Drinking from the toilet

[Puppy Madness]

Ember LOVES to drink from the toilet! She will seriously have a full bowl of fresh, clean water and will still go to the toilet for a drink. I don't think it's that serious, I keep them clean but my husband thinks it's absolutely disgusting and always yells at her for doing it lol so what do yall think?? Not a big deal or something I should put a stop to?? And I should mention that we have three small children so just keeping the toilet seats down all the time is unrealistic (It's a struggle just to get them to flush ha) so basically I'd be having to check bathrooms all through the day to make sure toilet seats were down in order to stop her from drinking from them.

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

I gotta vote with your husband on this one. Plus, the chance of her drinking from a toilet that has not been flushed ....ewwww. That can't be healthy!

[Linda, Charlie Brown and Beau]

Actually I read somewhere that toilet water is as hygiene as tap water and also has lower bacteria count than other bathroom surfaces.  But they can get bacteria related gastro problems from drinking stagnant water.  That being said, I personally would not drink from a toilet bowl, would you?  Yikes and LOL.  Therefore I would not encourage my doodles to drink the toilet water either! If you use drop-in toilet bowl cleaners, definitely do not let a pet drink from the toilet! 

[Jen, Lachlan, and Declan]

I'm laughing my head off over here, thank you!

[Laura and Angus]

Ewww. Our pup did this once at my parents' house, but never ours. We now keep a water bowl upstairs in our bathroom for when we all go up to bed...that helps our guy. We also keep the bathroom doors closed - that's because our pup eats TP if left unattended, but we don't like him having access to rooms without us as a general rule. Maybe just shut the doors as you wander through the house?

[Cathy, Josie and Piper]

My neighbors dog only drinks out of the toilet, they don't even bother to put out a water dish cause he would never use it. One weekend she was dog sitting her mother in laws dog and couldn't figure out why the dog kept following her around the house the second day and looking up at her. She finally realized that he was thirsty because he didn't drink out of the toilet. Lol. I now remind her to put out a water bowl for Josie when she dog sat her. Piper our 8month old puppy drank out of the toilet a couple of times, but then we put the lid down and she stopped doing it, or was it cause I had Chlorine tablets in the tank! I had just started using them before she had her first drink. The tablets have since been removed just in case.

[Julie, Eloise & Beasley]

I have one toilet-water drinker, too.  Beasley seems to prefer drinking from the powder room toilet - and I'm convinced it's because she's too lazy to walk to the kitchen (farther than bathroom) if she's in the family room!  I agree it's gross and would rather she not do it, even though it's always "clean" - but now I'm having to train myself to put the lid down because this was never an issue before.  (And it took me forever to "get trained" to put the toilet paper up so the little thief couldn't get to that!)  I've wondered if she likes it better since it's probably colder than her water dish...but she doesn't show interest in the other toilets in the house - so I always go back to laziness, lol. 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Just put the lid down!  It is NOT unrealistic to train your kids to put the seat down - they won't be perfect, but they can work towards doing so. My grandkids are 5,4,4, 3 and,I don't know how they did it, but the kids put the lid down.   I would also train them to close the bathroom door - if you get one out of two it is a win -win.  Look up what not closing the lid before you flush blows into your environment - it will gross them out enough to close the lid before flushing forever!