Is it possible to have a nice garden & a Lab? At the moment no we can't as he has dug up holes along the fence line into neighbours garden's but will it ever be possible & any advice on how to stop the digging? Thank you
Get fences one area for the dogs one for you. Never had a issue with digging but im with my dogs in the garden most if the time so they've never developed the habit.
We have a fence so that the pups are only allowed in the garden when we are with them, even when the doors are open. We have a gravel spending area round the side of the house so they are only allowed in the garden ‘empty’, which preserves the grass. We have car park matting under the grass (we put it on top and let the grass grow through. It s not a perfect garden but it is protected from digging etc etc This photo shows the fence -
Actually our old Lab dug because we did. He was mirroring, and any gardening that we did (apart from mowing) was a cue for him to get busy, too. If we were just chilling, so was he. So I have no advice, but wonder the same thing myself now that we have a pup. This one has not discovered digging but is great at pruning everything he can reach. He has chewed lots of plants (also indoor ones) and every garden visit for toileting ends in a gift of a twig or a pine cone.
When Harley was younger she liked digging, especially after we filled the holes back up. In the end we left one hole dug up and she hasn’t dug since. I also tried to distract her with a game or short training session which usually worked, but occasionally it didn’t.
Some people recommend a designated digging area that you bury treats in, encourage pup to dig there and only there. No experience with this, our postage-sized garden has no space. Our boy stopped “gardening” around two years of age. Before that time, most plants were pulled out (what fun!) including the grass. Garden was a mess. I relented, he wasn’t otherwise destructive, and I didn’t have the energy to protect the garden. If it’s really hot and I’m outside gardening, he’ll start digging a hole for a cool place to lie down. I stop him and take him inside where it’s cooler, and he’s only too happy - he’s only digging cos he wants to be with me, so he’s being resourceful and making it cool enough.
Mine don't normally dig in the garden either, but have done so when they've spotted an apple in my neighbour's garden through a section of wire fence! I think Tuppence has also tried digging to get under the same bit of fence because she can smell fat balls in the neighbour's bird feeder! Unfortunately there are also foxes living in the wooded bank at the bottom of my garden and they tend to make tracks through hedges and fences to establish a route through the gardens, even though there's 'dog proof'wire to supplement the hedges. I've put logs along the bottom edge of the wire to hold it down. Another solution we used years ago (when we had a digging cairn terrier) was to bury the lower edge of wire fence rather than leave it on the surface. The dogs also only have unsupervised access to the part nearest the house.
Amber will be two this year. I have barely any garden left. All the plants are either "trimmed" by her or completely gone. I have decided to wait a couple more years before trying to get it all back to my lovely garden again.
Well if modelling the behaviour is part of why dogs dig it explains why Harley doesn't touch our garden Because we don't We have a big but VERY low maintenance garden. Harley dug one or two holes but no more.
