How can I stop my German Shepherd from digging under my fence?
My 7 month old German Shepherd has recently begun digging out under my fence. I have aproxximately 600 feet of backyard and am afraid she will get hurt or taken. She gets plenty of attention throughout the day with my two sons and also has plenty of toys. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
You might need to put a 3-4" strip of metal edging around the yard. Dig a little trench, then drop the edging in the trench. Even if she digs, she won’t be able to get under the fence and will stop digging when she realizes she isn’t making any progress.
Hi Dawn. Use a spray bottle.
get a shock collar or watch her and everytime she does it… punish her! ( no animal cruelty though!!!)
Try keeping the dog indoors for awhile. If outside, always watch her. If she tries to dig under then, run up to her and say "no" or something to stop her from doing it.
let her roam free. she’ll come back when she’s hungry or tired. you probably think this sounds insane, but I grew up with two dogs and that’s just what my mom did. left the gate open, the dogs had id tags. they ran around who-knows-where all day long and came home at night. just be diligent about going to the vet so they don’t get sick from some kind of funky illness. keep up on their shots. 600 feet is not enough for a dog.
it might be a big job but you could try to make a barrier from the bottom of the fence to the ground. your local hardware store may have the stuff you need, like a heavy duty mesh like chicken wire.
Attach it to the bottom of your fence, and dig the ground up a little around the base, to make sure the barrier is planted deep into the ground.
If your looking for an inexpensive solution, you may be out of luck. You can either try a physical barrier like placing chicken wire just under the surface of the dirt (digging will hurt when he scrapes across it) or even an invisible fence system or a mild electric line ran about 4 inches off of the ground and about 6 inches away from the fence.
1. You can bury some of her poop a few inches deep which will deter her.
2. You can bury chicken wire under the fence, which will not feel good to dig on, and will deter her.
3. You can go to Home Depot (or similar place) and buy wire to put up an electric fence. (We had to do this with very stubborn beagles)
4. Make sure she is spayed so she doesn’t look for a mate, or be as tempted to get out.
5. Set up a "digging area" and bury toys/treats/bones there and encourage her to dig in that area ONLY!!
Good luck!
http://www.libertydogtraining.com
put chicken wire about 3 inches under the dirt all around the fence. that is what i have done with my kennel.
next time bury 6”-9" of fence under the ground. now the only thing you can do is bury rocks, bricks, slabs of cement under the fence. once i used an old bumper off of a car—-it worked.
Mine did the same. Honestly, it’s an age thing for the dog. Once my Shep grew to about a year and a half, she stopped. She’s only had a few relapses.
During the next few months, keep an eye on your dog. When she is outside, try to have someone with her. In case this is imposible try:
You know those sprays peopel use to keep dogs from using the restroom on their yards? Spray a little around the fense area to ward her away. It’s inexpensive. With time she’ll learn her boundries. But like I said once she’s over a year, she should calm down.
Tie her up while she is alone in the yard. Just make sure that she can’t get hurt. If she does it while you’re out there then scold her. By that I mean a loud, harsh voice. Maybe you can fill a soda can with small rocks. Be quiet and throw it close to her. It will certainly startle her. Do it every time she does it and she will stop after a few times. Mine did.
And by the way… I never did hit her with the can.
i had a pit bull that did this also i buried cinder blocks along the fence line inside the fence about 3 inches below the surface planted new grass and when he went to dig down under the fence again he hit block and couldn’t go no further try that once it took him a couple of digs but he finally got a clue and quit or an invisible fence outlining the property so that the collar goes off at 3 ft before the fence
Dogs & Cats sniff before they dig or go to the bathroom. They hate the smell of pepper. If you put ground pepper in the areas where you don’t want your dog to dig every day for a week or two she will quit digging there.
Try sprinkling red Cayenne pepper all around your fence perimeter. This is normally used to keep deer, squirrels, rabbits, dogs, cats, etc… out of gardens. The pepper offends their senses, and they will stay clear of it. You will have to use quite a bit spread out about a foot or so out from the fence, but it’s probably a lot cheaper than purchasing an electric invisible fence to go around the fence you have. I hope this works for you. Good luck.
make sure she gets the excersie she needs. she may just have too much energy.
We used to have a Brittany Spaniel who would dig under the fence also. I started putting pepper and red pepper wherever he dug and he eventually stopped. After that we put barbed wire at the bottom of the chain-link fence and that worked great too, because our neighbor’s dogs would dig into ours and they stopped also.
dogs dig because they are board. Play with him or give him things to play with outside.
There are heaps of options available to you. Some of these are:
1. Chicken mesh underground around the perimeter of the fence which has already been suggested to you.
2. I know it sounds strange, but one way that is recommended by animal behaviour experts is to blow up balloons, bury them around the perimeter of the fence and when the dog digs, they will pop, scare the bejesus out of your puppy and your puppy won’t go near the fences again. I’ve heard this is extremely effective although I’ve never had to try it myself.
3. Grow animal deterring plants around the perimeter. This can range from plants that offend your dog’s sense of smell like citronella plants, to plants that are spikey like cactus plants. Just be careful not to get those really juicy yummy cactus plants – my big dog just eats cactus plants really carefully and avoids the spines so the spines can’t be too sparse.
4. Spraying some of those commercially available dog repellant sprays but they don’t work long term and the rain will wash the scent away. They usually contain citronella or eucalyptus or camphor or all three or two of the three etc.
Electronic punishment collars that shock the dog are not cool. You can get a collar that emits a high pitched sound but shock collars are just cruel.
You can also give her something else to keep her interested like big bones – only problem is that she might decide to save em for later and bury them which will only divert the digging problem to another location! I’m a big advocate of kong toys which are practically indestructible. A little smear of peanut butter way inside the kong will keep em occupied for a while. Also stuffing them with large liver treats or similar that takes them a while to get them out (not stuffing them full, just putting in a big piece). There are also treat balls – you put treats inside them and the dog will need to roll the balls around in order to get the food out. You can just use kibble for this, no need for actual treats.
There are another jillion ways to keep your doggy occupied but I’m sure you get the gist. Good luck with digger!!
Do not leave the dog outside unattended and keep your dog inside when you are not home. How can you prevent unwanted behaviors if you are not there to correct or stop them. Dogs need to be taught what is acceptable and what is not if you just leave her out how can you teach. You have children do you just expect them to know right from wrong.