Need help with new adopted 2 year old digging in yard - Page 1

I received this post on my facebook page and am unsure how to answer. Help?

Anyone have a suggestion on how to keep my 2 year old from digging? We just adopted her and she's been in a fenced yard all her life with no real interaction. Now we have doggie doors so she can come and go into the yard whenever she wants. We've trained her to go in the crate at night but digging. Dog is crate trained  and in fenced yard.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Prodigy

Your dog is bored. But first the in and out door might not be best idea at this point. Train dog to signal to go out. Exercise dog. Teach dog to play two ball. I have a male GSD who likes to dig only if he still has the freedom to do it. I did put some chicken wire down when he was almost a year old. Your dog seems to have not had people spend time with it.  Dogs neeed obedience. "No real interaction", you said. Dogs need interaction with owners. Otherwise they can get into even worse things like escaping the yard.  Proper socialization. You probably need to go to a real teacher for obedience.
Paul

Thank you Paul. Makes sense and I will relay the answer.

Thanks again,

Prodigy

Heya, my pup started digging recently too... What Paul says seems to be working. I just moved from a place where I shared a yard w/my neighbors, so my dog got to play with their dogs all day. Now we have our own yard and its just us. The boredom led to exploratory DIGGING and CHEWING! I did the whole putting her nose in the dirt and telling her a firm no, then got creative and tried a couple of things to help discourage those behaviors when I wasn't home. I've placed her poop in those digging spots and/or sprayed them with bitter apple spray, and she stays away from them now. Plus, we started a very consistent exercise routine, with a daily jog that ends at the park plus scent work at home (so fun!), to help take the edge off her energy. This, in addition to giving her puzzle toys (like a Kong filled w/wet dog food so that it takes her some time to lick it all out), and bones to munch on seem to keep her plenty occupied, and the digging/chewing problem is going away! (thank goodness!)

I've also heard that taking one of those small, plastic kid pools and filling them with sand is a great way to redirect the digging too. You can teach your dog to play in just that spot by burying toys in it and turning into a fun "find it" game. Again, you still need to fill in any spots where you don't want digging with poop or some other strong, odor deterrent before you eventually refill them (if you refill them right away, the freshly churned soil seems to encourage them to go right back and start digging again-- it becomes a game that you DON'T want to play!). I'm considering trying the pool idea because it seems like a cheap, fun, new game for us to start once it warms up again, and I've finally got the room for it :)

Hope these ideas help!

 

One theory for dogs eating their poop is boredom. If that happens u need to keep it picked up regularly. Sometimes you can change a behavior but another behavior that you consider negative pops up. You have to be proactive. I only had one GSD that played with toys by himself. Obedience is very important.
Paul

The pool is a great idea.  I used that for my pups and in the past for the Lab.

This may sound silly, but I recommended it to someone that had the same problem and it worked!
Build the dog a sandbox, that way you have controled digging, and not all over the yard ,
kinda like what kneville recommends 
 

Yes, I was going to suggest a sandpit too, either a box frame or a kiddiepool
should work fine.  Assuming you have the space for it in your yard.
Best filled at first with fresh clean gardening sand, which will also help to
differentiate by smell from the rest of the dirt in your garden. You'll also need
to check at intervals that all the toys have not been pulled out, topping the
sand up with new toys means variety and that the 'lucky dip' does not run out !
NO substitute for attention and training, though;  just helps with in-between
boredom !