Stop the Digging

Update from last post: Rosie is having less and less accidents in the house because she now understands that the only area designated for her is outside. Each time she does go outside we praise her and give her a treat. Although she is getting pretty good at this, she does have the occasional mishap and when she does we don’t necessarily yell at her, but we tell her “bad” and instantly take her outside.

One thing that I forgot to mention is that Rosie is a Havashire, meaning that she is a Havanese Yorkshire Terrier mix. This is very crucial to today’s post because terriers love to dig, which is one of Rosie’s biggest problems. “Digging is natural, especially for terrier breeds and some hounds” (Swaim 240). When people think of dogs digging, they instantly imagine a dog digging up plants in a garden and ruining the yard by leaving little holes everywhere. I can agree with this because I also thought the same thing. But no, Rosie does the complete opposite of this and although she has yet to dig outside, she does attempts to frequently throughout my house.

Rosie digs everywhere and on almost everything. She digs on people, on the floors of my house and especially on the cracks of our furniture. My dad thinks this is based on the instinct she automatically receives due to her being a terrier and I also concur, but I wonder why she only chooses to do so in the house.

According to Swaim, “Some dogs might dig because they smell something like mole or mouse and it’s exciting to try to dig up. Other dogs dig because they’re bored” (Swaim 240). This information seems to come in to play with Rosie’s behavior because she usually tends to either be laying or sitting somewhere before she actually starts to dig.





Distracting Rosie by giving her a toy

If your dog is bored, you have to grab their attention and give them something to do (Swaim 405). An example of this is to give them a toy to play with or a bone to eat. Another example of this is to “make your puppy [their] own digging pit. Get play yard sand and dig a hole 8 to 12 inches deep and several feet wide. At first put treats on the top of the sand, then begin burying the treats just under the sand. Work up to burying the treats and toys farther down” (Swaim 240). In my opinion, this would be a great method used to help stop Rosie from digging inside because not only does she love treats, but she also loves being outdoors.



My question to you: Do your pets ever do anything like this? If so,                                                          how do you try to stop it from happening?