Digging

[Noreen]

My 13 month old Weimeramer puppy digs holes (randomly) throughout my back yard. The only thing some of them have in common is that he finds baseball size rocks in them...which he then plays with! I just keep filling up the holes, and picking up rocks, but may try some techniques I've read about here.

[McMegan]

Hi Noreen,
I just posted a pretty long response to a digging problem (I think it's on the Introduce Yourself page - should still be pretty close to the top). For your pup, since rocks can do a lot of damage to teeth and stomachs, you might also want to teach him the "leave it" command. Paul Owens' "The Dog Whisperer" book and DVD have great descriptions. The DVD is a little hokey but has a really clear demonstration of the "leave it" if you're a visual learner like I am. Dogs tend to pick this one up really quickly and seem to think it is an amazingly fun game once they get the hang of it. Meanwhile, I'm assuming that your puppy is getting plenty of exercise and has lots of appropriate balls, bones and chew toys to play with Best of luck!