digging Dobermans

Question
Hello,
I am the proud master of a brother and sister Doberman of 8 months old ( the male is castrated ). We live in Venezuela on a fairly large property with enclosed walls. The dogs never go outside the property since day one and don't show any interest to go outside either. The thing is, they started to dig the plants and randomly across the place as well. I caught them in the act several times, being very angry, I spanked them and growled at them to show them how bad this is. For a while it worked. It can hardly be a separation anxiety since I am always home and the rare times I go out, they don't dig systematically. I made a few researches on the web and someone suggests that it could be an enzyme lacking in their nutrition. For us, at this point, going outside with the dogs is impossible, we don't have transportation and the vet is very far from home. I don't want to put them in a kennel, they roam free and will continue like that. I don't want to have to spank them neither, it breaks my heart. There are some spots they can dig their heart content, but they didn't understand that part yet. Is it only a matter of patience? And if it's an enzyme issue, without a blood test, is there any typical enzymes that are concerned here? Thank you very much for your time,
Odette

Answer
Using physical punishment on any living creature, even IF YOU CATCH THEM IN THE ACT, is barbaric.

Dogs dig.  They dig for many reasons.  Most likely, there are small critters living on your property (moles, voles, skunks, groundhogs, whatever other varieties live in your piece of the earth) and these dogs (perhaps one, then the other follows) are responding to the scent/sound of these animals.  if your property is so large that you can't contain the dogs, why worry about a few bushes?  There is absolutely NO WAY to truncate the normal prey drive of a dog.  STOP abusing them with histrionic emotional reactions and physical "discipline" for something which is a natural part of the nature of the domestic dog.  Your dogs, part of their breed, is HIGH PREY DRIVE and HIGH territoriality.  If you wanted LOW prey drive you should have purchased a Pekingese.