hi people, i had my dog over at my parents today, left her unatended for ten mins in the garden, when  came back she had literally dug up all his plants (which hes very proud of) lol he wasnt amused to say the least. does anyone have any tips on how to stop dogs digging, ive seen stuff on ebay "get off dog and cat repellant" has anyone used any of these products. me and madison are banished from their garden til this problem is resolved.

Don't leave the dog unattended in the garden. The repellents are pretty much useless. What breed is she, and how old?

i only left her for ten minutes, shes a one year old american akita

Ten minutes is plenty of time to get bored and start entertaining yourself (in-season bitches can be mated and tied in far less time)! So your answer is never to leave her unattended in their garden - that way she can't get up to any mischief.

I used the repellents in a stone border I wanted the dog to avoid and he promptly walked over and took a dump on my new clean stones!  They don't work.

One of my dogs totally remodelled my garden and dug holes all over. I tried giving him his own patch to dig in which worked sometimes but when the dogs are playing chase around the garden that all goes out the window. When it is his turn to be chased he finishes each lap of the garden with a frenzied dig before turning round to chase the other dog. I have now fenced off a part of the garden where dogs are allowed by invitation only (which is most of the time except when the need for a mad chase just becomes too much to resist) so at least one part of the garden looks reasonable.

I used to have a rather nice garden but my GR pruned all the shrubs when he was a puppy and our rescue dog took over when Harley grew out of it :-) So now the garden is a compromise - one part that looks like a battlefield and the rest being pleasant enough  to sit and relax in. I also have two ponds which were a great source of amusement to H but he seems to have overcome the need to wallow in them for the time being :-)

Do not think that they ever stop digging up plants.   My bitch who is nearly 5 years old decided yesterday to dig up and bring indoors all the plants in a 5ft long slate tub that I had just planted that morning with summer flowering plants.   She had lined them all up on her blanket and was sitting there grinning at me.

Have now replanted and have covered with netting.

They still dig holes in the garden, usually the lawn which they also bring indoors and then eat.

If you find the secret please tell me! Everytime I go to my parents house Vic digs a big hole, the worst bit is he enlists one of their dogs to help him, so I'm not a favourite visitor anymore. It's useless trying to keep him in because my brothers will just ignore me and my dad and let him out at any time.
The last hole he and Lizzy dug was more like a crater, good old Dad said he would use the hole to put a shrub in, always a glass half full.

> The last hole he and Lizzy dug was more like a crater, good old Dad said he would use the hole to put a shrub in, always a glass half full.

:-D This made me laugh.

When Bramble was a puppy our back garden looked like the Somme - craters everywhere - and bernese sized craters are huge!! She also chewed a few shrubs - right at the bottom so they never recover. My parents live next door and their windows look out onto the battlefield whilst ours look out onto the dog-free front garden :-o She did get better but our new puppy loves to have a dig too - fortunately her craters are much smaller :-D