Board & train
Does board and train help with digging?
Digging is one of the few problems a trainer rarely sees happen. It happens in your yard, usually when nobody is watching, for reasons that range from a bored terrier to a thick-coated dog excavating a cool bed against the foundation to a dog who heard something move under the lawn. A live-in program works on the dog. The yard is a separate conversation, and we will have both.
Last reviewed October 4, 2026
What a program changes
Outlets, a default settle and a routine, built away from the holes.
Every board and train includes daily one-on-one training, a structured routine, socialization and enrichment, and that combination is aimed squarely at the under-stimulated dog who digs because the afternoon is empty. Place command, taught in Puppy Fundamentals and On-Leash Foundations, gives a dog a default settle to offer instead of pacing the fence line. Functional Off-Leash works on recall around distractions, which matters when the distraction is a rodent tunnel and you need the dog off it now.
What a program cannot do is practise in your yard. Digging is a yard behaviour; the skills are built elsewhere and carried back by you. Frantic digging along a fence or at a door when the dog is left alone, with whining, drooling or scraped paws, often points to anxiety rather than boredom. Behaviour Rehab is built for that, five to six weeks at $4,850 to $5,760 plus GST after a full assessment, and a vet visit belongs on the list too.
- Daily outlets, not empty afternoons
- Place as a default settle
- Recall off a rodent tunnel
- Anxious digging gets assessed
Your side of it
The yard, the shade and the hours alone stay yours.
When the dog comes home, you keep the routine: exercise and a short training session before yard time, supervision outside at first, and management of what the yard offers. Shade and water so a cooling pit has no purpose, whatever lives under the lawn, and a legal digging spot for a breed built to dig all fall to you. A dog left alone in a yard for hours tends to find a hobby. Our how-to on stopping a dog digging covers the method.
Bring three things to the consultation: where the holes are, when they appear, and whether the dog digs with you standing there. Those answers separate boredom from prey and cooling from anxiety. Private Training at $150 plus GST a session, with a written plan customized to your home, and Day Training at $650 plus GST a week with a weekly go-home lesson both suit problems that live at home. A smaller program is the recommendation whenever it does the job.
Asked and answered
The questions people ask us.
Does board and train fix digging on its own?
Not on its own. A live-in program builds the exercise, enrichment, place command and routine that take the boredom out of a yard, then hands you the structure at the handover lesson. The yard itself, the shade, the rodents and the hours alone are management, and they are yours.
Is there a specific digging training program?
No single program is labelled for digging, because digging has several causes. Every board and train includes structured routine and enrichment, Behaviour Rehab is built for anxiety-driven digging after a full assessment, and Private Training writes a plan around your home. The consultation recommends which, and the smaller one where it is enough.
What if the digging comes back after board and train?
If the holes return, the first place to look is the routine: the dog came home with skills and the afternoon went back to being empty. Behaviour can also increase briefly when a habit is interrupted. Persistence or escalation, especially frantic digging when left alone, is a reason to use the follow-up session and reassess with a professional.
Should a vet look at a dog that digs?
Yes if the digging is new, frantic, or comes with pacing, panting, drooling or self-injury, because distress and discomfort can look like a yard problem. A training page cannot rule out medical causes. Mention it at the consultation as well, so the assessment and the vet are working from the same picture.
Keep reading
Holes have a reason
Send us where the holes are and when they appear. Book a consultation and we will separate boredom from anxiety and recommend a program.
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