How to Stop a Dog from Digging

Dogs dig holes for a few different reasons. Digging can be a displacement behaviour which is something our canine companions do when they’re stressed. To avoid a specific situation, they will do something else but if the behaviour is out of context in the way they normally do it or in excess, then we can tell when they are stressed.

By far the most common reason for a dog to dig is simply because they enjoy it. Digging is fun, it stimulates them like running around and playing. It gives them something to focus on and it’s rewarding to them. Many of our dogs dig because it’s instinct. Terrier breeds are especially good at it. We’ve bred animals to be ratting dogs and have a hunting drive so when they hear or even smell something in the soil, that instinct can trigger and they will dig for what feels like hours to look for what critter might be the source of it.

Digging can also be a learned behaviour. If a dog does something and they get a rewarding experience from it, they’re more likely to repeat that behaviour. Many of our beloved pets will develop ways to get our attention and not always in a positive way. Many dogs find any attention to be positive, even if you’re shouting at them to stop digging up the lawn.

They’re always learning and it often doesn’t take them very long to learn that pulling up your flowers by the root and digging a nice hole will get you running to give them attention faster than any other behaviour will.

When a dog digs in their bed, it’s nothing to be concerned about. Throughout their evolutionary history, their ancestors would dig dens to keep safe and sleep in. This behaviour has travelled all the way down to our domestic dogs except we give them nice padded beds and a house so they don’t need to go in the garden and dig a safe place to bed down. When a dog digs in their bed, they’re usually just moving the bedding around instinctually to make it nice and comfortable to sleep in.

It’s also an instinctual behaviour to take things they value to their safe place which is often where they sleep so they regularly hide chews and bones in their bed for later.

While digging is a natural behaviour, it can become problematic if you want to have a reasonably neat garden. Depending on the cause of the digging behaviour there are a few different things you can try to stop it.

When dogs are digging because of stress, instead of making it impossible to dig, you should treat the root of the issue. Finding out what is causing them anxiety is going to be your best bet to finding a solution.

It might be something as small as moving their bed to an area in a draught that they don’t like or it could be something like you’ve moved home recently and don’t feel quite at home yet. An Adaptil Pheromone Diffuser can help with these short term stresses by helping them to feel comfortable and reducing stress related behaviours.

Digging can sometimes occur if your pup still has too much energy and doesn’t quite know what to do with it. Increasing their daily walks to tire them out can be a quick and effective way of reducing the need to dig. A tired puppy is a happy puppy. If you don’t have all the time in the world to extend their walks you can just up the activity on their walks using some outdoor dog toys.

A high energy game of fetch with a Nerf Dog Tennis Blaster will throw the ball further than you can ever dream of so your pooch has to work that much harder to retrieve it.

Dogs need more than just walks to prevent them from getting bored. They also need mental stimulation. Some dogs could walk all day, especially working breeds that we bred over the years to have very long working days. These kinds of dogs may resort to digging when they can’t find anything else to do. Providing mentally stimulating toys and enrichment will help curb the time they spend looking for things to do.

Even just feeding them their meals from a Kong Classic Dog Toy will make them use their brain just to get a meal. For flat-faced dogs who may find a Kong too challenging, the Kong Wobbler may be better suited so they can learn how to wobble the toy and set their food free.

Considering that digging is a natural behaviour and some dogs just enjoy it, sometimes the easiest solution is to provide an outlet for the behaviour. By giving them a place to dig, you can redirect their digging from your flower beds and encourage them to do it in a specific location. You can either section off the garden or buy something that can hold sand or earth to allow for digging like the Kingdom Dog Paddling Pool.

Once you have somewhere for them to dig, encourage them to investigate it by hiding treats, toys and bones in there to allow them to do what they enjoy in a safe and managed way that doesn’t ruin the garden.

While there is some truth that puppies are more likely to enjoy digging, you can’t just rely on them growing out of it to stop them digging. Allowing a puppy to practice a behaviour and then expect them to just stop when they get older isn’t very realistic. You still have to put management strategies in place when they’re young to stop them from practising the behaviour otherwise it may just develop into a habit when they’re an adult.

Puppies often do things for attention so it can be as easy as ignoring the behaviour to reduce how much they do it. Once they realise it doesn’t pay off, they will stop using it to get your attention as long as it never works.

For everything you need to keep your garden free of potholes and your pooch entertained along with all of your other doggy essentials, take a look at our ever-growing range in store and online.