can he treated with a dc-wormer from your veterinarian.

You may choose to escort your rodent pests out of your yard more proactively than leaving it up to your dog. If so, manage your dog's behavior in the meantime by restricting his unsupervised access to the critter-affected area while you implement other rodent-control measures, such as chasing the little guys out with a hose down one hole so they run out their other holes.

Be cautious about using a commercial pest-control service. Many pest-control products are toxic to dogs as well as rodents.
If you decide to live-and-let-live, leaving the critters to flourish in your yard, you can still prevent digging by preventing your dog from being in the same area. Be aware that your dog's territory may continue to shrink as the rodent population expands. Because digging for rodents is such a hardwired, self-reinforcing behavior, training methods will generally be ineffective as a long-term solution - the behavior will continue to be re-triggered by the presence of the rodents.

There's no doubt about it - some dogs are harder to contain than others. Dogs try to escape their yards because they're bored, they see an attraction - something of value - or they're panicked about staying in the yard. You have one simple management solution for each of these causes: Don't leave your dog in the yard unattended. Not only are unattended dogs more likely to dig a tunnel to freedom, they're also subject to neighbor complaints about barking, accidental or deliberate release by someone entering the yard, and malicious teasing, poisoning and other abuse.

Alleviate Motivation

If you must leave your dog in the yard, you can take several steps to alleviate escape motivation:

1. Provide interactive toys, such as stuffed Kongs suspended from a sturdy tree branch or toys such as the Buster Cube that you fill with treats or his breakfast kibble. He must push the cube around the yard to make treats fall out.
2. Provide a canine companion. Borrow a dog from a friend or neighbor to keep him company in the yard. Be sure to check on him regularly the first few times you do this to be sure he's not teaching his pal how to dig out! If this works, you could consider adopting a second dog - if you really want a second dog.
3. Give him lots more exercise when you're with him - a tired dog is less likely to try to escape. A tired dog is generally a better-behaved dog.
4. Determine the enticement outside the fence that's causing him to escape. If he's tunneling out to pursue females in season, neuter him. If there are free-roaming dogs he's digging out to join, ask your neighbors to keep their dogs home. If that doesn't work, ask animal control to patrol your street more regularly.
5. Bury your fence a foot underground to block escape efforts. Your dog may give up when he meets a barrier. Also, installing a privacy fence rather than chain link can reduce the visual stimulation outside the fence from dogs, cats, people, etc. that may generate frustration arousal and incite him to escape.
6. Keep him confined in a large, chain-link kennel on a cement pad.

You can't, however, come up with an easy management solution for a panicked dog who digs to escape his fear. It's simply cruel to leave a fearful dog in the back yard, subject to firecrackers, truck backfires, the fear of separation anxiety or whatever triggers his panic attack. You must provide him with a safe environment, free from his triggers, while you work to desensitize him, if possible, to whatever torments him.

Your dog may hoard his bones and toys, secreting them in caches that he happily digs. Manage this behavior by not leaving him in the yard unattended, or modify it by teaching him to dig in a designated spot - his digging box! (See sidebar.) If your dog has a strong need to dig, giving him a legal alternative to digging in your flowerbeds can be the best solution. Providing him with an acceptable outlet for the behavior can fulfill his need to dig while keeping your lawn intact. On the other hand, thwarting a strong, hardwired behavior can sometimes lead to other behavior problems. Of course, you'll need to manage his behavior by preventing his access to his other preferred digging spots until he's fully trained.

Pregnant dogs will naturally look for, and create if necessary, a cozy birthing and nursery den for their pups. If you have pending puppies in your pack, it behooves you to set up a comfortable, secure spot for your mom-dog well in advance. Be sure it's protected from intruders - canine and otherwise - so she feels safe and won't go looking for her own spot.

Non-pregnant, unspayed female dogs may go through false pregnancy and succumb to the same urge to create a den. You can offer the same safe spot - or better yet consider spaying to remove the motivation for dendigging.

Just like us, dogs like to be cool on a hot day. If your dog digs up a spot on the ground, the damp soil is exposed and cools as the dampness evaporates. Your dog lies on the spot and takes advantage of the cooling evaporation. Voila! He has solved his overheating problem - and made a mess of your lawn in the process.

Temperature Control

Try providing an approved cool spot instead. There are products on the market - such as cooling pads, available at pet supply stores and online catalogs - that absorb water and evaporate the moisture over several days. One of those, placed in your dog's favorite shady spot, might ease his temperature-control needs for days. Or on the low-tech end, soak a blanket for him to lie on or create a hard-packed bare-dirt patch for him in an obtrusive spot and dampen it each morning.

Of course, my favorite solution is to keep your dog indoors in your airconditioned house so he doesn't need to dig a cool spot on a summer's afternoon. My cool-loving pack agrees wholeheartedly.

Some dogs like to dig for the heck of it. It's fun. It feels good. You can tell these diggers by the expression of glee on their faces when they're digging up a nice plot of ground. Fun diggers are great candidates for the digging box. Rather than stopping your dog's fun, you're encouraging it.

Finally, a good positive training class can help resolve behavior problems by teaching you and your dog to communicate more clearly. The better you understand how his mind works and the better he understands what you expect of him, the stronger your relationship. In the end, it's the strength of this relationship that will carry you through the challenges of caring for your dog and allow you to experience the joys and rewards of sharing your life with a canine companion.

Pat Miller past president of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, is a dog behavior consultant and trainer who uses positive methods at her Peaceable Paws Center in Hagerstown, Md.

Dogs are compelled to dig for a variety of reasons, including for the fun of it.

Bury Treasures in the Digging Box to Teach Him How to Use It

A digging box can be as simple as a designated spot in the yard, dug up and turned over to make it soft and inviting. Or it can be as elaborate as a four-sided, wooden structure, custom-designed to fit your dog, complete with a roof to protect it from rain and sun, filled with potting soil to allow for maximum digging pleasure. Once you have created your digging box, it's time to teach your dog how to use it.

Start by burying some of his favorite toys in the dirt. Treats and stuffed Kongs are good here. Let him watch you bury the objects and then encourage him to find them. Tell him "Go dig!" and help him if necessary - the two of you can have a great time digging together! Gradually give him the "Go dig!" cue from farther and farther away until you can send him across the yard to his box to dig without your help.

When he seems to have the idea, bury objects when he's not looking. Then sometimes tell him to "Go dig!" and let him discover the buried treasures on his own. Continue to supervise his yard activities, and if you catch him digging somewhere other than his box, interrupt his activity with a cheerful "Oops. Go dig!" and redirect him to his box.

When you no longer have to redirect his digging to his box, start giving him unsupervised time - brief periods at first, then longer and longer as he continues to dig in the appropriate place. If he lapses, you'll need to return to supervised activity for a period of time. When you're ready to go back to no supervision, start with shorter periods and increase the length of time even more gradually than before.

Remember to address the other areas that motivate his digging, and before long, you should have a dog who can happily "dig it" with the best of them.

It's critical caretakers gain a realistic perspective on what it means to be a dog.