Said It Here

Why does my dog keep digging by the fence?

Dogs often target the fence line because they smell animals in the dirt, sometimes even throwing aside rocks meant to cover old holes. While digging in the middle of the yard is generally harmless, digging at the edge creates a serious concern that the dog will escape.

Overview
People affected2 accounts across 1 forum
Workarounds found2 items attempted
Community agreement16 total upvotes

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

Found another way around this?

Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.

  1. 1
    Putting down chain link in front of the fence to prevent digging
    Did this help you?
  2. 2
    Filling the hole back in and placing small rocks over it.
    Did this help you?

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/lawncare2 people · September 2026 – October 2026

“Some animal had dug a small hole in my lawn a couple weeks back. I checked that nothing was in there and covered it and put a couple of small rocks. Today morning, something dug out a huge hole and threw rocks away.”source ↗

“What could this be and how to take care of it?”source ↗

pb_syr · r/lawncare · 13 upvotes

“He keeps going by the fence and digging - we don't care about the yard since it's just dirt, but we don't want him digging under the fence.”source ↗

“It's driving me insane, my dog constantly digging in different spots because he smells them.”source ↗

Wise-Reflection1575 · r/lawncare · 1 upvotes

“I'm just concerned that he's digging by the fence, to get out? In the middle of the yard, that's not so concerning, but it's always right next to the fence”source ↗

Wise-Reflection1575 · r/lawncare · 1 upvotes

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised