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@bernerlabreclectus I’ve never tried this, because I’ve not had this issue (yet!) but my brain goes directly to: “antecedent arrangement” – that is, setting up the situation and environment when and where the behavior is most likely to occur and such that it is exhibited as I would prefer. Questions I would ask myself are:
- What types of material does the dog normally choose to bury the cache in?
- How far away from where the dog gets the food to where the dog normally buries it?
- What behavior precedes the dog’s caching behavior? (That is, does he have a “tell” so I can predict when he’s going to cache vs. simply eat the food?)
- Does the dog avoid being observed when caching?
And then, observing all that, I would set up a scenario likely to illicit the behavior and provide the materials for caching, while preventing the dog from going to areas I don’t want them to dig. I might use doors, gates or other barricades to prevent them from going.
All that said, I recognize that caching is deeply instinctual and those behaviors can be extremely difficult to change, and often pop up in other ways… for example, the dog might not dig in the chair any more but may choose to shred the middle of a sofa cushion…
If I had a client who didn’t enjoy their dog’s caching behavior, I would likely recommend management to prevent the dog from accessing the area without the owner being present, then teach a simple interrupt/redirect cue with high value, non-food rewards such as a tug game or ball chasing for giving up the food rather than burying it.