A Dog's Work Is Never Done

A dachshund, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is a small dog of a breed developed in Germany for hunting badgers. In fact, in Old High German, dachs means "badger" and, of course, hund means "hound". So my handsome friend, Jasper, is literally a "badger hound". (read more about Jasper here)

I have never seen a badger in my front yard which is where Jasper likes to dig the most. He is especially fond of digging near the front entrance of my screened-in porch. (view here) It isn't a pretty sight in my human eyes, but Jasper seems quite proud of it.

It is hard to be upset with a little animal that works as hard as Jasper does. He snorts, grunts, breaks roots with his teeth and pushes rocks out of the earth with his nose. I wish I could train him to break up the ground for my vegetable garden every spring. I guess I could plant some potatoes by the front door, but he would just dig them back up.

I have hauled wheelbarrow loads of dirt and filled in the holes by the front door. I've tried sprinkling black pepper and cayenne pepper on the ground in this area. I've tried that spray that is supposed to repel dogs. None of these things seem to bother my Jasper. He just keeps on digging.