Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Lab digging holes in the yard, what's the cure?

I have a lab who keeps digging holes in the yard, always when I'm not looking. This happens every summer when its hot, as I think he's trying to find cooler ground. He digs and I fill it back in....rinse and repeat seemingly 100 times over the years. This morning I found a fresh redig in his favorite spot, so instead of filling his bowl with dogfood and bonz, I filled his bowl with fresh dirt that he just dug.

Other than the digging he's a great lab and I love him but short of me burying razor blades what is the cure, if there is one?

Swimming Pool...change water regularly.

Let's see... if I had a fur suit and couldn't sweat.
What would I do?

Swimmin with nekid wimens sounds about right.

He has unrestricted doggy door access to the air conditioned basement, via the garage. I do like the kiddy pool idea though!

Maybe catch him in the act and bust a wooden canoe paddle across his ass?

I'm not really sure, but if you get it figured out come on over and school our digger dog up.

He's probably digging in shady cool spots to keep cool. Get some pieces of of fencing and lay down or these areas.

It can be a pain to pick up and place back each time you mow but at least you don't have holes in the yard.

It ain't just labs. My front yard looks like a mine field and my back yard is worse. Dogs are going to act like dogs and there's no changing it. To think otherwise is just setting yourself up for frustration and anger. I will admit that living in the country and not having neighbors (or a live in wife) to complain about it makes it a lot easier.

Grin!!!

The cure for a lab digging? Get used to it or pave your yard. All labs dig. They're born to it. If they can't dig up mice or gophers, they'll dig up something else. It's just the breed.

I like the kiddie pool idea too.

That way the dog can get all nice and wet, then dig a hole and get nice and muddy.

If you could provide a rotting dead animal for the lab to roll in, it would be Labrador heaven.

John

I've raised five of my own dogs in my life (and I'm not counting the ones we had when I was a kid), and each and every one of them wanted to be hole diggers. It's natural. In each and every case, the first time I saw it happen I corrected it sternly. Some of them required two or three repeats, but so far simple correction has been all that was necessary. Should work for you too, assuming your dog recognizes you as the boss. If he doesn't recognize you as the boss, all bets are off, and you have to first fix that problem before you can start effectively working on any others. It requires a whole new attitude and way of interacting with your dog (I could recommend specifics, if you like). But assuming that you are your dog's recognized boss, you just have to be Johnny on the spot and poke him in the ribs the moment he starts digging (Think of your hand like the head of a rattle snake to get the idea of the motion involved. Not necessary to cause pain. Just get his attention, then exclusively take over the spot by stepping onto it). He starts again, and you give him another poke in the ribs and step into the spot he's currently standing, pressuring him (no contact needed) back. No voice is needed, and it's better if you're quiet anyway, and don't make a big deal of what's happening, and keep emotion to a minimum (You're not getting angry. You're only asserting dominance, and that's language a dog instinctively understands. You want your dog to understand that all the ground in the world belongs to you, and you don't allow digging into your ground.). Naturally, that means he can't be allowed where digging is possible unless you're with him for as long as it takes him to get the message.

Lol!! The only critter I know that loves stink more than a lab would ba a basset hound.

I was once working on the roof of a farm worker's house. There was a Rot in the yard chewing on a dead skunk. Between the skunk smell and the carrion smell, the paint was peeling off the house. Then the Mexican farm worker came home for lunch and took the dog inside. HE LET THE DOG TAKE THE SKUNK INSIDE!!

When my Lab did that, he chose a spot that was particularly inconvenient for me - right in front of the only gate to my back yard. Can't blame him; it was the shadiest spot.

But I found a way to have him avoid that spot and pick another. I poured a pint of household ammonia in the hole and then filled it in. It didn't take him long to learn that pawing dirt there resulted in an unpleasant nasal experience. Even better, ammonia is a fertilizer so the re-planted grass seed took right off.

He did continue to find cooler places to dig, which I could not object to. But he stayed away from that gate spot for a whole year.

A can of cayenne pepper sprinkled liberally across the surface of a flower bed along the north side of our house slowed one white lab/retriever down for close to a week.

Now I think he's addicted to cayenne pepper and digging...

pretty much the MO for our cur mix rescue pup.

I caught my heeler in the act a couple times when she was a pup, loved digging up this Japanese Maple I planted in the yard. Beat the chit out of her each time but she's pretty head-strong, so I dumped cayenne pepper around it. Next morning there was some dig marks around the tree, she hasn't dug anything up since.

Next time he digs pop a cap on a 44 special and dump his azz in the hole and cover him up.. problem solved.

My niece used to have a GSP that was notorious for that, but mainly because there were little ground squirrel/gopher/mole varmints tunneling around and then poppong up all over the place. Every so often he'd get one, too.

I know this works as it was told to me by a professional dog trainer, I tried it on a lab that was digging and it worked the very first time.

Get a stake that can be pounded into the hole and can�t be pulled out, a good tent peg will do. Tie a very short length of rope to it � 3" or 4� at most and put a leash snap at the other end. You want the rope short enough so the dog�s snout is down deep in the hole when his collar is attached to the snap.

Pound the stake into the bottom of hole and attach the dog�s collar and leave him there for about 30 to 45 minutes with his head down in the hole. The dog will pull and struggle, whine, bark, whimper, cry and make the most pitiful noises you ever heard, but be strong and leave him there.

After about 45 minutes release it. The dog will never, ever want to stick its snout into another hole in the ground again.

Do not do this when it�s really hot or if the dog will be in direct sunlight, you might have to wait until the evening. The dog will be really stressed and won�t be able to get water. You want to make it averse to holes, not kill it.

The dog won�t associate you with the misery, it will associate the hole as the cause of distress. You are the benefactor when you release it and shower him with love and attention.

A dog should never, ever associate a human hand with anything but kindness.