The common habit all the dog owners, especially the large breed owners have faced is that the much loved and cared landscaping is dug all over and you see numerous crates over there. This is something heartbreaking and no one wants to have such a scenario in their backyard.
Training the Akbash properly may help in this situation. But digging is a general habit and often it does not become right by just keeping the dog away from this action.
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How friendly Akbash dogs are?
These big breed dogs are much delight to have in the family, but you must be aware that if you have other pets at the house or some small kids at home, this one will not act very friendly with them from the first day. They are a confident and intelligent but somehow laid-back dog breed.
They have the mental set up of guard, so they would like to protect the small and docile creatures around them, but they do not feel like making friends with them. But they will become friendly or at least helpful once they get accustomed to those pets or the kids.
What is a digging habit?
Dogs from ancient times have the habit of digging the ground when they are bored. Also when they are wild and not captivated, they search for food on their own. When they get much food they do not consume the whole food but keep some stored under the ground by digging a hole in there.
Specifically, when it comes to bones, they often hide them under the hole, and later when they want to play or need to eat food, they eat it after taking it out of the burrow.
When they are tamed and living in a nice house with a wide backyard garden, this habit of their digging the soil may cause discomfort and irritation for the owner. They turn the beautifully decorated garden into a terrible war field by digging up lots of craters into it.
There are certain ways to control this digging behavior and we have discussed them below.
What are the activities that can keep the Akbash away from digging?
You can make the dog exercise a lot which is a process of decreasing their energy. If the Akbash does not have left with much energy then they may stop digging, which is an activity they do for entertainment.
A lot of exercises:
So you can take them for a walk and that should be at least 45 minutes long walk. This is to make them physically exhausted. If you can take them for the walk twice then it will be even better. This large breed dog
Offer them toys:
If you offer some small toys or treats to your Akbash like disc or balls or some chew toy, then the dog will be busy playing with those toys. This is another way of keeping them engrossed so they do not shift concentration on digging.
Tricks and commands:
Training the Akbash is a good hobby even for their master. If you are interested then start teaching a few commands like “sit down”, “fetch”, “run” or some other common ones. This is a time taking and also fulfilling task that will keep the dog busy with the schedule.
Keep the backyard interesting:
If you let the dog run in the backyard freely, then also keep some toys scattered there. This way the dog will be busy playing with the toys and not think of digging the ground.
What are the possible situations when the Akbash may dig the soil?
There is a various behavioral pattern of Akbash and any other dogs in general. We will try to follow this pattern to understand when they feel like digging the ground.
Alone for some time:
When they are left alone in the backyard or garden, they can start digging. This is sheer boredom that leads them to dig the ground as they find it somehow exciting and fun to spend the time.
Uninteresting territory:
Also if the backyard or garden is boring and there is nothing that they can play with, they will start digging. By playing we mean there could be some fountain or some statue that can grab the attention of the dog. If the dog has to stay there for a long period of time and it does not find any small creature or any toy to play with, it can dig the soil to pass the time.
Pups are energetic:
For the puppy, it is a common habit. When the Akbash is of young age, they tend to be more restless and playful. So they do not waste time or energy and start digging when given a chance or place.
Excited and energetic dog:
Akbash is usually not an excited kind of dog, but then there are exceptions. If you have adopted one such hyper-energetic dog then you could have to bear with this digging habit for some time, until you teach it to not dig and be busy with some other activity.
Copying the act of the master:
Some interesting fact has been revealed recently. That is, the pet dogs often copy the behavior of their owners. If the Akbash had seen you recently doing gardening and digging the soil for that purpose then they can try digging the ground anytime soon.
The common behaviors of dogs:
Dogs are mostly in the love of digging and they prefer to dig a lot when they are given chance. Akbash is no exclusion in this case. They simply dig out of their genetic habit. They find the digging interesting, also they can dig when they find something curious under the ground, or they can hide a bone under the ground.
Does your Akbash dig frequently or occasionally?
Like humans, dogs also have their distinctive personalities. Some dogs like to dig on a regular basis while some do so when they are bored, annoyed, or trying to hide something.
Some Akbash also digs when the weather gets too hot. Instinctively they try to dig a burrow and stay inside it to avoid the excessive heat. If you get agitated by these small incidents and try to punish your dog, it will not work.
As they dig instinctively they will barely understand what had gone wrong. So it is not the way to train the dog about not digging the ground. You can exercise the few measures we have discussed above to keep the dog busy and thus your well-maintained landscape will be spared.
When does Akbash dig the ground often?
Sometimes, you may see that the Akbash is not leaving the habit of digging holes on the ground. Even after lots of exercise and playtime, they still prefer to dig the holes and not spend time with the small toys offered to them.
You may have to stop letting it move in the backyard alone. You can take it whenever you have free time but do not leave it unattended in the open garden area. Also doing regular exercise will make it exhausted and gradually it will decrease the digging.
Conclusion:
Distraction and exercise are two variedly used methods to keep the Akbash from digging. You need to keep the attention of the dog on something else so it does not remember about digging. This is not an easy task and also it’s time taking the job. You need to be patient to manage the dog to keep away from digging as they are only compelled by their nature to dig the ground now and then.
