My dog wont stop digging

[afoulk]

We got a female hound/mix from the local humane society last summer when she was 4 months old. What type of hound she has in her and what shes mixed with, we don't really know, the humane society couldn't tell us. Anyways, we lived in an apartment at the time, so when she was outside, she was on a leash. We moved into our first house the end of last summer with a fenced in yard. We let her loose in the yard when we let her out, and for the most part she does ok, but everyonce in awhile, she goes in spurts where she digs holes. If it were just in the flower beds, I could live with that, but she does it in random spots in the grass, seems to do it more often when the grass has been cut. My wife tells me that this is natural for hounds and to just live with it, but I'm tired of dodging foot deep holes when I mow, and more importantly, I'm worried our son or one of his friends is going to twist and ankle in one of them. Is there a way I can get her to stop this, or am I banging my head against a wall trying to make her stop? I've tryed burying her [censored] in the holes she digs, and it stops her from digging in those spots, but then she just finds a new one. Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[afoulk]

Here is a picture of her, she goes by Sage

 

[yonyon]

It's probably just her way of having fun. Young dogs have lots of energy and like to play. You could keep an eye on her and scold her when she digs, or maybe just teach her something else fun to do. Maybe your son could come up with fun games to teach her? Kids are supposed to be good at that sort of thing. Worst case maybe you could buy her a squirrel to play with. If she wears herself out playing with the squirrel she won't have so much energy left for digging.

 

[tom slick]

How often do you take her for a walk?

 

[boosted]

I know some people are against shock collars but it worked wonders for my pesky pooch.

 

[Stewart Fan]

Originally Posted By: tom slick
How often do you take her for a walk?


A tired pooch is a well behaved pooch.

 

[Boczech]

She is a cutie !!!

Do you know if she is part terrier because it sure sounds like it ? Sounds like she is bored and might do well running on one of those obstacle courses that is at the dog trials. Let her do that a few times and you will have a tired pooch on hand.


B

Originally Posted By: afoulk
Here is a picture of her, she goes by Sage

 

[afoulk]

Originally Posted By: tom slick
How often do you take her for a walk?


Sadly, not often enough. She is very energetic. I've wondered if this was a lot of the problem and I'm hoping once shes a little older (shes 1y and 4months right now) the energy begins to subside a bit. My wife is pregnant right now and I'm stuck doing most of the house work on top of cooking (not my wifes forte

) and yard work, so I don't get much time to walk her. I try to play with her as much as possible, but her idea of "fetch" is to chase the ball down and then play keep away

She does enjoy a good wrestling match with our 8yr. old son, which usually entales lots of face licking

I have concidered a shock collar, although I'm not sure if I want to do that to her yet. We love her, shes a friendly dog, loves people, kids especially, but yet shes protective when she needs to be. I love it when she howels too

Indoors, she listens well, although she still likes to go after the cats food. Its outdoors where I have the issues. Theres the digging and she doesn't like to come in until shes ready, which is fine until I'm trying to leave for work. I think a lot of our issues are due to her not getting out to burn her energy off enough. Just wondering if the digging was a result of that, or if there was something else we could do to stop it.

 

[afoulk]

Originally Posted By: Boczech
She is a cutie !!!

Do you know if she is part terrier because it sure sounds like it ? Sounds like she is bored and might do well running on one of those obstacle courses that is at the dog trials. Let her do that a few times and you will have a tired pooch on hand.


B

Originally Posted By: afoulk
Here is a picture of her, she goes by Sage

It would take a lot to tire her out She would go until she dropped over if you let her. A friend of ours had her puppy over one night, about 6months younger than ours, and our dog wore the little one out, she didn't want to stop

 

[Bandito440]

Long walks and runs. Every day. Tired dog is a happy dog!

She's digging because she's bored.

 

[DemoFly]

Too much pent up energy and frustration.

Walk your dog or take her to a dog park.

 

[crazyoildude]

she is a good looking dog and im sure she will be your best friend lol

 

[afoulk]

Thanks for all the compliments guys and suggestions guys. I'm gonna make it a point to make time to walk her and see how it goes.

 

[Rick in PA]

She's a cutie. Probably some terrier in there. We had a Airedale that like to dig holes. Once, when he was done digging, he stuck his head in the hole an made one loud "WOOF", funny as heck. Ah, she could have worse traits, fill the holes and move along. As I remember it was a phase with our Airdale, after a while, he stopped digging.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Hounds will indeed dig if not property trained.

As mentioned before, part of it is out of boredom, but there's also a training component involved as well. Just like children, dogs need to be trained and socialized beginning at a young age. Otherwise you'll continue to see destructive behavior.

 

[SteveSRT8]

We have a red tick coon hound and have had many hound breeds.

These dogs need to HUNT! You must provide entertainment in the form of a big enough area for the dog to patrol and catch stuff.

If they are bored expect holes. It's just an outlet.

But they are smart as a whip. My dog brought her latest squirrel up on the porch yesterday, and I pointed at it and said "get that off my porch!"

She trotted straight over to it and placed it in the yard!

 

[Blaze]

I stopped a few by placing thier poop everywhere they dig....have one digging now and stopped her by spraying that liquid deer fence where she was digging....I had been spraying my trees with liquid deer fence to keep the deer out and experimented using it where the dog had dug and it worked...seems like my dogs always dig in the same places.

 

[mechtech2]

Different breeds are naturally suited for different activities.
Digging is common. Wild dogs live in dug shelters, or bury food for later.

Most dogs respect the Alpha in their pack. No should mean No.
If they consider you another pack animal , they won't mind your wishes.

 

[afoulk]

She knows to listen when we tell her "no", problem is, she will do something, like dig, or eat the cats food when even though she knows its bad, because as soon as you come walkin into the room, or point to the hole in the yard and ask her "what did you do", she hangs her head. She knows its wrong, sometimes she just doesn't seem to care.

 

[mechtech2]

I would love to be a dog for 10 minutes, and afterwards remember how they think, perceive, and relate.