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Have you ever wondered how really good dog trainers come up with the techniques they use to solve behaviour problems in dogs such as excessive barking, destructive chewing, toileting in the house and jumping up on visitors? Or how top dog trainers come up with ways to train dogs in top obedience and working competitions? Apart from a few “naturals”, most really good dog trainers have a very good understanding of how dogs learn. They have adapted theory from the world of behavioural science and turned that knowledge into real-life practical skills for training dogs. This article explains in plain English some of the science and theory behind dog training, these really are secrets of the dog training professionals!

One of the most common dog behavior problems people have, especially with puppies, is digging in the garden.

Let me say right from the start that most dog owners will never have a particularly “neat” garden or yard. Things will get chewed up, urine will kill patches of lawn, dogs will dig, and they will lay down in your flower patch. There are things you can do to minimise all these, but the topic of this article is digging in the garden.

Dogs dig for a variety of reasons. They hide food. They “nest”. They want somewhere cool to sleep in summer and somewhere warm to sleep in winter. They need exercise, most dogs need much more exercise than they get. They get bored and need things to do.

It is our responsibility to meet our dog’s needs. We don’t want to give them so much food they can’t eat it all. We want to give them shade and shelter, preferably close to the house (not in the back corner of the yard). We need to give them plenty of exercise and training (5 minutes training is worth 15 minutes exercise), and we need to give them things to chew and things to do.

Probably the most effective approach to ending digging in the garden is to give our pets somewhere “legal” to dig. This could be an out of the way section of our yard, or even better, a sand-pit.

A sand-pit is an invaluable asset. You can hide food and toys in a sand-pit to encourage digging in that area. By contrast, the rest of your garden won’t have such pleasant surprises! Dogs also enjoy digging in sand more than they do digging in dirt.

A word of caution, if you have children you may want to take care that bones and food are not hidden in the sand. We wouldn’t want a dog to feel it has to defend it’s resources from your children, which could lead to a bite or a scare.

A neat approach to providing a sand-pit for your dog is to buy one of those cheap plastic swimming pools designed for children to play in. They are big enough for most dogs, and deep enough to have a good dig in when filled with sand. Sometimes they come in two halves, our dogs very much enjoy paddling in the other half filled with water in the summer.

If you have a vegetable garden it is worth investing in some fencing. That soft, rich, moist soil is just too tempting for most dogs. Even if you have a sand-pit, they still might enjoy digging in the freshly turned soil of your vegetable garden. I keep my vegetable garden in a corner of the yard so I only had to fence two sides.

Although my dogs won’t dig in the vegetable garden these days, it is only because they didn’t ever develop the habit - thanks to the fence I installed right at the beginning. They had a sand-pit and a compost heap to dig in, and the vegetable garden was fenced off. Their choice was clear!

What to do if you catch your dog digging in the garden?

The plan is to interrupt and redirect. I would clap my hands loudly a couple of times, then ask my dogs to do something else I have trained them to do. In this case, I would show them the sand-pit and have them dig something up for me. With consistency they get the idea, digging is something they can only do in the designated digging area.

Mind you, consistency is very difficult if your dog is home alone all day and free to dig wherever he likes! It might be best to house-train your dog and leave him inside, or set up a dog-run if you have the room.

If you have small areas which your dog has got used to digging in and have taken advantage of all the other ideas in this article, you can discourage digging in a particular area by burying chicken wire under the soil or mulch.

One other thing, sometimes dogs like to dig up manures used to fertilise the soil. Always compost your manures before using them around the garden. There’s nothing wrong with fresh manure on the garden, but many dogs find it a tasty treat. Once it has decomposed, it is not so appealing to dogs.

Aidan Bindoff is editor of Positive Petzine, http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/positivepetzine/ , an ezine packed with helpful dog training hints. Join now!