Hi, excuse me if this is a silly question, but I'm going to buy a sandpit for my pooch to give him somewhere to dig rather than our flowerbeds/lawn and was wondering, should we fill the sandpit with sand or earth?

Thanks

Brilliant idea, but watch out for the cats !!!!

Oooh, good thinking.  Have to put OH to work to make a cover for overnight and other times when it's not in use!

I thought about doing this to bury toys etc for my dog to hunt out, but doesn't the sand just end up on the outside of the sandpit when they dig? Would be best on concrete I suppose then you could just sweep it back up (spend enough time doing housework inside the house though! ).

I think if you go to somewhere like argos they do kiddies sandpits that have tops that close over them. 

Had a look the Argos website and they had a baby sandpit but haven't found any with tops.  Maybe they'll have them at Toys R Us?

This is what I have seen before.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sandpit_W0QQitemZ180229097959QQihZ008QQcategoryZ117215QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Ahh!  Innit cute!

I would use earth rather than sand, or a mixture of the two. My daughter had a sandpit in the garden when we had our rough collie pup. He used to lie in the sandpit all the time, he just loved it but he started to get problems with weepy eyes and the vet reckoned the sand might be causing the problem by blocking the tear ducts, didn't cause any long term problems but a mixture might avoid any problems.

You realise of course that the dog will totally ignore it and proceed to dig your garden up

You realise of course that the dog will totally ignore it and proceed to dig your garden up  


That is exactly what will happen.

Dogs dig for many reason, digging because they can smell roots is usually why a dog is going hell bent where your plants are or used to be, so although this is a good idea in many ways, you may find it is a waste of time.

Oh right.  I was going to follow the advice that I've read in a few books that putting toys, treat, bones etc into the pit would encourage the dog to go there.  In reality does that not really work?  Any other ideas?