Licking and digging

Ellie is soooo predictable. It's amazing how these dogs are so routine oriented. When we get up in the morning, she knows its 1)go outside, 2)breakfast, and 3)it's time to play or she will hound you (pardon the pun) until you do. To change the subject, we have 2 issues we would like advice on. The first issue is when she gets on the sofa with us in the evening while we chill from our day of work, she wants to be licking us constantly. This is after her playtime and run around the yard. I know it's her way of showing affection and if she did it just for a little bit I could understand, but she just doesn't quit. The other issue is while we are gone for the day, she has a doggy door to go outside when she needs to, but she gets bored (even though she has her own toys to play with) and goes out and digs holes in the yard. Any suggestions on how to curb these habits?

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Permalink Reply by Yuki & Ellie on October 29, 2011 at 11:48am

Well, the licking is easy. If she starts to lick and you don't want her to, give her a firm "No!" or whatever you use to tell her she's doing something that you don't want her to do. If she persists, then she loses her couch privilege. It probably won't take too long for her to figure out that licking = no sofa snuggling. Obviously if she stops the licking when asked, then she gets lots of praise and attention. :)

The digging is a bit more difficult. Do you give her toys to keep her busy during the day? Something that she has to work at to get to a treat? Short of closing off her doggy-door access, it may be difficult to get her to completely stop a behavior when you aren't there to correct her.

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Permalink Reply by Becky S on October 29, 2011 at 12:12pm

Lilly is exactly the same. We did like Jen said, but used "enough" otherwise it seemed there were too many "nos" when she was a puppy. She also would jump in a flower garden and dig, fortunately for us she just seemed to outgrow it. We did catch her once or twice and corrected, that didn't seem to stop it right away I think it was more just maturity.

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Permalink Reply by Atlas & Trinity on October 29, 2011 at 11:58pm

To solve digging problem put poop in the holes we dig, and give a sandbox to redirect the digging behavior load the box with lots of hiding cookies and toys