Hello! My 9 month old Berner, Kaleva, really enjoys digging up the lawn. Lately she has been digging a lot more. We think she likes to dig down and eat tree roots (apparently oak roots taste great).

Any ideas on how to stop her? We are thinking about putting rocks or bricks in the area she is digging. But this may encourage her to dig somewhere else.

Do your Berners dig? She just goes crazy and has a hole up to her neck in no time.

The digging isn't horrible, it is the muddy Berner footprints all over my house I have a problem with.

Hi there. Our 7 month old Berner Ollie is also a digger! His breeder says it is quite a common trait in Berners although our last Berner never dug holes in the garden at all.

The muddy footprints all round the house were also a problem with us, especially with the Scottish weather in the winter! To try and stop Ollie digging in our garden, we put our son's old sand pit in a corner of the garden and put lots of new sand in it. We then encouraged Ollie to dig in it which we happily did.

Although this hasn't stopped Ollie digging in the garden altogether, he certainly isn't doing it as much and if we see him digging a hole in the lawn, we just say no and take him over to the sand pit so he seems to be learning. We've noticed he does seem to do it more when he's bored.

I'm not sure if its something they'll grow out of but fingers crossed!

Hmm.... I don't know if I've ever heard of berners being diggers...

The only reason that they dig is because they are bored. Not sure how long you keep them in the yard but try going out with them and playing some games and tiring them out a bit before you leave them. Also try giving them something to do while they are out there - mine LOVES his soccer ball!

Otherwise, I'd suggest crate training if you are going to be gone all day. It's really not a big deal to them, and that way you know they aren't getting into anything. It's better that they have their own den to retreat to then to be bored/anxious while left in the yard alone.

Ollie digs but not a tremendous amount usually when its hot he finds a a nice earthy bit of ground and digs a small dent then lays in it.

The breeder where Ollie came from had an enormous hole where her Berners dug beside a big shrub when it was hot they do it more when its hot to cool down.

Berners are known to be great diggers.

i know this may sound weird but it works...

Bury some of the dogs poop in the hole it dug and it will not dig there again!

I tried everything to try and stop darby from digging up our lawn until a local farmer suggested this to me... absolutely works!

or you could wait and watch until he starts to dig and hit the sprinklers quickly...