Is Your Yard a Construction Zone? Why Dogs Dig and What You Can Do!

Does your backyard have more in common with a lunar landscape than the tranquil haven of your dreams?  

If your dog would rather dismantle your lawn than run around on it, you are not alone. Many dogs find digging very satisfying and a digging Labrador is capable of doing a serious amount of damage in a short space of time. 

Is there a cure?

There are two main ways to stop a dog from digging. One is to prevent access to the area where the dog likes to dig, and that you want to protect. The other is to identify the root cause and it’s solution. We’ll look at the 7 main causes of digging, and the solutions to them below.

But first, erecting a temporary fence to separate your dog from an area where they are digging is something that you could consider, especially if you dog is still young. Or if the digging is targeting a specific area, such as a newly planted flowerbed.

I’ve included a couple of Amazon links in this article in case you want to look at the products I use. If you make a purchase after clicking on one of these links, the Labrador site earns a small commission which does not affect the price that you pay.

Temporary fencing

The reason a temporary fence can work in this situation is that with young dogs, is that it’s quite possible the dog will grow out of the digging habit or that you’ll be able to get them focused on other activities, provided you can break the habit for a few weeks.

And if the dog is targeting a newly dug flowerbed, you may find their interest in digging it up subsides once the soil has settled and plants are mature.

Either way, a temporary fence is a good place to start with puppies and young dogs. And we use puppy pen panels(paid link) like the ones above, for this purpose if our young dogs start to show an interest in digging in a particular part of our yard.

These panels are easy to assemble in any order and shape, and they are strong (we use them to keep our sheep away from the roses too!)

If your dog is an adult and the digging habit is random, widespread, and long standing, then temporary fencing may not be practicable. And it can be helpful to try to work out why your dog is digging before you make a plan of action

7 Causes of digging

There are several possible reasons that your dog could be digging. These include enjoyment, prey drive, accidental reinforcement from the owner, excess energy and even escape efforts!

1. Temporary change or stress related digging
2. Digging for fun
3. Digging to hide treasure
4. Learned digging
5. Digging to get cool
6. Energetic dogs
7. Digging to escape

Let’s look at each of the potential reasons in turn, and what you can do to help stop your puppy digging in each scenario.

#1Temporary changes to your dog’s situation

Pregnant female dogs can dig when they wouldn’t ordinarily, due to nesting instincts powered by hormones, and some dogs dig when they are anxious.

Stress related digging can be triggered by a new environment or change in lifestyle. For example if you have gone on holiday and someone else is caring for your dog.

Provided things go back to the status quo soon, then this digging behavior should reduce once normality returns.

#2 Digging for fun

Rob, the Golden Retriever I grew up with, had a passion for digging and my clever Mom turned it from a problem to an advantage by teaching him to dig ‘on cue’.

She would say the word ‘dig’ while he was digging, and eventually you could point at a piece of ground, say ‘dig’ and Rob would dig with enormous enthusiasm right where you wanted him to. Very handy if you had a tree to plant, and a lot of fun on the beach. And when I was a child we had a designated corner of the garden where I could play in the dirt with him, getting him to help me make moats and battle grounds for my games.

If you have space in your yard to give your dog somewhere to dig, putting the behavior on cue and giving them a chance to dig a nice big hole every few days, is a great solution. Rather than trying to prevent dogs from digging, in this scenario we are just giving them their own dedicated digging zone! The dog is still happy, and so are your rose bushes!

Some of these dogs will lose interest in digging as they grow. Sometimes a dog that digs for fun will continue doing it into adulthood however. This is something which certain breeds of dog, such as Terriers, are more inclined to do.

#3 Dogs digging to hide treasure

Dogs will also sometimes dig to hide things they don’t want to share! This can include recreational bones, surplus food, even toys.

I had an English Cocker Spaniel that loved to bury socks and soft toys, and burying stuff is common in working lines of cockers in the UK, so there is a genetic element here too. A famous spaniel trainer used to refer to one of his black cockers as ‘the undertaker’ because he would sometimes bury his retrieves instead of coming back with them!

If this is the only circumstance in which your dog is digging, there are a few ways in which you can stop him.

One is by only giving bite size treats which he won’t be inclined to store. Another is by supervising him when he has a large bone or chew toy.

Either taking it away as soon as he is bored with chewing or eating it, or only letting him have it indoors where he hasn’t got the option of digging. If your dog is young, you can try giving him access to these things outdoors again in a few months when the habit has worn off.

