Not that I am any expert, but if it helps, this is what a dog trainer once told me: He said that he had a client who had a border collie. The owner called him for help and said the dog was chewing the rear decking and she was at a loss at what to do.
The trainer showed up to her house at the agreed time. The lady let him in. She walked him through the house to a door at the rear. She opened the door and where you would nomally step onto the decking was the jaggered remains of what was once rather expansive decking.
The dog was a happy energetic dog. The owner was a dedicated dog person. Now what the owner did everymonring was ride her bicycle to the park with the dog. The park was a few miles away. The bicycle had a big deep basket attached to the handle bars. In this basket were over one hundred tennis balls.
So every morning before the lady went off to work, she rode her bicycle, with the dog runnning beside it to the park a few miles away. At the park the woman would play with the dog, including hitting each tennis ball as fast as she could and as hard as she could with a tennis racket, large distances around the park. The dog would race around and fetch each one. The lady would ride back to the home with the dog running beside her. And every day more and more of the decking was gone.
Now what the trainer told me was this:He said that dogs can run themselves until they can run no more and the flop down with their tongues hanging out, totally exhausted. But 5 or so minutes later, they have renewed energy and can do it all over again. So they have quick recovery.
The trainer said that what the dog needed was mental stimulation as that breed was very intelligent. Now he did not go into detail about what mental stimulation was given but he showed me with my dogs that when I walk them, not to just walk them, but to walk at different paces and make them walk staying at my side all the time, no matter how fast or slow I was walking. Stop and tell them to stay. Walk some more. Give them the command to stop. Stay. Then I walk away and they stay until call them to come. Walk some more, making the dog keep pace right next to me, and change pace. Turn around once in a while, sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right - with the dog staying right by your side the whole time. This sort of thing (he explained) gets the dog not to walk mindlessly next to you, but instead makes the dog's mind pay alot of attention to what you are doing all the time.
For this to work, you need to have your doig trained to heel (Walk by your side, without the dog going further in front than your hip is), sit, stay and come.
The trainer was telling me how important mental exercise is to the dog and he said it does tire them out. Top make his point he told me about the story with the border collie. So likely he gave that lady alot more mental exercises for her dog than he gave me, but I have just told you about what he said in case it helps.
Oh, as someone else here said, I also saw a pet program that showed that you can give your dog a sand pit and train it to dig in that area only.
Good luck! I hope the situation gets better. I know its so difficult to deal with dog behaviour issues as I have one that pees inside
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