digging up garden

asparagus1968

hello,

Anyone got any ideas how to deter my gorgeous puppy from jumping in my pots to dig up the flowers??

Do I just let him out when he can be supervised? it seems such a shame.

thanks

ps.maybe there are plants that dogs don't like the smell of etc that i could plant instead?

zaksmum

My dog used to do this as a puppy. The garden looked like bombs had fallen on it, the holes were so big.

I found a tip online to put the puppy's own poo in the dug up areas and he would then stop digging there.

I didn't really expect it to make a difference, but it did.

The puppy stopped his digging from that moment on and never dug another hole in the garden.

asparagus1968

aah,thank you,just been reading about that too.
I feel mean,as he is a terrier,and they like to dig,but what a mess!
He gets plenty of walks and has lots of toys and football out in the garden.
read that burying chicken wire under the soil also puts them off,too late for this lot of plants but next time i do my pots I'll try this too!

bouncydog1

Please do not bury chicken wire as a deterrent to stop your dog digging. What happens if he digs and catches his claws in and rips one out, or cuts his pad. Catches it on his teeth and pulls one out/injures his mouth.

The list is endless and the advice was no doubt given by old school - the same ones that advocated rubbing kittens and puppies noses in their poo to stop them going indoors (which as any knowledgeable person will tell you, is a load of old tosh)!

asparagus1968

point duly taken! thanks

pawsies

What you can do is provide somewhere he can dig like a sandpit or if you live near a beach just let him go wild and throw treats in the sand for him to dig.

If he has an outlet he'll be less likely to use your garden

bethie

second the sandpit area- he's a terrier, he will want to dig! : )

zaksmum

Mine go to the beach as often as possible so they can have a good dig in peace!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

He's a puppy, so you will need to supervise him in any case, because of the risk of toxic plants, eating slugs, wasps, bees, neighbours' cats, fox poo, finding bits and pieces that only a small dog with a mind set on trouble could ever notice, much less try and eat, escape, etc.


Giving him a sandpit is a good idea - but you'll still need to supervise him.

Beetlemama

My Jessie Jane was a digger dog when she was younger, we tried everything we could try but the simple fact was, as with most of those things, they eventually grow out of it, trying to stop them just gives you something to do while they're growing up.

Seriously, ours was so bad, the holes were so big, you could put her out, go back10 minutes later and bury a body in them, she dug deep down and long trenches, never seen anything like it, it was so bad we actually planted our vegetable patch where she'd been digging and fenced it off, there was no grass for about 30ft across the whole top of the garden, and it was churned up to a depth of about 3ft. I use to run out on the quiet and fill the holes in before my husband saw them!

Jessie is the reason we have such a nice vegetable crop each year now you might just have to live with it until he's older.