Digging

[MyBlackHen]

My dog, 6 and half year old Yorkie, has just started digging at the fence line.
She does it relentlessly, and exhausts herself.
I have laid bricks across where she started digging, she she has started another area.
She has NEVER dug anything before.
Any ideas would be welcomed.

[MyBlackHen]

^^ and now she has ....

[mikey4444]

Try a smacked bottom. I have had two Yorkies and they can be little tinkers if they are allowed to get away with it. They have strong wills but you have to be stronger. I know its hard, as they are mega cute but spare the rod and spoil the child....for child see dog !

[FredPuli43]

Terrier means 'digger' ! It's what terriers were bred for. I'm surprised that she hasn't shown this tendency before, but, having said that, I have a Dandie Dinmont terrier, age 2, who hasn't got round to digging much yet. Perhaps some wait until they're older. I wouldn't worry about it.My, older, poodle/spaniel crosses dig and so does the wolfhound pup; in his case only 'helping' me when I dig in fresh earth.

It remains a mystery what they are digging for, sometimes. Digging at molehills makes a certain sense; at least there is or has been an animal there; but the way some of mine dig so enthusiastically elsewhere,pausing to have a good sniff in the hole, before furiously resuming, suggests they sense something is there. Digging for earthworms seems as unlikely as it would be unrewarding.

[MyBlackHen]

Thanks for the info so far.
I do have 2 of the little beggars too, the other one has shown no tendencies to dig at all. The earth where she is digging is like flipping concrete at the moment.
Not sure I could bring myself to administer a smacked bottom, the girl is such a drama queen, if I look at her wrong she squeals, the boy is dead macho though. ROFL

[rsvp]

With a name like My Black Hen, the phrase conjures up all sorts of images :))

[gingejbee]

....perhaps something REALLY interesting on the other side....?

[rsvp]

something got lost in my post!!! - what I meant to say was With a name like Myblackhen, the phrase 'I have laid bricks where she started digging' conjures up all sorts of images.

[MyBlackHen]

Hahaha, too funny, love it. :)

[marje]

My little terrier cross used to dig like mad and sometimes all you could see was her bottom sticking up in the air! We consequently had no plants in the garden, apart from an iris in the corner which she made into a bed. She's no longer with us, but I'd rather have her back and a million holes in the garden.

[mikey4444]

Myblackhen...can I gently suggest to you that it sounds as if a smacked bottom is well overdue. I know they are cute but you are the Boss, not her.

Now are you a mouse or a woman ?

[MyBlackHen]

Holes per se are not a problem, escapology is. If she did it closer to the lawn I would not mind.
The first spot she digs (bottom of the garden) is adjacent to the garden of a rather crabby springer.

The 2nd spot is on my side fence, if she dug through there, it's next door's drive she would get into, and they are bot gated off on the drive as we are.

I may just try a tap on the bottom, I have 'watered' her with the hose.

[mikey4444]

Tap on MyBlackHem..you have nothing to lose but your chains !

[boxtops]

sorry, I couldn't resist this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Digging-Dog-Jack-Russell-Terrier-Garden-Ornament-/330913834068#ht_237wt_961

[craft1948]

My little westie is a bugger for digging, which is why he's only allowed in the back garden if I stay with him. The hosepipe works a treat, in fact if he sees me going towards it he runs into the house...............

[MyBlackHen]

I'll keep watering her then. No idea where this has come from after all these years. Odd.

[dancecaller]

The method advised for hen keepers (to stop predators digging in) is either a wire mesh skirt laid on the grass next to the run, or burying wire mesh (in a trench beneath the run sides. Or an eletric wire at nose level. http://www.downthelane.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=46900 like this.