The solution for a yard digger
TL;DR: Give your dog legal ways to engage in digging!
It’s not what you think
Most dogs enjoy digging — they may be hunting small critters, looking for a cool spot to rest, or following a scent. Studies show that dogs have 300 million olfactory receptors in their brains, compared to humans' six million, so sniffing is a big part of digging. Sniffing gives dogs information about their world — it's an amazing brain workout as they process all that scent.
Even so, clients often ask me how to stop a dog from digging in the yard. Like upending and scavenging through the trash, yard digging is likely something your dog does when you're not around, so the solution here is to manage your dog's environment.
(In the case of a trash-digger, the most effective course is to secure cans with safety locks and/or put them in an inaccessible place to nip the garbage parties in the bud.)
A dog who loves to dig should be allowed to dig. Let them dig during leashed walks and/or create a digging area or pit in your yard. A digging pit is a safe digging area that you teach your dog to use, and means that they're less likely to upend the veggie garden.
Create an area for legal digging
You can create a digging pit in an area of the yard or in a constructed box. Section off an area of the yard and allow your dog to dig there and only there, or in her special digging box. Bury a few treats and/or stuffed toys, and encourage her to find them. Be prepared to help your dog find them, if necessary.
You can even fill a small kiddie pool with dirt or sand, bury some treats and stuffed toys, and watch her go.
Most children love to bury treats for their dogs to find. Children should never help the dog find their treats — it's the dog's game! Always actively supervise all child-dog interactions. What’s active supervision? Being engaged right where your child and dog are, not watching from a distance or distracted by doing something else outside.
There are also indoor heavy fabric digging pits that clients have found work well. Be aware that depending on the size and persistence of your dog, they may eventually shred the fabric.
The Whole Dog Journal has more information on building digging pits.
Petey loves to dig, and here on a leashed walk we’re allowing him to dig and tear through a rotten log where once lurked critters.
“Treasure Boxes” for indoor digging
If you live somewhere it’s not convenient to let your dog dig, you can create a facsimile with what I call a Treasure Box:
Take a cardboard box big enough for your dog to nose/paw through
Put in a handful of kibble or something more aromatic to entice your dog
Fill with loosely crumpled brown paper, cardboard toilet and paper towel tubes, and so on
Let your dog nose/paw/dig through the box to find the treats
Always monitor your dog … if they tend to shred/eat cardboard, this may not be right for them
Let them dig during a walk
During a leashed walk, let your dog dig if he wants to — of course, not in the neighbor’s flowerbed! Below, my own dog Petey goes to town digging for small underground critters during a leashed walk. If you listen carefully, you can hear his deep sniffing. The dog in the first photo is really enjoying digging at the beach.
Let them dig for their kibble
We often throw handfuls of our dogs’ kibble in the yard and let them paw and sniff around for it. This is especially effective in the winter, when they have to dig under the snow to find it. Your mileage may vary with this … our dog Petey is a very persistent digger and Daisy isn’t so much, unless we throw something really tempting out there, like cheese cubes.
Daisy and Petey dig through the snow to find kibble in the yard.
Teach a strong “Leave It!”
If you do need to get your dog away from your own or a neighbor's garden, teaching them a strong Leave It should get them back to you in a hurry. “Leave It” is shorthand for “stop what you’re doing and come back to me for more information.” It takes practice and like all manners training, is best practiced well before you need it in action!