Busters water bowl needs cleaning & refilling afer he's had a drink, due to the slobber that collects in it - fine, perfectly understandably and that's not the problem.The problem is, he wants his water 'tap fresh', to the point that if he hasn't watched me pour him a fresh bowl, he'll walk away from his bowl of water and go wait at he kitchen sink.

He's just had his first meal of the day, while he was scoffing that I got him a fresh bowl of water (he aways has a drink after eating). His food & water bowl are both in the kitchen, water bowl about 1.5m from the sink, food bowl only 1m further away. He finished his meal,  sniffed at his water bowl, looked at me, walked over to the sink & waited at the sink for a re-fill - his water bowl had barely had chance to stop sloshing it had been put down so recently!! I tipped his water bowl out & re-filled it, with him stood next to me watching- he drank it.
Arghhhh, it's frustrating.

If I ignored him, he would eventualy give in and drink the water.

What would you do? re-fill the allready clean water becasue the dog wants to watch you pour it (!!!), or ignore him as it's clean & fresh anyway.
I'm not too sure what to do as I like the fact he knows he can let me know what he wants, but I think this is going too far now!

Sorry, if he was mine and he was the only one, I'd humour him :) Their foibles are so funny!

> Sorry, if he was mine and he was the only one, I'd humour him :-) Their foibles are so funny!

LOL :-D
Yes, he's the only dog. A definate contribiting factor to his fussyness over the water bowl, is that I do find it amusing and rather cute.

That's so funny !.....if he was mine I'd probably indulge him too, from your other posts he comes over as such a good boy and his "little Lord Fontelroy " act would make me laugh.

I have water bowls all over the place (Need too with 3 Bernese) but Merlot likes her water fresh from the tap in the bowl in the kitchen....likes to see it poured fresh as well...so I humor her ! Our walking she drinks from the dityest muddyest grottyest puddles she can find !!!
Aileen
She even pee's in the puddles first then drinks from them  What's that all about??

My crossbreed refuses to drink out of any bowl that the newfie has had a drink from first.  Understandable, as she does leave behing slobber and food debris.  They have 3 water bowls down at all times and we are constantly refreshing them so that fussy xbreed has access to clean water when he wants it.  However, more often that not, I find him down the bottom of the garden, drinking rain water that has collected in filthy old plant pots and dirty buckets.

One of our old Boxers used to bang her paw against her water bowl until it got changed and like your had to see the fresh water going in,all our other dogs have never had this problem x

Considering most of mine would rather drink either from the toilet or a manky, frog-spawn full puddle, I would LOVE my dogs to be so fussy!!!
I hate it when they drink out the loo then rush to kiss people.  What's that?  Dogs toilet humour??!

> walking she drinks from the dityest muddyest grottyest puddles

oh yes that always baffles me with my boys!!!  baffles me that they are all very happy to drink from the mankiest of puddles/ponds but the water bowl needs to be fresh as!!!

And if it's getting low and I haven't realised in time the puppy (well he is a year now) picks it up and literally throws it across the room!  water everywhere!  I am very good now at making sure it doesn't get below 'the required' level!

He's not the only one , Fern my Dogue de Bordeaux has to have fresh water or she will not drink no matter how thirsty she is , but I am so soft and give her what she wants , she's been through the mill with her past cancer ops so she pretty much gets what she wants .
My rott will only drink running water so I have to run the outside tap for her until her thirst is quenched :)

I think I attract the fussy ones LOL

My friend used to leave her outside tap running slowly so her Newfs had their water bucket continually refreshed.
ML your boy is big enough to reach the kitchen tap himself!

My eldest male dog taught the younger male to ding the bowl same as him. Unfortunately the younger lad doesn't give me more than 3 seconds to respond to his wishes and if he doesn't hear me getting up immediately he dings it again and put his head round the door frame and gives me such a look!!

