How to keep dogs from digging . . .

HELP!!

Welcome to Dave's Garden tbond!

If you post this over in the pets forum, there's lots of pet lovers there that might have some idea.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/pets/all/

Joan

Dogs dig when they are bored, I'm thinking, don't leave them tied outside all day!!!

I have two suggestions. First put some of their doggie poo in the holes that they dig and cover them back up - they won't dig in that place again. Second, we have had great luck with adding a sandbox just for them to dig in. We started burying treats in it and that started them digging in it. They like to dig where the ground is softest. It probably won't solve ALL your digging problems but will most likely help a lot.

Black or cayenne pepper maybe?

I've heard that pepper and cayenne pepper can severely burn the dogs mouth and if swallowed it can caused real damage to the throat and stomach so I don't think you want to risk that.

spray ammonia just a little

My dogs are never outside all day - just when i'm home. Black and cayenee pepper as well as ammonia are dangerous to the animals. The concern is their digging in beds even during winter without plants . . . just in the dirt.

I know our sandbox really helps. We wanted a small one so we took one of those small pond liners, about 2 1/2 feet wide, punctured holes in it and sunk it into the ground. It's in a place covered in plants so you never know it's there. Some people think you may have trouble with cats using it as a catbox but if you have a dog you know if any cats venture into your yard the dogs LOVE cat poop. (Yuck!). The only other problem is that we have to go shovel the sand back in to the box. But I'll find at least one of my dogs laying in it everyday.

ammonia isn't dangerous to a dog. they have a keen sense of smell and probably smell it
a couple hundred feet away. as far as the peppers go, I doubt it would even phase them. I had a greyhound years ago that would eat anything it thought you ate, even jalapenos.
When I used to set out the trash for the garbage collector, dogs or whatever would get in the trash, so I would spray a little ammonia on the bags, nothing ever bothered my trash after that.

We sprinkled a little cayenne pepper on some flowers on a plant stand and the dogs didn't bother them after that. I watched them too after we sprinkled it. They barely sniffed it before they figured out it was off limits and believe me I have very stubborn persistent dogs. However, my male dog likes to eat chips and salsa. lol DH thought it would be funny and teach him a lesson not to always be hanging around when we have food. He ate it right up didn't phase him not one bit. I didn't allow it anymore because a dog's digestive system is not like that of a human so wasn't sure how it would affect him. The funny thing is our female wouldn't touch it.

This message was edited May 13, 2007 4:54 PM

If it is a larger area like a flower bed, this is not as cost effective but definitely a dog deterrent. Cattle panels laid flat. Plants can be planted thru the panels. You can mulch to hide the panels. The dog won't be able to dig successfully.

OH! I think I read somewhere that you can put chicken wire down. Cut out circles for your plants. Dogs or even cats don't like to put their paws on it because their nails get stuck in it, so it will keep them from going back.

wow, chicken wire!
Shortstuff, do you know if that can be put under mulch, or must it lay on top?
I too have dogs that dig - and its NOT becuase they are tired of being tied up all day. (They have 12 acres to ramble on). I DO think its becuase they liek teh soft dirt to lay in, and what's softer than my planting beds or house foundation bedding?? LOL. Really, although they are 14 years old, Im getting tired of throwing dirt and plants back in thier original spots.

I wish I could try the sandbox thing- but my cats think that soft dirt is good for potty training-.. I think Id better go over to teh Pets section.......

Nin

Nin, I am not sure. I don't remember reading how to apply it. I guess you could lay it under, they still would only be able to get through the mulch before getting to the chicken wire.

shortstuff,
I may try that... it certainly seems like it would be better on the eyes. I can deal with sweeping or raking alil mulch back into place, and surely once they hit that a few times, they'll get tired of it.
( I had an article suggest that placing orange peels in the garden would keep cats out because" they didnt like strong smells". After seeing my biggest cat roll time after time all over my Thyme, Rosemary and Parsley.... I decided that I either had strange cats, or the article didnt know diddly. So Im hoping this may deter my cats as well!)
Im also considerinbg leaving them thier fave laying spot- Im not completely without heart LOL....
Nin

TY for teh suggestion!

Nin

Aw, I'm sure they would appreciate that!

Appreciate it?.. probably only if I left them a pillow with a treat on top every morning. Ahh well, I guess if I can get them to stop diggingup plants to get the soil, I should be happy! lol

Nin

I just read an article on this very subject in the summer edition of Nature's Garden. The article starts on page 8. Several solutions are suggested and the first was to use visual barriers. The author claims that dogs respond to visual barriers and that we owners are supposed to train our dogs to "stay off of fragile plants". My dogs most certainly do respond to visual barriers, they bee line for my raised flower beds to stand in them by straining on their leashes to leave big fat sunken dog foot prints if I'm not paying attention. The article then suggests that we are to observe how our dogs use our yards and design around that. I don't know how practical this advice is other than to "design" a dog run that has a load of gravel dumped in it but the author suggested exactly the same thing that Moby already suggested in that places be created for dogs to dig if they are "passionate" about digging. There was a little illustration of a doggie sand box with some dog nose-down with its butt up in the air digging away looking for treats that the author suggested be buried to entice the dog presumably to dig in more appropriate areas. My experiences with sand boxes of any sort haven't been that great because we have stray and feral cats around here that use them as litter boxes and I wouldn't particularly want any dog of mine digging where stray and feral cats are urinating and defecating. But, my area has quite a few cats hanging around and not all areas are so inundated. I don't know if I buy providing a dog with a doggie sand box but what do I know and it's working for Moby so that's a suggestion that definitely shouldn't be discounted. Another suggestion was to create paths for dogs because they "tend to move in curves". We're supposed to consider wrapping meat in cheesecloth to drag it along the dog path to encourage our dogs to stick to the path I guess. I suppose it's better for them to dig up the path than a flower bed but I'm sort of having second thoughts about this scenting a path with raw meat. I get this feeling that if I even tried that I would end up walking my dog at night and running into a raccoon or a coyote out following the scent. Raccoons can do some major damage to dogs. The article didn't address chicken wire. Why do I get this visual of a torn dew claw and a nice big hearty vet bill when I think of chicken wire as a deterrent? Probably because it would be my misfortune that any digging dog I had would get a dew claw hooked on it but that's just my great luck. The author discusses yellow spots and a few other interesting tidbits but overall the best suggestion she gave was for us owners to not leave our dogs out unsupervised in the yard which is what I'm already resigned to doing because my dogs are worthless, untrained, family pets. Fortunately, I don't have any dogs that dig right now but I've had them in the past and if they dig, they dig, and dig, and dig, and dig and I can't think of anything to stop them save keeping them on a leash when they go out to pee and poop or providing them with a dog run so they wouldn't be able to turn my yard into a movie set for Louis Sachar's "Holes".

HI Equilibrium ~ haven't seen you around lately. I was afraid you had been knocked silly by a tire...
You peaked my interest in Natures Garden till you related this article. My dogs don't follow paths and I don't want to spend my life tethered to these guys by leash.
My gardening buddy Podster digs. He digs right where he wants me to plant so I amend the soil and plant right there. He has also been known to prune shrubs. At least he is neutered so doesn't help water... What did they say about Yellow Spots?

We knew an old hermit here that was a cat man but he did feel dogs served a purpose. He said his cat would go out to go to the bathroom and the neighbor dogs would clean up behind the cat. : )) pod

Hey podster! Nope, no broken ribs or arm or hand this year... I haven't knocked myself out, I haven't cut off a finger, and I haven't ended up with a black eye! It's been a very good year!

What did the article say about yellow spots? Something about providing dogs with "verticle outlets" nyuk nyuk nyuk nyuk nyuk> The little illustration showed a dog lifting its leg on a bird bath. I guess we're supposed to buy expensive garden statuary for our babies to lift their legs on. For girl dogs, it was suggested that we hose down pee spots within a certain period of time. I believe it was 8 hours. Soooo, hose down those pee spots!

Ewww gross! We had a dog once that used to eat tasty morsels from our cat litter boxes. I always knew when she was rooting around in the cat litter boxes because she'd have clay litter in her teeth with her tootsie rolls! Yum yum!

... and bad doggie breath! LOL That always reminded me of salted nut rolls for some strange reason.

Salted nut rolls! Did you have to use that analogy? I will never be able to eat another salted nut roll in my life now and it's all your fault ;) Bad doggie breath is the worst... particularly when they want to lick your face and you can see "remnants" of their rooting.

Sorry ~ it was on my mind today. A friend has a young pair of yellow Labs unrelated male and female. They all stopped by today at work and Boudreaux and Bella both took turns shopping in the cats' litter box. Mine probably still do it too but they know not to let me see them...

That is how to keep them from digging! Provide cats & litter... : ))

Oh now there's a pleasant thought. Let them have at the cat litter boxes to deter them from digging.

We cut out a hole in the door that goes to the basement because of dogs supplementing their diets with "salted nut rolls". I'm really glad none of our current dogs partake of the these delicacies and I'm even more glad none of our dogs dig. We do have a house chewer (the doors to my lower kitchen cabinets come to mind as does the lowest stair and riser to the staircase going upstairs in the kitchen) and one that is a paper towel and toilet paper shredder and actually a mail & magazine shredder and anything that is a paper shredder though. I don't know what's worse.

LOL ~ maybe you could rent him out as a commerical "shredder"?

The problem with the dogs eating the cat poop from the litter pan is that the clumping litter is NOT good for their digestion.

Oh my, now there's an idea- Twinkletoes being rented out as a commercial shredder. I never thought of that. We could time share him. You could take Twinkletoes for a few months to make money off of him and then I could take him back. I'll be the eastern shredder division and you can be the Texas shredder division. $$$ cha ching cha ching!

I have some priss cats that will pee outside the boxes if I use the clumping form of cat litter. I'm safe in that department. All Tidy Cat clay over here but then again I have a shredder not a cat turd eater these days.

Say, totally off topic but have any of you seen these Halloween dessert? I can guarantee people are totally grossed out when you serve this-
http://www.fabulousfoods.com/recipes/dessert/cakes/kittylittercake.html
Another variation-
http://bertc.com/kitty.htm

Aren't those particularly vile?

Egads tbond, really sorry for hijacking. I guess I've got spring fever or something. To redirect back to dogs that dig- I guess there is some sort of a shock-collar out there that will zap your dog. You would have to be out there with your remote to catch him in the act which might be a pain in the butt. I'm not a proponent of these types of collars for dogs. I don't know why I don't feel good about them but I'm don't. We did buy one when we had a dog that hated cats and wanted to eat them. We were almost ready to use the collar on her when one day she up and decided she liked cats. Six months of hell we went through worried we were going to have to return her to the shelter. We were on the brink of using that collar (also sold for use with excessive barkers) and we would have used it as a last ditch shot to stop her from trying to rip apart our cats but we didn't have to. Just another possibility that I don't know all that much about. I think it's a lot like the shock collars they use for those electronic invisible dog fences only a higher charge. I don't have a problem with the shock collars for invisible fences because the dog is provided with a warning beep before the zap comes. I don't think the other collars provide this warning beep.

Here's our sandbox just for the dogs.