Water Dish Issues & Playing in it.....

[Denise & Hunter!!!]

Hello! I need HELP HELP HELP! LOL Hunter loves water, any water, puddles, bathtubs, lakes, car washes, etc. My issue is she plays in her water dish constantly! She has a very large, heavy ceramic bowl. I started only filling it partway to make it less "fun", Its still fun. She can even knock the bowl over and rolls it around - I have no idea how it is really heavy! My big issue is she is doing it so much its damaging my linolium tile in my kitchen (which is only 3 years old!). Does anyone else have this problem or a SOLUTION? I would be forever grateful! THANK YOU!!! Denise

Ps. The photo is when she was a baby just to show you how big and heavy the bowls are!

[Denise & Hunter!!!]

Totally sounds like Hunter!! I am trying to find a link to the Buddy Bowl - does anyone have one? I can't seem to find it.........

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Go to Reviews at the top of your page. when you get there, type in buddy bowl. There are a couple of Adina's discussions. One of them has a link. n't do it. LOL or click here to go to the discussion!

http://www.doodlekisses.com/forum2/topics/buddy-bowlthe-spill-proof

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

I have given up!!! Gracie is 2 1/2 and still puts both paws in the bowl, then lays down and tips the bowl towards her so it spills all over her chest. I tried some of the other bowls when she was little. There was one that looked like a drain and they drank the water from the middle and it would fill up as they drank. Well, Gracie somehow managed to pick it up, take it to her pad and totally chewed it apart. Now she likes to take her tennis balls (two at once) to her bowl about every third throw/fetch, drop them in the water and then push them around with her nose to get them clean. Then she brings them to us for another throw. We take the balls away before we come in the house but of course her paws and snout are wet. When she gets bored she will take one of her toys or lovies out through the doggie door, give them a drink and a dunk, then bring them back in sopping wet. There is absolutely nothing I can do about breaking Gracie of her water obsession. Thank goodness my husband has always put the toilet lid down when he is through. We keep the toilets closed!!! It is totally hopeless!!

[Denise & Hunter!!!]

That sounds like Hunter! We have a water cooler and if anyone gets water out of it Hunter is right there to lick the water thing hoping for a few drips! GOD HELP ME if she ever figures out how to push the handle down with her paw - I fear its only a matter of time. We have to keep the toilets closed to!! LOL

[Missi]

Lizzie used to do this all the time, and still does with her outside bucket. For inside, I used a snow-boot mat. It has treads and about a 1-inch lip to "contain" the water. And I use a stainless steel bowl with a rubberized bottom. This combo seems to have helped a lot, plus corrections when I caught her "digging."

[Sam]

Ollie does exactly the same thing and it would worry me that I would leave the house for the day and he would have no water..... We also have a large ceramic bowl and we have put it on a little stool that stands about 30cm off the floor. We actually did it one day when we had a friend come over with her dog and the bowl was tipped over heaps of time so we put it up higher and it has never moved since!!!!! we have never had a problem since this. Good Luck!!!

[Nugget's Family]

Our 3 year old doodle did the same thing when she was younger and still does sometimes. I noticed that someone else wrote about using a plastic boot tray. I did that with her bowl in the kitchen. She did spill the water from her bowl into the boot tray, but it kept the water off the tile floor. I resorted to filling a big bucket out on the deck so that when she's out there she can play to her hearts' content and get her water play out of her system! I have been known to refill that outdoor bucket many times during the day! If your doodle is crated at all, you might look for a crate water dish hook? It makes it very hard for them to spill the dish in the crate. Ours is a stainless steel bucket with a hook that connects the bucket to the grates in the crate. That's very helpful because I was always afraid that she would knock her dish over while we were out and then not have any access to water for a couple of hours.

Good luck!

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

I noticed that Karen and Jack mentioned red staining. I just groomed Gracie Doodle today after she was shampooed. When I put her head back to clip under the chin and neck I notice the hair is sort of pinky red. She likes to dump her water bowl and lay down in the water getting her chest all wet. This is a daily thing. But, we do bath her every few weeks. Does anyone know why the redish staining? She doesn't smell like she has a fungus or infection.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

We just had a discussion about that reddish staining, and supposedly, it can be caused by yeasts. I was always under the impression that it was just from their saliva, but apparently it's a type of red yeast, also responsible for tear staining.

[Denise & Hunter!!!]

Hunter has this reddish staining on her too, her bowl is ceramic so its not the plastic thing. I have looked at it closely and her skin and mouth seem ok. I am curious what others have to say.