Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Chester really likes to dig. He digs in the yard...but along the side of the concrete, not under the fence. It's pretty annoying because there's dirt all over the place, but he seems to really enjoy that activity. The problem is that it is not limited to outdoors. He digs in the carpet, into the sofa, and my favorite - into my sheets. Like legit nails digging like he's trying to get through the mattress or something, not cute burrowing. There has even been more than one occasion where he's dug into my thigh because of some blanket leg placement confusion.

Is this normal? I've never had a dog dig for any other reason than to get the eff out. Maybe he is and he's just dumb, though.
So
1) How do I make him stop? It's not good for the carpet, the couch, or my sheets.
2) What's wrong with him?
3) Does your dog do this? Just out of curiosity.

vee does this too, but not as severe as chester. he likes to dig into rugs, our bed, the couch when he either wants to go to bed or has extra energy to burn. it's pretty typical terrier stuff.

xo
kittee

It's like my dog knew I was reading this because she just dug into my arm. It's pretty normal. Both my dogs do it, though Emma tends to do it more.

Here's what I found just now: http://ezinearticles.com/?The-4-Reasons ... id=3137035

By process of elimination I'll guess he's nesting. But it feels more like a "fork you, I haven't destroyed enough of your shiitake today, let me get this bedding out before we go to sleep"


If he kicked imaginary dirt over things, I'd forgive him in an instant, though. That's the most adorable thing I've never seen.

Frodo digs, too... only into my leg when I'm sitting somewhere. Maybe your dog does it because it's a comfortable habit?

I loooooove imaginary dirt kicking!

My dog does this, but only on the couch. It's annoying because she'll wait until I'm not looking at her and then I've got to make her get off the couch and she gives me sad face.

Awww the dog my family had growing up was named Frodo. Since then my parents have always named our dogs after characters from The Lard of the Rings and The Hobbit. We had a Thorin Oakenshield. Now we have Dain Ironfoot and Gimli.



oh and about digging, my dog Gizmo does it constantly. Mostly on pillows and blankets. I chalk it up to nesting/burrowing

ETA: my ex has a mini dachsund that would dig to china if we let her. Once I was doing yard work and she was running around outside with the other dogs and after a while I realized she was missing. I found her digging in a hole as deep as her body is long. She's so fat she would've gotten stuck if she dug any further. The sight of it was ridiculous. Her back legs were on the ground and the rest of her body was down in the hole digging.

She digs in water too, it's weird. In the tub or in puddles, she just tries to dig and dig and dig.

my dogs do it, too. i think a lot of dogs do, but it's only a problem when they happen to be big strong beasts and it really hurts when they dig into your legs. i really don't know how to correct it with purely positive reinforcement, but i just give them an immediate "uh-uh!" when they do it and they stop. maybe if you can't get him to stop, it's time to kick him off the bed and couch... but it pains me to make such a suggestion! poor chester. of course, i'm a softie and my dogs could be slightly better behaved so maybe you shouldn't listen to me.

My parents dog does this too. I am not sure why though. The dirt kicking is pretty cute.

My dog (terrier) does this too, and it usually seems to be either a nighttime ritual or an agitation thing. When it's an agitation thing, she will dig until she wears herself out. When she is nesting on her blanket, I don't care. Usually this involves a few digs and a couple of turns and she's done.

Back when I thought it was a great idea to see if she liked camping, she dug a hole big enough she could curl up in it with only her head poking out (not exactly LNT). And I still took her backpacking (maybe she'll like that! ha!), and she did the exact same thing again, except this time it was in wet forest debris.

If there is a storm, or she's just pissed, she will do this indoors as well. I have lost a rubbermaid storage box (was covering the place on my floor where she wanted to dig, apparently), a blanket, a cloth drawer, and part of my boyfriends carpet.

I don't know what to do beyond speaking sternly to her when I catch her. I just have to hope I am available for pissed/freaked-out doggie watch when she gets into one of those moods.

My roommate's Corgi does this when he gets excited- he digs into the couch, floor, or pillows, but his absolute favorite is through the bed sheets. He actually ripped a hole in my sheets once and continued to dig...

Here's the perpetrator:


And his sister (my dog, Harriet) digging in the yard (she was caught, but I don't know why she got so upset- she was actually digging where it's allowed).. she even has dirt on her nose because she was getting really into it:

So cute! That face!

My dog digs to bury toys and bones. I found one when I tilled the soil to replant my vegetable garden. So basically, I don't have any advice.

Chester digs to bury too, but I don't mind that...I just think it's dumb. Why do you want your stuff covered in dirt? Believe it or not, no one was going to touch your half chewed bone, let alone steal it.

My dog used to dig into the walls and doors. It's better now that she has a pal to keep her company.

Rio does this too, every night. In the evening he comes upstairs with us and sleeps on his bed but goes downstairs during the night where he digs the carpet so long and so loud it wakes me up, almost every night. We are planning to replace the carpet this winter with wood floor. I wonder what he'll do then. I'm planning to keep a small patch of the carpet for him but he won't be able to dig it, otherwise it'll go flying.

Chester will dig on hard surfaces as well, but he just kinda prefers where he can get traction. I remember in our old house he had a specific spot on the wood floor that he would dig right under the window and it was usually when he heard a car or something outside.

The carpet might have a smell that she loves. You need to clean the carpet to remove the smells that cause her to dig the carpet. If she still does digging it then she might have an illness so take her to the vet.

My dog does this, and I make fun of him for his futile attempt to cover his poop with imaginary dirt. It is especially useless, since he usually runs several steps away before he starts the kicking.

Star always does this after she poops. It's like she's wiping her paws off, but I know she's instinctually trying to cover her poop with dirt. It's annoying when she gets all muddy.

Sad times: when it thunderstorms and I'm not home in time to give her melatonin and she accidentally pees or poops in the house. She can't help it, but she also knows it's wrong, so before I get home, she tries to cover it up with the carpet and her nose ends up getting all sore and bloody. I guess when her nails don't work, she tries with her nose? Poor baby.

Cute overload on those dogs, Amandah.

Yes, my dog (Boston Terrier) does this. He'll do it really furiously for no reason, and quite gently if he's trying to "bury" a treat or one of his toys. He's never dug in the actual dirt, or anything except couches, chairs, rugs, sometimes our legs, etc., thank god. We just keep his nails trimmed and patch up any resultant damage because it's so forking cute. He also kicks up dirt after he pees, I guess because there's some hormone in his foot pads that lets other dogs know he was there?

My absolute favorite thing about him is that after he "buries" something, he very, verrrrrrry gently pushes invisible "dirt" over whatever he's trying to hide with his tiny flat face -- whatever he's "burying" doesn't get covered up with anything at all, it's totally psychological. Must be comforting to him somehow. Sometimes it brings tears to my eyes because he's always so, so careful and tender about it. He also won't fake-bury stuff if one of us is watching him, presumably because he thinks we're going to steal his biscuit or Nylabone.

Oh. my. god. I love your dog.

my dog does that too!