help! My dogs may dig to china

[NandaB]

I am hoping someone has a miracle solution for me

We have 2 dogs:Quigly, a 3 yr old aussie we got as a tiny puppy, and Hazel, a 9ish month old lab/pit/? mutt we rescued 3 months ago. They are a great pair and love to wrestle, play, and relax together. We joke that we should have named Hazel "Metoo" because whereever Quigly is, she is sure to follow.

Unfortunantly, we also have gophers in our front lawn the dogs are DESTROYING the lawn trying to get to the gophers. Whenever I catch them in the act and use my "loud disappointed" voice they act appropriately submissive and leave the area, and they (at least Quigly) know they are not supposed to dig. I just think the gophers are too tempting.

So my question is..does anyone have a suggestion of something I can put on the lawn to deter them while we are handling the gopher issue? I am afraid it will take a while to handle the issue. We are trying traps because I don't want to use poison with the dogs and our 15 month old. I tried red pepper flakes, and tthey didn't seem to care, but I didn't use very much (we were almost out)

Thanks for any suggestions! (And thanks for reading all of that- it got long!)

[katietornado]

Are they just diggers? Like, would they dig if there weren't gophers?

We had a foster (we foster retired racing greyhounds) who loved to dig. His people didn't know what to do about it, and I suggested building him a sandbox. They actually did it, and he directs 95% of his digging there now

[NandaB]

I don't think so. I mean quigly has dug up the lawn a few times before, but always after the gophers (we have had the problem forever, but it is getting worse) we also have ground squirrels (yay) because we have an alfalfa field behind us. We have a big yard, and about half if it is dirt. I don't scold them for digging in the dirt, because really I don't care, but I think they are more interested in getting to the gophers. A grayhound in a sandbox is an adorable visual though

[NandaB]

I mean really, don't they look all innocent?? They are big ol fakers

[dirtyred]

Either smoke bomb the gophers yourself (the only thing I've found that really works) or hire someone to take care of the gopher problem.