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Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
Ev lives the Lower Mainland of Beautiful British Columbia, Canada where she has been training dogs since 1969. She is experienced in many methods including clicker and motivational training. Ev is an original Superdog Performance Team member and her own dogs have travelled and performed with the Canadian SuperDogs since 1984. She has also served as an A.A.C. judge ans is an original Member/Trainer with the Dogwood Pacesetters Agility Club.
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[Edit]
2/12/2007
We have a 6 year old German Shepherd male and a 3 year old German Shepherd spayed female. The male is constantly digging in the backyard. He digs around propane tanks, under the house. They have a large fenced in backyard to run and play all day in. I feel they get plenty of exercise. When my husband and I get home, they get to chase toys and frisbees. The female is much more active than the male. He digs when we are gone during the day. How can we stop him from digging? He likes to hunt. If he sees a lizard or a frog, he tries to catch it. Some of the holes are huge. We have tried everything we know. Thanks. (Kgrice, North Carolina)
Most dogs are destructive because they are bored. Daily walks to the park and a game of fetch is not enough for your average canine, especially not these days when we have learned so much about how dogs 'think'.
I believe that if you were to set-up some type of program where you join/attend an event twice a week, then
you would find the dogs more settled to be fenced up while you are away all day and wait for those 2 days to 'burn' their energy.
Try events such as Obedience classes, Agility Classes, Flyball Classes and maybe even a Tracking Class for the boy that likes to hunt.
If time is limited to 'attend' such classes/training then there are plenty of places on the internet that will show you how to teach Dog Sports and Tricks at home - something different that the dogs can look forward to and will stimulate their brains and tire them out.
In the meantime, I wouldn't get too upset about the 'digging' per say but rather 'give' them an area where it is permissible to dig. This way any reprimands to how they spent their daily energy can at least be controlled to a certain area and not all over the yard.
Please remember that this is a 'General' suggestion to your concerns as I have not seen the dogs in question nor have any idea of what types of training/up-bringing they have had.
Canine Caretaker Training/Consulting
http://www.k9care.ca
"United We Stand."
http://www.standunited.ca
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