How do I stop 4 month old pup digging up garden?

Er......They grow out of it, niggly?

Can you have a word with mine.

Well, my very lively working cocker doesn't dig anymore having been a contender for Australia!! Mind you she is three now. The odd telling off might have helped!!

Still waiting for mine to grow out of it niggly thirteen years and counting.

Thanks all. She's nearly 5 months old. I am trying out your suggestions.

That sounds like a JR. I havent had a dog I am not starting with one at this stage in my life but a JR is the breed I would have.
I have a friend who has this most lovely marked JR rescue dog. She is naughty but she is adored by her "Mum and Dad." I understand they can be wayward.

They look right because they have good leg at each corner and a proper un-squashed nose.

It's uphill work, very uphill.
Playing with her is certainly a good way of suggesting alternatives to digging, so is trying to confine her excavations to a restricted area of the garden.

Does she understand the word NO? If not say it calmly while removing her from her digging, Repeat this until you are blue in the face.

My childhood fox terrier never stopped digging, but we did manage to teach him only to dig in one flower-bed where he buried bones. My mother's dachshund refused point-blank to learn not to dig holes.

Right now I am trying to stop a cat from lying on the draining board. When I put him down on the floor for the second time within ten minutes and asked him sarcastically if we could just not pretend I had said no however many times are necessary, he stalked off in a huff and is now lying in the bathroom hand wash-basin!

Our JR ferociously digs holes but on the plus side he never goes into fields where there are sheep or cows. Our chickens walk right under his nose and he doesn't bat an eyelid.

Concrete over the garden! Well you did ask.!

Although I'm dog 'free' now, I still have terrible yearnings and read the doggy threads. Our spaniels all dug when they were pups. It's fun. We got them out of it by playing hide and seek with a toy hidden somewhere in the garden. The springer could go for 20 minutes before he gave up and asked us for clues. That and bawling at them every time a paw scratched the surface.

(We're borrowing DS's dog for the weekend next week. Can't wait!)