Digging

[Claire Joy]

Does anyone have a setter who digs?  Everytime I throw the ball Lily will dig where the ball has landed.  Not just little holes but huge ones.  She rips up tufts of grass and throws them about.  Any ideas how to stop it? 

[Sue and Cash]

The question should be "Does anyone have a young setter that doesn't dig". All of mine went through the digging stage when young. They all outgrew it eventually but at our park the other dogs all work together on certain holes (ankle breakers) and then no matter what age they all join in.
And they all eat the dirt from inside the hole too! I wish I knew how to stop it. Putting their poop in the hole was suggested to me, but mine just moved on to a new hole!

[Jo Ottinger]

Same here Susan mine just make a new hole, somewhere else if you put poop in the hole. Neighbor put chicken wire down and then planted his grass so that his dog can only dig so far.

[Angela Roberts]

'Journey to the centre of the earth' that's what mine are aiming for. They all do it, young and old. The field beside the house looks like the surface of the moon. I've never tried putting their poo in a hole but they are all quite prone to eating that too so I don't think that would put them off. They also dig big holes under the shrubs and it's not just when they have false pregnancies but they are worse around that time.

[Jo Ottinger]

Mine like poo also but will not eat it if I put it in holes and cover it up. I quess it has to be more fresh. I have not had them go back and dig up the hole after I put poo in it. I do have wire under my bushes so they do not dig under them.

[Sue and Cash]

Oh wow poop eaters? I just had Cash eat some old poop he found of someone else's at the park yesterday. I was so annoyed! He doesn't eat his but sure likes the older stuff left around there. I notice he does it when he is hungry after he has been out playing for an hour. I took him to the car and gave him some treats and then he stopped snacking on the nasty stuff.

[Kerstin Thaens]

Makes me really smile how you try to stop your setters' digging passion. I think there is a more effective way but you have to be patient. Watch your setter unseen and wait till he/she begins the 'Journey to the centre of the earth'. In this very moment catch him/her red-handed (by throwing e.g. a shoe or sth. that does not hurt) and shout "No". Mostly our setters stop short with an expression like "Did we do anything wrong???". Meanwhile they have accepted the "No digging area" in our garden. Instead of digging they have developed another hobby: racing (catch me if you can :-)) around a small garden house. You can certainly imagine what the racetrack looks like (by now 30 cm below the ground). That is ok, we will not forbid it.

[Jennifer Martin]

Rio does the mammal stomp first like a demonic pianist and then dig's furiously, I just put it down to thing's we cant see, hear or smell, at times he has followed my footsteps watching grass 'spring back up' with great interest, my garden too look's like a lunar landscape! - last night he dug up the gravel paths ripping up the weed membrane underneath, - it's best to say that the devastation he wreaked had to be seen to be believed!. LOL!!

[Ilona & Gina]

Funny, that digging thing. Our garden looks like a moon landscape. They are getting better though.
I know another Irish setter here in our neighbourhood, who digs huge holes in the grass and on the beach. Every time you see one of these huge holes it makes you laugh, "look, Chester was here".

Anton and Gina have one corner where they are allowed to dig, and they are getting better (they are 20 months now). But we still cover up our water system, and we have huge concret slabs across our electric system. Once they dug up the reticulation pipes and once, they almost got to the electric conduits! Putting their own poop into the holes helps, but then they find other places. But most important, they don't dig up the electric conduits...the look of our garden doesn;t matter, but their life does.

[Jennifer Martin]

Rio must have been reading this discussion over my shoulder!...........He has gone in for a total makeover of the garden digging two huge holes that filled with rain water the deeper he got, and the deeper they got, the more he dug! -- he is one very, very, wet, muddy and happy dog. Ho Hum!!.