Worthy is in full remission on the toenail condition, SLO, loves the cooler weather, and is looking for action!
He began doing a lot of digging in his dog yard (right out the back door, fenced, and then there is also a 6' property line fence well back from his dog yard), and I would put poop in the hole, and he's start a new hole! Hubby would fill them in with soil, and I would cover that tempting fresh dirt with a flat piece of 2"x4" welded wire crate panel or fencing, to let the grass grow back without it being dug first!
Wow, did we have lots of pieces of welded wire out there, for lots of holes! It seemed to me that Worthy needed a designated digging spot. So I did research.
Because of his Poodle hair and our soil, the only place it sticks on him when he digs is precisely onto the toenails. So he doesn't track dirt into the house. My research indicated that sand WOULD come into the house. So, no sandbox.
What we would up doing was choosing a good spot, hammering pieces of PVC piping into the ground upright to form a boundary on one side (the other three sides were bounded by the house wall, his dog yard fence, and the patio), and turning the dirt in the area.
He took to it the very next morning! For reasons he keeps to himself, early morning is his digging time, in the dark, while we have the patio door open for him to be in the dog yard with some supervision.
Another of his adventures was scary at the time, but ended fine. The groomer accidentally cut his tongue with scissors while trimming his moustache and beard. She did exactly the right things--and prayed while she did it, God bless her--and the bleeding stopped in about 10 minutes. We still haven't found the cut. But the tongue does bleed easily.
I realized that when I do his daily comb-out with him lying across my outstretched legs on the bed with a strong lamp shining over him, he is very steady for me to trim there. So I'm going to start doing that. It's the clippers I don't want to deal with. And a Standard Poodle, that's major clipper duty.
I had him take it easy the rest of that day, but by the time hubby got home from work, he was bouncy, bouncy and ready for action with his daddy. I called the groomer the next day to let her know he was just fine, and that I was going to start trimming the moustache and beard. His head is not moving around when he's lying down like that, so it will be much easier for me. Also, I think he needs that done about twice a month, to keep the hair out of his mouth. He needs to chew to keep those teeth lovely, after all!
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Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition, and the free Canine Behavior Series articles at http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=SRC&S=1&SourceID=47
Glad the toenails are better. Worthy seems to be a lot of work for you and Hubby, but I bet she is worth it. 