I would replace the water if he wanted me to if he is the only one. He's very obviously a mummy's boy!! And why not?! It's hardly spoiling him rotten providing water.....maybe you should add a buzzer for him to ring!! Or a client of mine has taught her dogs to ring a a hoop of bells as part of a send away..maybe................

I'm glad I posted now, it's been great fun reading about all the dogs with thier own drinking habbits :) I'm very glad that Bust doesn'tpick his bowl up and chuck it accross the room when he thinks it's too empty, LOL that is funny.

> He's very obviously a mummy's boy!! And why not?! It's hardly spoiling him rotten providing water

He is a mummys boy! I'll carry on giving in to his water-whims and he asks in such a lovely, polite way. He really does like his visibily fresh bowl of water, he would definately see the point in learning a trick.
I like the idea of teaching him to ring a buzzer for a drink, but I know he's a lot smarter than he makes out and he would stand there ringing the buzzer constanly for biccys from his treat tub.
He used to be far to quick at using his mouth to get what he wanted, like holding onto an arm or pulling a sleeve/trousers, so I taught him to poke with his nose instead (started off a rather violent poke, but we've shaped it inot a very gentle touch, sometimes just his whiskers bristleing against you) now if anybody apart from me is standing near his biscuit tub,he'll sit infornt of them with an amazingly cute yet pitifull face, gently poking them for a biccy! With a buzzer, he wouldn't have to wait for anybody to be in kitchen, he could buzz to get them to come see what he wanted , LOL just like your dog dinging the bowl :-)

It's great how dogs figure out how to get what they want :)

Hi mastifflover, my three definitely prefer 'tap fresh' water and if they don't get it the little one digs in his water bowl and chucks it out over the floor. If it isn't fresh they wait till they are let out and make a beeline for a drink out of the water butt. I think it's about temperature as much as anything else--after all we wouldn't care for a glass that's been stood all day (especially if someone else had drunk out of it :))

I indulge mine with their need for 'fresh-from-the-tap' water.  They each have different ways to communicate their disapproval of the stale water and I just smile and follow my orders.  I know my place :)

Exactly as others have said though my 3 dogs like puddle water whilst walking and also love their outdoor water bowl which gets topped up by rainwater and often has dead bugs floating about in it.  Dogs are weird...

I wouldn't have them any other way though - would you??!! :)

It's great how dogs figure out how to get what they want

They are extremely clever at training us :)--lots of positive reinforcement with waggy tails when we get it right!

> I indulge mine with their need for 'fresh-from-the-tap' water.  They each have different ways to communicate their disapproval of the stale water and I just smile and follow my orders.  I know my place

LOL, I could understand Buster wanting me to replace stale water with fresh water, but if I've just put down fresh water and he hasn't seen me pour it - he'll wait by the sink to watch me pour him a fresh one!!

> I wouldn't have them any other way though - would you??!!

LOL, no way :)

> he wants his water 'tap fresh', to the point that if he hasn't watched me pour him a fresh bowl, he'll walk away from his bowl of water and go wait at he kitchen sink.

My lab is exactly the same only if the water isn't fresh he groans and grunts at me until I refill it rather than wait by the sink, they are funny!

Does anyone else have a dog that digs in the water bowl if it becomes empty??

Yes, Bean digs away like fury at his water bowl for all he is worth and even though there is just a tiny bit of water left he manages to spray it all over the floor. His colleague digs at the washing machine--who knows what that's about--and if he feels the dinner hasn't quite been up to his standards in terms of quality or quantity he will dig at the fridge as if to say "I know you have chicken wings in there, let's have them now!"

> His colleague digs at the washing machine--who knows what that's about

So glad I am not the only one with a peculiar dog!

(Saying that though, the water-bowl digging is a pretty impressive bit of instinctual behaviour. It all became clear (as mud?!) one day when he was drinking from a shallow puddle in the park and as it ran low, started digging to bring more water up.)

> if he feels the dinner hasn't quite been up to his standards in terms of quality or quantity he will dig at the fridge as if to say "I know you have chicken wings in there, let's have them now!"

LOL :-D