[CuittisIL]

Eski has settled in happily and has become a family member very easily. Training is going well apart from a small amount of digging.
He's got plenty of areas in the garden where he's allowed to scratch himself a nice cool spot to lie. He knows the vegie garden and one other bed (both easy to observe) are off limits. No problems there.

Unfortunately, his choice of appropriate spots and mine don't always quite meet, and under the house slab is definitely a no go zone. We've liberally dosed the area with ground pepper but it's having little effect.

He gets plenty of attention through the day, 2 play sessions, a 3-4K walk and a run at the local dog park twice a week. It's not likely to be a boredom issue. It's a spot we can't always keep under observation and it's shady and cool with plenty of coarse sand that's easy to dig - I can understand why he likes it. It's a perfect cool place for a snooze.

It's not a huge problem, yet.

I don't want to have to fence to area as it'd cut off half the entire area available. Apart from increased vigilance which is obviously the best (but often impractical) solution, has anyone got any ideas on how to teach him it's a no dig zone?