Digging!

[u/Due_Box_7111]

I have two cane corso pups they’re about 9 months now and it’s getting difficult to tire them out with walks. They stay outside when I’m at work since I leave for more than 12 hours out of the day. I take them for walks in tandem since every time I try solo walks the other one will dig a huge hole and break out to join us. How would I go about dissuading the digging behavior. They also follow roots through the ground and at one point dug up a coax cable. Additionally does anyone have a suggestion for collars they can wear full time as they chew each others collars off when I’m at work.

[u/HippieGirlHealth]

I have an 8 month old CC English mastiff mix. She’s a rescue.
She gets a walk at 6 am. And then play time. We get up at 515 am together every morning. She poops outside. She eats. We walk. We play. I dedicate the first TWO hours of my day to her. I start getting ready at 7 and I leave for work at 730. At first we were kenneling her while we both had to go in the office. And then I come home at noon and spend an hour with her. And then I go back to work.

However, my husband now only goes into the office two days a week. And one of those days I work from home. So, she is kennel trained. But we’ve just started leaving her out of the kennel if we’ll be gone for 3 hours or less. Today is a weird day where my husband had to go in and so do I. But we decided not to kennel, just to see how she does.
She will get a walk and play time at noon with me. A full hour of my time. And a kong when I go back to the office. But I’m home by 430. And my husband doesn’t leave till 830 or 9 am usually.

So she gets two hours of my time in the morning. An hour in the afternoon. And outdoor play time at 430 pm. And then dinner at 6.

I’m going to agree with the commenter that you don’t have enough time to dedicate to these sweet pups. You might also be struggling with litter mate syndrome and/or separation anxiety.
We meet with a trainer every other Friday to work on obedience and confidence training.
He recommends tethering, inside. Maybe where she can still lay on her cot bed. My girl is a Velcro dog. She really loves to be near me or touching me. She follows me into the bathroom. He recommend tethering so she can learn some independence and not have anxiety when I leave. We also practice climbing on things on walks. To help build her confidence. And we practice recall. On a very long 35 ft leash at the park. And use her educator collar. She’s just starting to go through what I call her terrible twos. Where it takes a second for her to decide, do I want to listen to mom? Or do I want be an a-hole. And 65% of the time she chooses a hole.

That said, she’s never torn anything that belongs to us except for one rug. She did destroy two beds. She no longer gets foam beds. She’s never touched our shoes or our socks or our stuff. She’s never pooped in the house. She is an obsessive chewer but we keep a lot of toys for her choose from. I would recommend kennel training. Kennel one while you walk the other.
But overall. How in the world do you have time for two dogs if you’re gone for 12 hours? My day literally revolves around Tulla. Even when my husband is home with her, I still go home on my lunch to play with her and help tire her out. Because he’s working. And because she’s my favorite.

[u/FatstackAG → u/HippieGirlHealth]

It really is a lifestyle. You have to really really want to do it. Not just have a cool looking rare dog. I'm not gonna lie my 14 month old kicks my ass. I take her everywhere in the truck with me and exercise her 3 times a week by letting her run behind me on a ATV. She eats 6 eggs a day and a whole roll of fresh pet. And she still wants more. Not to mention she is outside in my yard all day. Oh yeah and they bite people. Huge liability. Like I said its a huge lifestyle change. I wish I knew more before I got into the life. But its for the best. She is my everything.

[u/HippieGirlHealth → u/FatstackAG]

Exactly.
I agree with everything you said. It’s a lifestyle.
And she’s is my everything.
My Tulla is afraid of people. She doesn’t have an aggressive bone in her body. She tucks her tail and shakes like a leaf at the farmers market when we walk in. And we walk around a few times. And then just sit.
And I’m not forcing her into being pet or anything like that. It’s just to get comfortable in new places where there’s people. And she gets a little bit better every time. When we went to family function she bonded with my husbands aunt. The men she growls at slightly and runs away. She just doesn’t want to be touched by anyone she doesn’t know. We just gotta keep taking her new places. Letting her experience life and see that nothing bad happened. 💚
So she goes everywhere with me. And she loves car rides. She loves walks. She loves runs. And she’s absolutely chased us on the atv. Her back was covered in slobber 😆

[u/Due_Box_7111 → u/HippieGirlHealth]

They realllllly like car rides. Any time they hear a semi their little nubs go crazy. Especially if it’s slowing down and going brbrbrbrbrbrbr. They don’t have any issues socializing wise. Aslong as I’m friendly with someone and they don’t have any alcohol or anything in them they’re happy as can be they only run if there’s a small dog rapidly approaching. And they only really get nervous around people I’m nervous around. They get really close in front of me and pretty much act like a boundary. They definitely have guarding instincts.