My Dog......*sigh* The Digger......

[Mrs Pantherfan]

So..my darling doggie, Izzy...is a digger. Her addiction first started when she'd see, smell or hear voles that were taking over my yard. She'd dig..and dig...and my dumbass would watch her..thinking it was cute she was trying to get to them.

Well...last Wednesday she proceeded to Shawshank it under the fence and she trotted six houses down to go play with her friend, Allie. We left her outside while we went to the bar. I knew we'd only be gone for a few hrs... She'd been inside all day and I wanted he to have some fresh air. We'd been gone for about 90 min when the call came that Izzy was down at their house..not to worry..we could pick her up whenever.

Last night...I let her outside to chill and poop while I was cleaning the kitchen..you know, doing my woman duties and stuff...I was peaking out at her every few minutes....well..low and behold..she Shawhanked out again!! Reopening the hole she dug last week!!!

Ok..I can't have this...I can't reprimand her either when I don't catch her!! How do I stop this??? What do I do?? We were already talking about taking her through a 6 week course. She's not the best listener sometimes and as sweet as she is ...she can be quite a dingo sometimes

[Jase]

Concrete band under fence (expensive)

[Mrs Pantherfan]

you gonna pay for it?? Look how cute she is!!! :)

[Darth Biscuit]

Along our back fence, I took a roll of chicken wire, about 18" high... dug out along the fence about 6" deep and put the wire in the hole and stapled it to the fence along the top and put some stakes along the bottom of the chicken wire every 2' or so and filled in the trench... that keeps our dogs in the back. Fair amount of work though, but it wasn't too expensive.

You may have to put in more and longer stakes, esp in areas she's already dug out.

Or get one of those electric fence things... she'll only do it once then.

[Mrs Pantherfan]

She's only dug out 2 areas as of right now...that are along the fence anyways...Do electric fences really work?

What the proper way to discipline her when I catch her digging?

[Darth Biscuit]

She's only dug out 2 areas as of right now...that are along the fence anyways...Do electric fences really work?

What the proper way to discipline her when I catch her digging?

Well, you're right, you gotta catch her in the act... I guess pop the nose a little and scold her... not much else you can do. If she's really a digger that probably won't discourage her much though...

[Mrs Pantherfan]

According to Cesar :)

make a specific place in your yard where your dogs are allowed to do their digging.

Now, how the hell do I do that???

[mr beauxjangles]

Electric fences absolutely work but that's obviously the expensive solution.

Here's a humane society page with a few decent suggestions. Sounds like your dog falls in the "trying to escape" category.

http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/dogs/tips/digging.html

[Mrs Pantherfan]

Both times she's gotten out..she runs ......walks. (I obviously don't see how she strolls down the street) down to play with Allie..a 7 month old Golden Retriever. ..which by the way..the way those two play is so fuging annoying I can't take it anymore..but that's a whole 'nother thread all together

[Kettle]

When I first got my oldest I had the same problem. I solved it similar to how biscuit said. I only did it in the spots where it needed to be done, and I didn't use any stakes. I just dug it out, layed the mesh in to the ground, stapled it to the fence, and covered with a good bit of dirt. My dog tried to dig again and hit the wire. He quickly figured out he wasn't going through again.

As far as discipline...put the dogs face in the hole when scolding, spanking or whatever you choose. Even if its a day later when you find the hole.

My dog is now five, and after a year or so he didn't dig anymore. Either what I did worked or he grew out of it.

[nobody]

_{nmight try one of those redneck trick firt. Had a buddy that had the same problem but his dog would only dig in this 1 spot (only place along the all it could) so he went and poured a few scoops of ghost pepper into the hole about inches down. Then he let his dog out waited for it to start digging and then washed his noise after the pepper got in it. Cant stress enough if you try this you have to be there with the dog ready to help get it out of his face. Long story short the never dug in that 1 spot again.}

_{Again this only worked out because he knew how to clean it and was waiting for it to occur you can not put your dog out and leave it whille you go to the store until after he learns his lesson and you then remove the pepper.}

[lightsout]

Proclaim the neighborhood as your property. Dog is always technically in "your yard". Inexpensive and quick fix. You're welcome.

[lightsout]

Now, an ACTUAL solution.

Had a German shepherd a number of years ago who did this. Chicken wire trick is the best/most affordable. Does take a day of work, but with it getting cooler, it shouldn't be too bad.

Another option is to set up a runner in the yard with a really long leash on it. You can literally make it yourself by getting the stuff at Lowe's. For my dog now, the runner stretches about 30 yards, from the back porch to near the garden (far enough away where she can't get into it). The leash connected to it is about 15 feet wide, but we don't want her getting into some stuff in the yard. If it's an open yard, literally measure out the dimensions of your yard and plan accordingly. Our ONLY issue with this is the post at the far end. She always finds a way to wrap the leash around it a few times and we have to go pull it over to free her. If you put that post flush with your fence, you should be fine there. If you do it right, the dog will not lose any movement freedom and she'll be forced to stay in the yard.

[Herbert The Love Bug]

I had a runner for my old dog. It allowed her to go all over our yard but not be able to get to places she doesn't need to be or run away. It was great