# Destructive behavior in the Yard



## Marcus_Dad (Nov 27, 2006)

Good Morning,

We moved in to our new house with Marcus two weeks ago. Marcus loves the space of the fenced back yard. But, he has been pulling up plants and tearing limbs from bushes and trees.

-Has anyone experienced this yard behavior en mass before?
-Any ideas for correcting these acts?
-Are there plants besides chili peppers that you can plant to drive animals from flower beds?

Thanks for any help in advance.

:wavey: 
Philip


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## Maggies mom (Jan 6, 2006)

Mine also do it and they only way I found to stop them was to stay out in the yard with them....


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## Lucky's mom (Nov 4, 2005)

I'm sorry about the destruction. Lucky has lots of things to chew out back (we had a huge tree fall and didn't get rid of all the logs. He's chewed some of our logs to half their size.)

When we are not out there he will dig. Its really hard to control them when they are looking for stuff to do. Quite honestly, we just gave up and I fill in the holes each day...usually about two but sometimes he'll have five or six for me to fill. We lost interest in a beautiful lawn.

Lucky is less destructive then he was for the first couple of months that we enclosed the backyard. 

Lucky does not like to dig around his poo, and if I had a flowerbed I'd be arranging his exceta within it to try to get his mind off it. The only problem with that is that he'd probably starting using it for a toilet.


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## Katiesmommy (Sep 10, 2006)

to the forum  
Theres not much to tear up in our fenced in backyard.
We installed 45 - 20 X 20 patio stones this past summer lol. 
We dont have too much grass in our yard now.​


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## Gldiebr (Oct 10, 2006)

Welcome to the forum! I have the same problem w/Bailey, who's 8 months old. How old is Marcus? My other goldens outgrew the behavior, I'm hoping Bailey will as well. Delusional, perhaps, but it works for me.


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## Booker (Nov 14, 2006)

Welcome to the forum...my backyard is starting to look like a putting green with the amount of digging Booker does! :doh: He's 3 months. I'll be almost glad when the snow comes...:crossfing


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## ty823 (Feb 7, 2006)

I stopped our little digger by using an e-collar. I would watch her out the window or hide behind a tree, and when she started digging, I'd give her a 'nip'. It only took a few times for her to realize that digging is no fun anymore. The key is to make them think that the nip is coming from the hole they're digging, not from you.


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## kjp502 (Oct 27, 2006)

Jorji has gone so far as to pull up small bushes by the roots! She is 11 months and has just started digging in small spots in the yard. Not sure what prompted that. Lucky's Mom - was the digging following the fence an attempt to get out, or just random? I'm looking to fence in the yard and was wondering what to expect.


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## Lucky's mom (Nov 4, 2005)

kjp502 said:


> Lucky's Mom - was the digging following the fence an attempt to get out, or just random? I'm looking to fence in the yard and was wondering what to expect.


Oh no...Lucky has no wish to "escape". He digs for the joy of digging. sometimes in the middle of the yard...sometimes by the fence but for no purpose other then to dig by our neighbor's dog whos digging on the other side....


Once I did catch the neigbor's pitt pulling the fence back while Lucky dug under it....don't know what that was all about, but it wasn't typical. They make quite a pair


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## Princess Bella (Oct 17, 2006)

I have to say excercise work for us, on the days I don't exercise our dog I see a change, she uses that energy to dig in the backyard, chew on trees, bark at the dog next door...

On the days I spend at least 2 hours with her at the park, the only thing she likes to do in the yard is use the bathroom...


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## Lucky's mom (Nov 4, 2005)

I agree with the exercise. I don't walk Lucky anymore as the neighborhood just runs with too many debatable and unattended dogs....but when I do a lot of running out back with him...where he really exerts energy....he is not destructive at all. Too tired. And that can last all day.


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## Marcus_Dad (Nov 27, 2006)

Thanks for the info...

At least I dont feel alone. From all of that I think I will look at the following...
-supervision
-more toys in the yard
-possible e collar if I cant develope a change

BTW he graduate school today. We have a good trainer a few block from home that specializes in rescue, search and police dogs, but trains others on the side to fill out his schedule. 
Big change... 

Thanks again for the posts.

:curtain:


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## Maggies mom (Jan 6, 2006)

Marcus_Dad said:


> Thanks for the info...
> 
> At least I dont feel alone. From all of that I think I will look at the following...
> -supervision
> ...


 I have one who , when wearing the e-collar wouldnt dig , but the minute she didnt have it on , boy was she digging away...... They can out smart us......


