Anyone else have a digger or dirt eater?

[Linda1270]

My 7 month old is literally digging up the backyard, I'm talking about some serious holes out there. She actually enjoys eating something underneath the top of the soil, I'm thinking it's the roots of the grass. Anyway, I'd like to know if there is anything I can do to discourage this behavior. I'm out there with her as much as possible and she's not out there by herself much at all. When summer gets here or late spring, we're thinking about having our yard regraded with new grass laid down but if she's going to continue to do this, I don't want to waste the money.

My husband and I caught her doing it the other day, she was actually digging in the mud, and when we tried to get her to stop, walking towards her, she'd eat and dig faster, as if it was the best food in the world and we were going to take it away from her.

Anyway, she is not allowed out in the yard without supervision anymore, and that's a shame, having a nice fenced in yard for her to enjoy and not being able to leave her alone for 5 minutes to run in the house or answer the phone.

I'd say it was boredom but she gets a good amount of exercise every day. I take her on two long walks every day, work with her on behavioral training, she goes out on adventures twice a week for 5 hours, I play tug and ball with her, etc, etc.. Why is she doing this? Do all GSD's do this?

[MichaelE]

Lisl would eat dirt until she was around 12 weeks. I think she was looking for cat crunchies because she would eat those too.

She's outgrown eating dirt, but if she turned up a cat crunchie I think she'd still eat that.

Now that the neighborhood cats know there is a dog here, I don't see them in the yard anymore. Especially since I let Lisl chase them to the property line.

[Linda1270]

Your lucky, Tess is 7 months now and she's been doing it since she was a puppy, not eating cat crunchies but eating dirt and grass. She gets plenty to eat and treats, not sure what the attraction is here but I sure hope she stops before the weather gets really nice and my gardens start to bloom!

[Sarah~]

Eko is a big digger, he has a few holes in our yard. He doesn't eat dirt, though. He prefers trash. :/ My yard is all dirt anyway, we just fill them in when they get too deep.

[Pooky44]

If you want a yard AND a dog you will have to keep him out of the yard. That's life.
For my last dog I gave her the yard and it looked like a war zone. When she died we
reseeded, fertilized, etc. For the current dog we just let her out to pee or run around under supervision. The second she starts to dig she is brought in.
At 7 months, digging and eating dirt is pretty normal. Maybe if you scold him and bring him in every time he starts he will learn not to. At that age my dog thought it was a game and she played hard to get, she would run and start another hole .... what fun that was. (NOT) Glad she quickly grew out of it.
Good luck

[TommyB681]

Penny just turned 6mo and when she was at my parents house a few days ago she discovered her love for digging... When I noticed you could barely see her because she had about a 3 foot hole dug and was nearly submerged the whole way in.

[Linda1270]

Originally Posted by Pooky44

If you want a yard AND a dog you will have to keep him out of the yard. That's life.
For my last dog I gave her the yard and it looked like a war zone. When she died we
reseeded, fertilized, etc. For the current dog we just let her out to pee or run around under supervision. The second she starts to dig she is brought in.
At 7 months, digging and eating dirt is pretty normal. Maybe if you scold him and bring him in every time he starts he will learn not to. At that age my dog thought it was a game and she played hard to get, she would run and start another hole .... what fun that was. (NOT) Glad she quickly grew out of it.
Good luck

Tess thinks it's a game too, when we tell her no and approach her to bring her in the house, starts digging and eating faster and all the time she's looking at us while she's doing it. Lately, I do not let her out by herself, I go out with her and monitor her and even then she tries to sneak in a quick piece of dirt or some roots. I have trained her to sit when we are at the door to go outside and inside, so I'm usually able to get her to drop it at the door, that's if she hasn't already swallowed it by then!

Yeah, I'm beginning to think that we'll never have a nice grassed in back yard again. The reason I'm not use to this is because the last two dogs I had didn't dig or eat dirt. The only time my last dog (Lab) ever dug was if there was a ball on the other side of the fence. Tess sure has some quirky habits.....but I absolutely adore her.

[Longfisher]

...you should try a labrador.

My black lab absolutely excavated my two car garage to the point the foundation had to be repaired. We hadn't notice the hole but did notice a lot of dirt near the back of the garage.

Dopes, huh?

BTW, pens work.

LF

[Muneraven]

I have to agree that, with some dogs, you either never leave them out in the yard or you have no yard, lol. My two girls never dig. My two boys are going to dig unless I am providing them with entertainment.

I got a hammock for my birthday. Gonna string it up out there, slather myself with bug spray, and read between yelling at them to STOP DIGGING!