Won't drink water...

[Blue]

So lately our dog Nitro has been obsessed with finding places to drink water from when he's outside. Now I always leave a bowl full of water for him but he would rather drink it off a tarp or find somewhere where it's puddle up or in something. Last week we had a few days of rain which left lots of places for him to find water outside. However, ever since then he refuses to drink water from his bowl. At first I just figured he would drink if he got thirsty enough but these past couple days have been so hot (90 degrees) and very very humid. When outside he just wanders around looking for water and if I put his bowl down right near him he just looks at it and walks away panting and the same with in the house. Finally today just for the hell of it I filled up a random plastic bowl and put it on the floor and he immediately drank the whole thing. Same thing outside today I filled up a bucket and he drank from it the whole time we were outside. So suddenly he has a problem with stainless steel bowls. I would just buy him a new bowl but he did start playing with the plastic ones after and I don't want to be cleaning up water all day or worrying about my son slipping in it and I'd like to continue to use the same stand for his bowls I've been using. It just seems like such an odd thing so should I just stick it out with the bowls I have now and hope he goes back to drinking from them or am I probably stuck with getting him something else. I should add he has no problem eating out of a stainless bowl it just drinking. What concerns me is his lack of drinking and the really hot humid days we are having. Yesterday the only thing he drank consisted of him licking the grass where my son had splashed water out of his pool.. So clearly thirsty.

 

[karennj]

What does he do if you put the plastic bowl in the stainless on the stand?

 

[Blue]

I don't know. I don't have a plastic bowl that fits in the stand but I guess I could try finding something to just sit on it to see if it's more the stand (assuming that's what you're asking for).

It's just weird because it didn't start till he was getting his fill of clearly delicious rain water.

 

[karennj]

no, I mean put the water in a plastic bowl and set that inside a stainless bowl.

 

[Blue]

Oh ok. Yeah I can try that out and see if he will drink it then.

 

[Max's mom]

My parents have a dog who they rescued and he will not drink in the house, from any bowl! He will only drink from a bucket on their back step. They just wash it, fill it with fresh water and put it out for him every day. In the summer they have to keep the bugs and dirt out of it and in the winter keep it from freezing. They just bring it in when he comes in and put it back out when he goes out. Weird doggies!

 

[Bailey's Mom]

I sit Bailey's food and water bowls, whether Corel or plastic, in her steel bowls. She seems to prefer it. The heavier steel bowls keep the food and water anchored in her feeding area, but the (whatever sensation...????) of the metal bowls doesn't bother her. And yes, until I started doing this, she'd go days without drinking. I wonder if they get some sort of discharge against their whiskers from the metal.... Additionally, she only gets bottled spring water, no chlorine or fluoride for our girl. I wonder if that had something to do with it. On occasion I've given her tap water when the bottle is empty, but here is no clear correlation. Our tap water comes from Lake Huron, it smells of chlorine in the morning, what about yours?

 

[angelbears]

Try to be careful about letting him drink from puddles and such. That is how they get lepto.

 

[DennasMom]

Denna prefers water from the hose (stinky, clorinated, flouridated) to the brita filtered water she gets in the house... But, I think that's more a play-with-the-hose thing.

Not sure why the stainless bowls would be an issue in hot, humid weather.... the 'shock' thought is a good one, but that would be during dry periods, when you're more likely to build up static electricity.

Dogs are just crazy!

 

[Blue]

Thanks everyone. I've just been trying to stick to only letting him drink from the stainless bowl while in the house and when we are outside I have a small bucket I've been filling up. He has finally started to drink from the stainless bowl in the house again although it's only little bits here and there. I'm starting to think maybe it's just something with the stand because he's standing at a weird angle to eat his food now too. I don't know if maybe my son scared him while eating. He loves to watch him eat and would bump into it a lot. I've since discouraged him from watching him eat because of this. That's the only thing I can think of that would make him scared around the stand itself. Maybe it just hasn't been as noticeable with the food because he isn't going to pass up eating for anything. If only dogs could talk! Then he could just tell me what the problem is.

 

[Blue]

The water here in my town is also extremely clean with no floride so I can't see it being an issue with the actual water. He has no problem drinking the same water outside. It's interesting to hear of other dogs with weird drinking habits though!

 

[karennj]

Not sure which stand you have but I have a metal one that the bowls sit in and when the bowl is on the empty side it can move and clangs a bit. It freaks out my one dog a little.

 

[season]

Sounds like your dog is training you.

A dog is not going to starve itself or go on strike from drinking water.

 

[xcrazydx]

Sounds like your dog is training you.

A dog is not going to starve itself or go on strike from drinking water.

Hahaha

 

[Blue]

Yeah I'm aware of that. He was finding other places to drink it from because he didn't want to drink it from the bowl in the house. Actually I simply moved his stand and he is happily drinking from the bowl again, so I guess that means he trained me to move his bowls. Couldn't possibly have been anything else..