Help!Got my own gardener

[KatieAust]

Hi all,
my lovely 18mth old boxer Tyson just loves to pull out plants in the garden.It has cost us hundreds and hundreds replacing them.We have tried to put barriers up to stop his access to the garden,tried all the "keep of the garden" products & nothing has worked.Anyone have any ideas?He is only ever home for 3-5 hrs at a time & we leave him new toys,bones,you name it he has it.We try to leave him inside & he is good except for longer periods of time.When we get home he stoops along the ground which tells us he has been upto no good.(he dobs himself in!)
We would desperately like to get him out of the habit & would really appreciate any advice.
thanks.

 

[boxer]

Rather than trying to break him of the digging habit completely - which would be pretty difficult when you're not around to supervise - how about putting in a digging pit for him and encouraging him to dig there only? Keep your barriers and whatever else makes the garden and plants less attractive or more difficult to get at, but if you simultaneously encourage him to dig in his pit, you may find you have more success. Hiding toys in there and making the digging a great game for him may also help.

Basically, it isn't an easy task to break a dog of the (natural and fun) habit of digging unless you are always around to stop him. It is a much easier task though, to teach him that digging is OK, but there is a correct location for it. So you simply encourage him to dig there, and redirect any other digging he does to the correct place. Making other locations difficult to get at will certainly help as will making the correct location a fun spot to dig (hiding toys etc). Good luck.