I am a member of several Springer and Sproodle facebook facebook groups. It keeps my mind alert to all the problems everyone has with their dogs and I offer what I hope is sensible dog listening advice to help them.
Last week one issue stumped me and I had to wait for our monthly dog listening meeting to ask my colleagues how to answer helpfully.
The issue was a dog digging in the garden and the family wanted the dog to stop. Another group member commented Dogs dig when bored I instinctively knew this to be incorrect but it prompted me to think more about Boredom and Digging.
Dog Listening Statement: Dogs Do Not Get Bored.
All their behaviour issues are down to them struggling to be normal in our confusing technological human world. As humans we have moved into an era where we are not worrying about our basic survival. Our heads are spinning with what are sometimes called First World problems i.e. not really problems at all. Our dogs brains don’t understand any of it. When I lived in the Save Valley Conservancy in the Lowveld of Zimbabwe we survived some nasty elections where we all feared for our lives and an economy in accelerated freefall. The inflation was so bad you had to spend your whole months salary in cash in the same hour you received it or it would be worth nothing the next day. As a by and by the shops were empty, so often our months salary went on a painting as that was all there was left to buy. We had extensive gardens for fruit and vegetables, our meat was all wild game. We were making a plan daily for us and our staffs survival. I was never bored and also weirdly I was happy.
In our dog listening zoom meeting Tony Knight explained to me why our dogs do not get bored:
“ Boredom is a human concept because we know when we are next getting to eat. We now think that if our dog isn’t being entertained they must be bored”.
We care too much about our dogs. We have begun to humanise them in a way that we don’t for say cows or sheep. We heap pressure on ourselves and the dogs to be perfect. On Jan Fennells course she talked about her memories of growing up in London immediately post war. Some families had dogs, but these dogs were JUST dogs. There was little traffic on the roads, front and back doors were often open, children and dogs entertained themselves on the streets. The humans were busy hand washing clothes, mending clothes, cooking from scratch, sweeping floors etc. People were fed first and the dog literally got the scraps from the table or whatever it could scrounge on its rounds outside. Remember cartoons of dogs stealing sausages from butcher shops! The dog was very much the last thing they were worrying about and therefore it lived a free and simple life. They were not taken on walks on lead!
Speed on 80 years and this is not the case anymore. Dogs are not free to wander at will, as I said to a client this week if we allowed our dogs to do this they would most likely be hit by a car. So we have to ask them to walk on leads with us and do exactly what we ask of them. In this world their home and garden is their happy place.
When I was doing my first dog listening course it made me realise that my dogs life on that ranch in Zimbabwe was the dogs ultimate happy place. We never put them on leads, they lolled around our massive garden or found a cool spot inside, they kept an eye on who was coming in the gate and I absolutely wholeheartedly thanked them when they warned me there was a stranger, they went for wonderful free flowing walks in the bush and ate like Kings all the offal from the game meat.
Back to this ladies problem – her dog digging her garden. Dogs dig for many instinctive reasons: they are hunting for food either nutrients in plants or for mice, moles, rabbits etc. Digging is a natural behaviour to make a den or a scrape to lie on cooler soil, its instinctive when making a bed to sleep in. Some digging is a result of being overstimulated and digging releases adrenalin. If we make a fuss about it, this simple act can turn into a way of getting our attention.
How can the lady save her garden? Give the dog a separate part where you can allow it to go wild for nature and where the dog can happily dig and help birds find worms as a result. In the places where you don’t want them to dig then keep them moving on a lead or recall away.
By following dog listening you will get to know your dogs character, understand what their behaviour means, know how to manage it and live together harmoniously. So if your dog is a natural digger they are always going to dig a little bit, maybe not as much as if they were feeling stressed but its just something you have to learn to love and live with. The photo is of Tuli my sproodle in our dog field, we have a spring that runs a tiny stream through the middle so there is mud nearly all year round. She loves it, I love her so leave her to it. I have a special drying off room by the back door to contain most of the dirt! Thankfully she is the only one out of five of my dogs who loves to dig.
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