How to stop a Golden Retriever from digging?
I'm slowly becoming really desperate with my Nala, a 3-year-old Golden Retriever.
My biggest problem is that she digs for mice. As soon as I go for a walk with her and my Westie, she starts digging at the next pile. I can't get her to move then; she growls and tries to get out of her harness, which is very unpleasant. I've tried adding more distractions and mental games, but when she smells a mouse, I'm out of luck… she doesn't even react to her favorite biscuits anymore 🙁 Totally frustrating 🙁 So I can't take her out anymore at the moment.
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The simplest option is primary reinforcement, meaning you reinforce a stop signal by digging.
For example, train the harness grip, then when it has been really well conditioned, use it when digging and after the harness grip has interrupted the digging, reinforce it with the digging.
What exactly do you do to distract the dog?
Just waving treats won't work.
Play search games where the dog has to retrieve something. That's just the nature of the retriever. So condition your dog to use the bag of treats, then hide it somewhere and let the dog search and retrieve.
This food bag should contain something that the dog absolutely loves and that also has a strong smell. Like pieces of sausage, cheese, or roasted meat, etc.
Thank you very much 🙏 yes, I really do that and it worked well until 3 days ago but now she is no longer interested in the food bag, not even in cheese, le parfait or sausage, only in these stupid mice 🙁
Okay, then you just have to be more specific. But I would look for a different walking route for a while, where there aren't so many mice. Something new for the dog, with different smells that would distract him. Then I would work hard to prevent the dog from getting any stupid ideas in the first place. And introduce a command like "stop."
I once had one like that who was completely crazy about mice. I knew right away that if I got to a certain meadow, I'd be out of the game. 😁
For a while, I walked around this meadow, or along other paths, and consistently prevented him from even starting to look for mice.
Many dogs who are under-stimulated and bored on walks simply find something to do on their own. Hunting is always self-rewarding. Many dogs become addicted to the adrenaline rush. Imagine this as extreme athletes who always want more.
The dog can't help it – he's not doing it to annoy you.
My golden retriever always loved doing that, too. A hunting dog is a hunting dog.
Sometimes the holes in the meadow were so big that they had to fill them with several wheelbarrows of earth.
There's still some hunting instinct in there :-)!
Maybe she needs to play ball or throw sticks to keep herself busy
Playing ball promotes the hunting instinct
Yes of course, but after the ball!
Wrong😊 A hunting-motivated dog is only being artificially boosted by this. While the retriever isn't a hunting dog, I would still prefer to find him an activity that suits his nature and his abilities.
Get help from a dog trainer.