I am going to share a tip I learned about how to prevent your dog's digging up the yard. I went with my neighbor to run some errands the other day. When we returned to his house about 3 hours later we couldn't even drive through the gate. The crazy pack of dogs he keeps in his fenced in yard had dug an enormous hole, at least 2 feet deep, with a diameter of probably 5 feet. Since we live at the beach, his driveway is just sand, so it wasn't difficult for the dogs to excavate a huge hole in front of the gate.  His dogs have done this every so often for years. My friend didn't have a clue how to prevent his dogs from digging up his yard.

There are more than one reason why a dog may be digging in the yard or garden.  Perhaps your dog is digging because he wants to escape, or maybe just for something to do, or just trying to dig down to some cooler soil below . I will mention some ideas for stopping your dog from digging in your yard or garden. My friend's dogs dug up the area right in front of the front gate, so it seemed like an escape attempt.  However, on other occasions these same bored dogs have dug holes in the middle of the yard. It is also very hot at the beach, so the dogs will also dig up recently watered areas of the yard to get at the cooler soil underneath. The need to prevent these dogs from digging up the whole place at my friend's house was long overdue.

Following some of the advice I found on solving digging problems in a great dog training book I have, we decided was to build the dogs their own area where they were free to dig without it being a problem. Because my neighbor's lot is sandy, he didn't need to do anything beyond enclosing a nice sized area with fencing to create the enclosure. It's a good idea to make sure there is some shade above the enclosed area for protection form the summer sun. My friend also treated his dogs to a small wading pool to refresh themselves in as well as some chew toys and some fresh water. These dogs get a lot of love. He keeps his dogs in their enclosure while away, and they are having a pretty good time, and no longer digging up the yard while he's gone.

Although your yard may not be a natural sandbox like my friend's, you can still easily make a special area and stop your dog digging up your yard. Once you've picked a suitable area for the enclosure, you can put a sandbox filled with a loose soil and sand mix inside it for your dog's digging pleasure. Pick an area to enclose that has some shade  (or add some shade cloth) and in addition to putting in a sandbox for digging purposes, be sure to put in his water bowl and some chew toys to keep him busy.

This is a great way to prevent dogs from digging up your yard and it provides them a nice place to hang out when you are away. If you later notice your dog is only digging in his new area, you can try letting him loose again even if you are not at home, and it is quite possible he won't dig up the lawn. This probably won't hold true for the dogs that dig for escape purposes. Once you've provided the special area, you've prevented your dog from any further digging in your yard.

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Digging To America $9.79 Friday August 15th, 1997. The night the girls arrived. Two tiny Korean babies are delivered to Baltimore to two families who have no more in common than this. First there are the Donaldsons, decent Brad and homespun, tenacious Bitsy (with her 'more organic than thou' airs, who believes fervently that life can always be improved), two full sets of grandparents and a host of big-boned, confident relatives, taking delivery with characteristic American razzmatazz. Then there are the Yazdans, pretty, nervous Ziba (her family 'only one generation removed from the bazaar') and carefully assimilated Sami, with his elegant, elusive Iranian-born widowed mother Maryam, the grandmother-to-be, receiving their little bundle with wondering discretion. Every year, on the anniversary of 'Arrival Day' their two extended families celebrate together, with more and more elaborately competitive parties, as tiny, delicate Susan, wholesome, stocky Jin-ho and, later, her new little sister Xiu-Mei, take roots, become American. While Maryam, the optimistic pessimist, confident that if things go wrong - as well they may - she will manage as she has before, contrarily preserves her 'outsider' status, as if to prove that, despite her passport, she is only a guest in this bewildering country. Full of achingly hilarious moments and toe-curling misunderstandings, Digging to America is a novel with a deceptively small domestic canvas, and subtly large themes - it's about belonging and otherness, about insiders and outsiders, pride and prejudice, young love and unexpected old love, families and the impossibility of ever getting it right, about striving for connection and goodness against all the odds. And the end catches you by the throat, ambushes your emotions when you least expect it, as only Tyler can.

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