Dog keeps digging up hops

[DarkFaerytale]

did you yuutube that? that would be funny to watch

i mean, poor dog!

 

[Malted]

Update:

Camphor ointment seemed to work for a few days, then he started digging again. His own crap on each hole didn't work either.

Mousetraps on each hole, however, work marvelously well. ....Particularly when the dog decides to lick them.

So did you bait the traps with camphor ointment or dog crap? :lol:

 

[newguy]

Traps weren't baited, just armed and 2 per hole deployed in the back yard. I honestly regret to tell you that I didn't video it. I put the traps down, let the dog out, and I was on the other side of the yard when I heard "RIP!" (think ruff & yip in a really high pitched voice). Then I thought "Oh ****, he hit a trap already!" and I see the dog running back toward the door. Along the way he spies another trap and kind of forgot about the last one that bit him, so he stops to sniff it. I heard that one snap and again "RIP!", then he resumes a quicker pace back to the door.

I reset the close one and when I got to the far trap it was wet - he licked it? HE LICKED IT!!!! The next 5 minutes I was a vegetable because I couldn't do anything except giggle my fool ass off.

 

[bum]

Dogs are hilariously stupid but please tell me you didn't have to physically take any of them off his tongue.

 

[fletcher]

i don't think anything that physically hurts a dog is a good method. call me a pacifist but i believe some sort of fencing would be a more humane method of deterrence.

 

[bum]

Dogs are determined beasts.

I love them but they aren't great at reasoning.

 

[fletcher]

doesn't mean we should hurt them. dog training is about persistence and rewarding good behaviour, not punishing bad behaviour

 

[bum]

Not sure that pretending that newguy went straight to pain is fair.

I'm not into causing anything physical pain, myself, but some anythings aren't capable of understanding much more.

It is worth remembering that hops can kill a dog.

A remotely relevant example: my nephew (2.5yo) was living with us a while back and he had his tongue in a pair of open scissors. My fault but he got a smack anyway because he couldn't understand "Now that's bad because you'll want to use that on a lady's privates later on".

A dog isn't much different.

[EDIT: busted italics]

 

[fletcher]

a smack on the bum is surely different to getting a tongue stuck in or slapped by a metal mouse trap. or maybe that's relative. i sure as **** don't want my tongue in a trap. hops can kill a dog but i'm not going to physically hurt it just to steer it away. perhaps putting it out of reach of the dog or fencing it helps more than needing to go to such measures.

 

[Deep End]

Lead in the ear fixes most problems with most misbehaving animals. You just need to put a little piece of lead in their left ear.....administered with a .22 rifle

 

[bum]

a smack on the bum is surely different to getting a tongue stuck in or slapped by a metal mouse trap.

I've put my fingers in a set mousetrap (in the interests of larger, more desired animals) before putting them down for mice. I'm comfortable with the idea that a mousetrap won't do a dog permanent disability. This only speaks of my own position, of course. Plenty of vegans, etc, whose opinion I'd gladly defer to.

 

[fletcher]

I've put my fingers in a set mousetrap (in the interests of larger, more desired animals) before putting them down for mice. I'm comfortable with the idea that a mousetrap won't do a dog permanent disability. This only speaks of my own position, of course. Plenty of vegans, etc, whose opinion I'd gladly defer to.

haha nice one but i'm not a vegie or any ****, i'd just try everything before resulting to physical harm. given the choice of course. if there was nothing else then it's the best of a bad bunch i guess. having said that, i'm a massive bbq meat eater so i'm a hypocrite.

 

[bum]

i'd just try everything before resulting to physical harm. given the choice of course. if there was nothing else then it's the best of a bad bunch i guess.

If you have a look at thread thread again you'll probably see that newguy has asked for other ideas and tried them first.

I don't love the idea of mouse traps either but I know from experience that mousetraps aren't world-ending for most mammals (even small dogs). Hops can be for dogs. He tried other stuff first. His dogs didn't get it. I like the idea that his hops won't kill his dogs.

 

[fletcher]

best way is removing them entirely. separating one from the other. no pain whatsoever then. i feel like i'm arguing for the sake of it. i can appreciate newguy's dilemma i just couldn't do something similar to my dog. maybe i am a closet vegie.

 

[bum]

I'm not going to argue that there aren't more perfect solutions - but how often have you seen perfection? (SWMBOs don't count.)

If newguy could use geography to solve this issue he probably would have worked that out on is own.

As I say, the pain thing isn't great but it'll work and might prevent a significantly worse thing from happening.

I'm sure less painful ideas will appreciated by other pet-owners, however, so keep them coming.

 

[newguy]

Buster the diggingest dog is about 45kg now and he's 11 months old. He probably will grow a bit more this summer. I'm 1.9m tall and his back comes to almost my waist. He's a big dog. Short of installing wrought iron fencing, your run-of-the-mill chicken wire garden center variety doesn't mean **** to him. I say that because I tried it. I also tried making the hops smell bad (camphor ointment and his own excrement, and when that wore off, watering the hops with a "Buster **** milkshake" - none of that worked).

We have a rather large-ish back yard but about 40% of it is deck. There's also a small shed. My hops are roughly evenly distributed amongst the remainder of the yard, allowing for the trees therein. It's simply not possible to rope or fence off the hops. Cheapest solution was the $16 for 16 mouse traps I paid yesterday.

Believe me, I tried everything. All dogs have a digging instinct but when the dog is the size of a small pony, real damage can be done. He also has dug up random portions of the lawn and the flower beds (wife wanted to kill him for that), along with a small portion of the decking itself (you read that right - he started to dig THROUGH the wooden deck). Mouse traps were a last resort before the lead poisoning (high speed lead) option, which was seriously being considered by me and condoned by the voice of reason in my house, my wife.

Pain is perhaps the best learning/training tool in some circumstances. This is definitely a circumstance whereby it was warranted. He now gives the traps a good meter of clearance - they bite, you see. He also avoids electrical cords because he found that when he bites into them, they also bite back.

And no, I didn't have to remove the trap from his tongue. I only inferred that he licked it given that when I returned to set it again, I found that it was wet.

 

[mmmyummybeer]

There is another passive option if you don't want to fence. Some dogs just have a huge instinct to dig that is hard to overcome. If you give them their own place to dig such as a sand pit they will get their digging instinct out in their and leave your more precious areas alone. Have heard that the plastic clam shells filled with sand and some hidden treats in to teach them to dig in there is supposed to work well. We had a old sand pit when we got our first dog and she did all her digging in there and left everywhere else alone. We then built a shed on the sand pit and now our second dog digs everywhere, and thinking I am going to have to introduce a designated digging area as other deterrents don't seem to be working. Some dogs do grow out of it but I think some breeds don't and are more inclined to dig.

 

[DU99]

could get one of these devices

 

[bum]

Fairly sure those are illegal here, DU. The ones for barking are anyway.

 

[mmmyummybeer]

They are very effective, I personally don't believe in using them for barking and can understand why they are banned. I have however seen these work to the dogs safety when it was used to keep the dog of the road or other dangers like personal motocross tracks.

Shipping looks a bit pricey though.