my daughter rang me last night and said how do i keep hedgehogs out the garden, WHY?
well the dog keeps trying to bury them if she finds one, she picks it up and then digs a hole
i have told her to try and break the habit of the dog doing it, this dog has only been with them 2 weeks and is a rescue she is brilliant in everything else apart from this and the holes are huge she is an akita and she even brought one of the hedgehogs into the house and dropped it at daughters feet, of course i laughed and that went down so well with daughter, so any ideas please as i do not have a clue, only told her to try and break the habit either by distracting the dog with something learning her the command leave and when she does she gets treats etc not sure what else i can say to her

I agree with you, poor Hedgehogs need all the help they can get because of the motor car killing so many, so it's down to stopping the dog.

IME they tend to be out at a similar time each night - so when her dog is out for his wees around that time, she needs to be out with him, on a lead if necessary.

I've had to do it - Paige has attacked hedgehogs before, so I have to keep a close eye on her.  This time of year I close the back door at dusk, then go out with her for the last wee to make sure everything's fine.

She did get quite calm about them last year - but we didn't have any until last week so the novelty is there again and she was way OTT and trying to attack again.

What I really hate about hedgehogs is inadvertently kicking one wearing sandals :-(  Dogs are OK interested but wary. However if I kick one they think it may be a game.

gosh not even seen ahedgehog in years around here (:  How many have you got around to kick one ? I have visons of you battling across thegarden carefu treading around hedgies

we have at least 4 hedgehogs reguarly trotting through our garden dogs never bother with them just lie and watch them, my daughter is going to go out with her when dusk comes and take a shaker bottle with her.

If I walk across the grass after dark I have to watch out for the spiky ones, a quill in the toe is painful and prone to infection.

I can understand that Nova just envious that you have them. iwas told because we have badgers around the two dont mix as the badgers eat them ?

Could be that our field is fenced so no badges but many other small furries and spikes along with a few stupid feathered. What is it with pheasant that enables them to fly into the field but be totally unable to fly out.

> we have at least 4 hedgehogs reguarly trotting through our garden dogs never bother with them just lie and watch them, my daughter is going to go out with her when dusk comes and take a shaker bottle with her.

At best that won't do anything; at worst, it could create a negative association with the hedgehogs or the garden or both - none of which will help.  What it will do is make the whole situation more reaction-inducing - he's already excited by the hedgehog, if she adds a shaker bottle in to the mix she's going to put his stress levels straight up which will make him much more likely to react than he already is (and, stress hinders learning/progress severely).  She needs to be patient, stop far enough away that he isn't doing anything and start rewarding then, only going closer when he's not reacting.  Calm behaviour is rewarded by treats/toys and getting closer; excitement results in going back indoors.

Just like people, dogs learn from example - if she is totally calm then he should pick up on it.

We have hedgehogs and I don't want my dogs disturbing them.

As someone else has said you'd rarely see a hedgehog during the day so just keep the dog/s on lead for the night time walk.  Luckily only one of mine is really interested and he makes a peculiar "ooh look a hedgehog' noise so isn't very subtle!!

There is no point trying to exclude a hedgehog from the garden - it's not that easy - AND it's preferable to allow them safe passages to walk to avoid the roads

I call my hog pest away and put him into a different part of the garden or put him on a lead til he's had wee then he's off to bed anyway.  He always goes and has a quick look first thing in the morning when let out again but the hedgehog has vamoosed :)

The only real nasty is the occasional hedgehog poo left for my dogs to roll in - lovely!

something killed a baby hedgie one night in my garden, the dogs went potty and had me up and I heard the screaming.  In the morning we found half a hedgie!

A few days later dogs barking at 2am, same screeching in garden so woke OH who went out with a lantern and located said hedgie, which looked to be litter mate of the other.

It was still alive but had blood on it's head and spikes torn out.  We kept her/him in a big tub overnight with some tinned dog food and took to Vet in morning who gave a bit of gas to sedate and checked over.  then it was taken on by a sanctuary.

While clearing the garden (been putting up OH workshop), we found what we think must have been Mum (four times the size of little hedgie) asleep under some Pallets.

We took her to a neighbour who has veg patch and nice garden, as we were worried with all the digging and moving heavy things she could get hurt.

I waswondering what if you left some food out for the hh in the front garden or an area of garden the dogs can't get to at night? That way the hh'swin onthe food front and would hopefully move them out the way of the dogs.

I would teach agood leave it command but watch pairing the shake bottle with the hhas it could explode the whole situation, have dog on a lead until the command is in place.

More jealous that it sounds as though everyone on here lives in the sticks,and not bloomin' miserableover crowded manchester like me!! Even the hh's wear hoodies!!   

I heard recently I think on BBC news  that hedgepigs numbers were in decline.

I can't remember the last time I saw one or even saw a squashed one on the roads around here.

took her out last night on long line she started sniffing round garden and you could see her starting to go into a hunt mode, so i called her name nothing , i called again and reeled her in and gave her a treat, daughter watching all the time, let her go off sniffing told her to go pee and she went down the garden again and you can see the change in her body language so called her and she looked at me and then went to put head down and i called her again and slight tug on leash came back and got a treat, oh and forgot to say training with a clicker as well, so this time give the lead to daughter and she told her to go wee and let her wander around the garden you could see she picked up the scent of the hedgehog and she went blank totally ignored my daughter told her to give her one command and then on the next one to reel her in toyou and she did the dog was so shocked at being made to come into her as she had never been made to do that before , she came in did a sit and got a treat, off she went again and this time the brave or stupid hedgehog took off infront of her ,we both shouted NO LEAVE and she hesitated took a step towards running again but my daughter went NO and tugged the leash she came in and got a treat, it is going to be a long process but they are willing and love her to bits this is the dogs 4th home in two years and she will not be going anywhere else as they love her to bits even in the short space of time they have had her.

We have loads of hedgehogs and they always used to go into the dogs kennels!!  I don't know whether it was the heat or the smell but my dogs at the time(this was a few years back) were akitas and they used to kill the hedgehogs.  Made a terrible mess of their faces so it wasn't an easy kill and they were jumping with fleas and ticks afterwards.  Glad I don't have kennel dogs anymore!!
PS  My parents also had akitas that were hedgehog killers too.  Think they must have a hedgie hatred!

You don't want them in the front garden as that is how your more likely to  get Hedgie Pancake in the road, which is what is endangering their survival in the first place.

Plenty in this garden. It's my JRT that really hates them with a passion. Last year my oh had let dogs out for the last wee at 11.30pm. after 5 mins he came flying up to the bedroom to tell me my JRT really didn't look well and that i should "hurry up!" When i came down she had a face full of new whiskers! :-o
Serves her right i thought! She has never bothered with them since. She just barks at them and then walks away.
As for Spike, i kept him overnight in an outbuilding as he was underweight and lethargic. In the morning i removed 7 ticks from him! Kept him for a couple of days to bring him back to good health. It was lovely to see him charging up the garden. He had renewed vigour! :-)