In brief, you must confine him when you cannot supervise him… until he demonstrates that he has dropped the behavior.Here’s the down home fastest way to fix the digging problem.
1.) Exercise the heck out of the dog. The dog won’t exercise himself sufficiently… even with a big yard.
2.) Start feeding the dog some pineapple with his meal. This makes his feces smell really bad to him (as if it doesn’t smell bad enough??) Bury the feces in the holes he’s already dug in. You might also try adding a pinch of “Accent” — a beef flavor enhancer. This worked very quickly on a friend’s Aussie pup. Burying the feces in the holes will create avoidance to those specific holes, but will not teach the dog that digging, in and of itself, is bad.In the case of potted plants, you might want to put down some hardware mesh, or chicken wire, either in the soil, or around the pot.
3.) For a dobie I had that dug holes, I put up a 6 foot by 8 foot kennel run, with a cement slab floor so the dog couldn’t dig. This is where the dog ould stay, until I got him to drop the behavior. (I.E. the only time the dog could dig was when I could correct him.) You don’t necessarily need a pro kennel set up. You can get one at home depot, or simply confine the dog to a part of the yard where he can’t dig. The dog spends 70 to 80 percent of his time sleeping or resting, anyways.
4.) Buy a Dogtra, Sportdog, Innotek or Tri Tronics remote collar. When he is in the yard, zap him on the high level, right when he starts digging. Get him two or three times, consistently, and you’ll have your problems fixed. You can get an entry level collar for around $200, through mail order.