#4 Dogs who have learned to dig

Sometimes a digging habit is triggered accidentally. The dog has been accidentally taught to dig by their owners, or rewarded by the things that they have found.

Two of my dogs will dig where they think there is a mole working underground, at some point they have caught one and that is enough encouragement for them to keep digging. Sometimes they will be tempted to dig there for a few days after the mole is long gone. Other dogs will dig to try and catch a rat or vole. In these cases, a program of pest eradication may solve your digging problem.

If you are a keen gardener then your dog will have observed you shovelling soil on several occasions. You may even have laughed or encouraged him at some point when he tried to get involved. He could also have found something tasty in the soil once, and effectively reinforced his own behavior and been encouraged to keep trying.

If this is the case you can break this habit. First prevent access to the area of the garden that his efforts are focused on. Although this can be tricky, putting up temporary fencing or only exercising him on a long line for a while in the yard can break the habit effectively.

You may find if you do this that after a few weeks you are able to give the dog access to this area again without the behavior restarting. Although I would advise leaving your dog indoors when you do your weeding for the next few weeks!

#5 Digging to get cool

Occasionally a dog will dig because they are hot and they’re trying to create a cool surface to lie on. If the weather is hot and your dog digs a hole and lays down in it, they are probably trying to cool off.

You can stop them from doing this by providing a shaded area or paddling pool for them to play in, and a raised mesh style cooling bed(paid link) like the one Bonnie is sitting on above, for them to lie on.

#6 Energetic dogs dig more

A lively dog might decide to start digging to burn off some of his energy. If he doesn’t have space to run, or has missed out on routine daily exercise, then he will find other ways to stretch his legs.

In addition, dogs with more prey drive may transfer this very specific energy to digging! Labradors, for example, were bred as gundogs. They have a certain level of inherent prey drive. This may be transferred to digging if they have seen or smelled rabbits or other animals popping in to visit your back lawn. They are digging to try and get at the rabbits. Or other creatures that they can smell have been around the yard earlier.

If your dog is digging because he is bored or looking for prey, then keeping him busy when he is in the garden will help. There are a couple of ways to keep your dog busy in the yard. You can try some games or do some fun bits of training. Make sure it is a positive experience for them, and that the excitement you offer is greater than that which they got from burrowing into the ground. Try keeping their favourite toy just for yard time, or getting some new special treats that you give for high reward training outdoors.

If you’d like to get started with some basic obedience training for your dog, using modern positive methods, you might like to take a look at my online training courses.

#7 Digging to escape

If your dog is digging because he wants to get out of the back yard this can be tricky to deal with, especially if he has self-rewarded by managing to escape in the past.

Some dogs will stop trying to dig under the fence if you block their visual access to the world beyond your back yard. But the only way to be safe is to make your boundary fence dig proof.

How to keep dogs from digging under fence boundaries

When dogs dig to escape, they dig right up against the barrier. The best way to stop them escaping is to have a strong wire mesh turn-under.

This means that the fence wire needs to continue several inches below the surface of the ground and be folded inwards at a right angle so that the dog meets the wire barrier as they dig down. If your fence is wooden you can attach wire around the bottom to achieve this.

We use standard rabbit netting wire with a turn-under to keep both our dogs and our rabbits in.

What to do next?

Hopefully I’ve shown you that knowing how to stop a dog digging will depend partially upon why they started doing it. You may find that solving this problem is simple once you have established why your dog is doing it. Or you might have to implement several of the options above to resolve the problem. For example, restricting access to certain areas of the garden and putting a digging zone into another.

I think it’s important to emphasise here that punishment is not going to stop your dog digging unless you are prepared to supervise them the entire time they are outdoors, possibly for weeks on end. Whichever method you use to prevent your dog digging in your backyard, make sure that you don’t fall out with them. They are not doing it to annoy you. And although it might be frustrating or time consuming temporarily, it is totally within your power to stop them kindly but effectively.

Pippa’s online dog training courses can be found over on the Dogsnet website.

About Pippa Mattinson

Pippa is the best selling author of The Happy Puppy Handbook, the Labrador Handbook, Choosing The Perfect Puppy, and Total Recall. She is also the founder of the Gundog Trust and the Dogsnet Online Training Program 

Pippa’s online training courses were launched in 2019 and you can find the latest course dates on the Dogsnet website.