Hi everyone. I have a 10 week old Labradoodle called Mavis. She is such a good girl apart from a craving to dig. I’m looking for some advice. When she starts to dig I call her away which she very obediently comes, when she gets to me I reward her, am I doing the right thing or is this reinforcing the digging? Also I’m about to go back to work, she will be on her own for 2-3 hours before my Mum comes round for a couple of hours. She is toilet training brilliantly and has had no accidents inside the house yet. Should I put a puppy pad down in her pen area whilst I’m at work or will this undo the training I’ve done so far? Thanks in advance for your advice
Hi @Amy Worrall Welcome to the site. If you leave at least 10 seconds between one behaviour and another behaviour, then you will avoid inadvertently chaining the two behaviours together. If she is only digging in one part of the garden, then you can place some large rocks over the soil. I would not use pads. More trouble than they are worth. You will have to teach her later on not to use the pads. I would instead teach the puppy crate training. There is a folder on crate training on this site. When your mother comes get her to take the puppy outside and continue the toilet training.
Hi Amy, Welcome to the forum! Michael has given you some good advice. You might also find this article on how to stop your dog digging helpful. Let us know how you get along
I would not let her have free access to the garden, or you are shortly going to find all your flowerbeds have been rearranged worse than 1000 moles... So instead, put a puppy house line on her (see Clix puppy house line on Amazon, it's a 2.5m lightweight leash) and let her trail that. When you take her outside, grab it and hold the end of it and just prevent her from reaching the digging areas. Dogs are creatures of habit and what they learn is reinforcing when they are puppies, they will really remember and it can grow into a giant habit for a dog. Prevention is way under-utilised...! Prevent the dog from learning the things you don't want them to do, and you will never have a problem. If you do want to give her an outlet for her digging behaviours, then you can make a sandpit or similar in a corner of the garden and encourage her to dig there by hiding food toys etc in it. This is optional though... Make sure you have 'practised' her being alone before this, building up gradually to the 2 hours she will be alone when you return to work. AS for whether to put down puppy pads, I would be reluctant to - she may rip it up and eat it(!) and not really know what to do with it. Whether to provide her with somewhere to toilet depends on how long you think she can hold her pee/poop at that time of day. If, when she is with you, she is able to hold it for 2 hours and not finding that hard, then you can crate her and not leave anywhere for her to toilet. If she is needing to go during those 2 hours, then you could leave the crate door open so she can come out of her bed and toilet outside it if she needs to. (I would still not use the puppy pads if she is not used to them.)