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## mainegirl (May 2, 2005)

I don't know if anyone mentioned the show... but sat. on animal planet they had this brit. show about dogs and problems they had a dog that dug in the grden. they burried things like foil or rocks in places so the soil would not be that soft. but the greatest thing i saw was that they filled up water balloons and when the dog would dig in the yard and they would catch him they would throw a water balloon at the ground near where he was digging. it scared him and after a week of this conditioning he stopped digging.

sounds kind of like fun???????????? 

beth, moose, angel
and sandy at the bridge


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## Gldiebr (Oct 10, 2006)

mainegirl said:


> . they burried things like foil or rocks in places so the soil would not be that soft. but the greatest thing i saw was that they filled up water balloons and when the dog would dig in the yard and they would catch him they would throw a water balloon at the ground near where he was digging. it scared him and after a week of this conditioning he stopped digging.
> 
> sounds kind of like fun????????????


Bailey would LOVE all of those ideas. This morning, she brought me a rock, a broken car antenna (who knows where that came from) and something I couldn't identify. She just adores finding treasures that previous owners buried years ago. And water balloons? As most goldens adore water, I'm sure she'd dig more, to get muddier. 

Now the neighbors have a new puppy, so Bailey's trying to dig under the fence. Sigh. I guess I'll just have to place flagstones under that part of the fence, so she can't get through. They'll have to be HUGE, or she'll trot in the doggie door with them. :doh:


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## pdbrady (Oct 18, 2006)

Sasha is also quite a digger and we have just learned to put up with it. She has gotten better about it, but now she is pulling up the wooden posts to one of the fences around our yard. She loves sticks and wood so anything she can find is fair game. When we first got her I was starting to plant all of my gardens and found that since they are raised beds she does not bother them. She was also watched very closely those first few months and was corrected each time that she wandered up to the gardens. She does not bother them at all now. Another thing that helped us was to get a few "outdoor only" toys that she could play with outside. A giant ball, a couple of frisbees and so on. They keep her busy outside and she loves to go out so she can play with them.


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## njb (Oct 5, 2006)

Julie digs her own mud holes--and tries hard to dig out of the yard to chase the escaping cats. Sigh. I don't care so much about the digging of the own mud rolling--but the last thing I want is for her to get out and get hurt or lost.


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## Maggies mom (Jan 6, 2006)

You should see my yard now that the ice and snow have melted...... it is destroyed, and a mud pit......


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## goldencrazy (Dec 15, 2005)

Tabitha picks on a (once) beautiful clump of sweet flag. She'll yank an entire tuber out of the ground. She will yank out clods of sod. *sigh* We used to be so proud of our yard - now it's a muddy mess in places and the once cool perennial garden - well, that's a history we can only enjoy in photographs.


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## njb (Oct 5, 2006)

Digging is just a natural thing for dogs---you better watch where you step in my yard or you might break an ankle. 

Julie has brought in so much stuff that you would need a FBI forensic lab to identify I just don't even know where to start. My personal favorite was the oil funnel-had been looking for it for so many years I forgot I owned one. I thought I had bought one...but...where she found it beats me (or how it got to where she found it).

I did have some escape artist dogs once that came running home with skeletal remains in their mouth--oh joy. The sheriff said they were dog legs---am sure the dogs loved the attention of the entire block in my back yard at the site of 12 police cars in front of my house....I, however; did not.


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## MILLIESMOM (Aug 13, 2006)

My sister has a ten month old lab and a five month old lab britt mix. They are pulling up everything, trimming her bushes digging up all her bulbs. I keep telling her they are board and they will grow out of it mine did. It seemed like everytime I planted anything they dug it up...my poor minature roses suffered the most.
Here is a picture of Pearl my lab hiding in her favorite spot for digging, when she could fit lol. I would catch her in the middle of the yard and yell at her so she would go hide under her coolaroo and dig. Thankfully like Millie and Brandy before her she grew out of the digging.


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## Ozzie's Mama (Jul 16, 2006)

A bit of advice...cover any sprinkler wires and valves!!! Ozzie could have had quite a few new bones for what it cost us to fix our sprinkler system! ;-)


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## Buffy & Abby's Mom (Nov 27, 2005)

Both of mine are diggers - but diggers with a purpose anyway. When we moved this past summer to the country, we now have moles. This is their main pasttime now - searching for moles. If they'd catch them, it would be great but we never see any signs of that. Our yard looks like it's been hit by land mines. I've spent many, many hours filling in the holes only to have several more the next day. And we have 1 1/2 acres so it's quite extensive. But I like to leave them out when the weather is nice so they're not so bored in the house. (There Abby still likes to chew on occasion. Can't win for losing.)


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