text: Home General Why Do Dogs Dig?
  As a dog owner, you may often experience the problem of your dog wreaking havoc on your yard, consequently making you curious as to why this happens.
  However, you should not worry as you are not the only one experiencing this conundrum; most dog owners do face this problem.
  Before discussing what to do to stop your dog from digging, let us first understand why your dog digs.
  Most dogs dig their way in the yard purely for entertainment reasons. It is particularly so if the dog is left for lengthy periods in the yard with no human interaction, other dogs to socialise with, and toys to play around with around the yard.
  Therefore, if you are leaving with little or no choices of activity to do, they tend to channel their energies to other activities such as whining, barking, and digging for fun.
  It is a widespread occurrence, especially for dog owners who often tend to the garden with their hands.
  Most of the time, dogs dig and bury possessions valuable to them such as toys, bones, and food to hide them before they later come to attend to them.
  Moreover, dogs are known to bury something precious to them in one specific place before then coming up and digging it up to hide it in some other location.
  For instance, during the scorching days in the summer, your dog might opt to dig a hole where they might lie on the cool dirt and escape from the intensely hot weather conditions.
  Instances, whereby your dog starts digging under or beside the fence of your property, is an indication that your dog is trying to find an escape route.
  Dogs often result in doing certain things to draw your attention. Therefore, when your dog starts digging when they know you are around and watching them, it is a perfect sign it is screaming out for attention.
  Nevertheless, if your dog does the digging when you are not around, it may be due to something else.
  Either physically punishing or scolding your dog after finding them digging holes is one thing you must never do since it does not solve anything. Instead, all it does is make the dog fearful and develop anxiety, thus not helping in amending the dog's behaviour.
  The majority of dog owners make the mistake of taking revenge on their dogs after they are found digging holes, usually because of not knowing any better.
  One of the most common kinds of punishments involves you having the dog sit next to the dog which they have dug for extended periods, an action that will not solve anything.
  It involves these individuals taking the dogs to the dug holes, filling them with water followed by holding the head of the dog under the water for some time.
  These people think by doing so, the dog will learn the digging holes is bad and is unwanted behaviour, thereby should stop.
  However, the reality is your dog will not be able to comprehend the link between them digging the hole and you drowning them in the water.
  Thus, all you will be doing is passing your dog through inhumane and sickening procedures, which only worsens the dog's behavioural problems instead of solving them.
  To prevent your dog from developing behaviour problems, which includes digging, you should ensure you give your dog an adequate amount of exercise daily.
  Therefore, you must engage your dog in daily physical activities such as daily walks as well as mental stimulation which.
  Subsequently, this leaves your dog with much fewer reasons to channel their energy into digging the yard since a tired dog will not even think about unnecessarily around the garden.
  Moreover, if your dog still digs even after the daily exercises, you might not be giving the dog adequate amount of exercise as well as exercises that are challenging enough for the dog to be tired afterwards.
  Carrying out daily exercises which are not challenging enough for the dog to tire eventually will result in the dog doing things like whining, barking, jumping, digging, and chewing.
  All this will be to channel their extra energy into something else.
  At all times, you must ensure your dog is seldom left alone and without something entertaining to engage it.
  Therefore, when leaving your dog alone for some duration of time, provide you avail them with adequate toys for them to play around with and keep themselves entertained.
  Always engage your dogs on a daily basis as well as spending enough time with your dog so that they still feel treasured, which consequently leaves the dog with no reason of digging around the yard trying to attract your attention.
  Excellent ways to spend quality time together with your dog include mental games, exercise, training sessions, and physical games.
  Nevertheless, you must be careful when using products that depend on poison and toxins to repel these burrowing insects and animals since these products can be just as harmful to your dog if they come in close contact with them.
  You should provide your dog with appropriate shelter and hence prevent them from going digging around the yard trying to build themselves an ideal shelter on the yard.
  Thus, always guarantee your dog has a proper doghouse that offers the dog protection from extreme weather conditions.
  You must ensure your dog easily has access to an adequate amount of water, be it in a bowl from which they drink or whatever. It prevents your dog from going digging around the yard in search of water whenever they feel thirsty, and water is not easily accessible to them.
  In case you cannot successfully stop your dog from digging, you should consider as a last resort setting aside a spot specific spot on the yard for the dog to dig, for instance, using a sandbox which is designed just for this.
  For this method to work, you should continuously monitor your dog, checking if they are digging at that precise spot if so, giving them praise and treat.
  However, if your dog digs a wrong place, you should intervene by saying a command such as "wrong spot" and immediately moving them to the site which is acceptable to dig.
  To stop your dog from carrying out certain behaviours, such as digging and amend them for the better, you should consider signing up your dog in an obedience training class offered by a certified professional dog trainer.