I thought I'd seen most puppy behaviour by now but this was a new one on me. I thought at first the washing machine had sprung a leak last week but it now transpires it is our little horror 'digging' furiously in the water bowl, spraying it everywhere and flooding the kitchen....so now I can only put an inch of water in the bowl and top it up ten times a day so that everybody else can get a drink when they want.

My friend has three diggers- In summer she has resorted to putting large rabbit water bottles on puppy panels to prevent water constantly being everywhere as they dig the bowls until they are empty

I've got one who does that - but only when it's empty! I always know when a refill's needed cos I hear "clinkclinkclinkclinkclinkclink" coming from the kitchen. Must be instinctive, as I've seen him do this in puddles to bring more water up.

my bully does this also, he loves water plays at digging in the puddles , in the summer i fill a babys bath and leave it in the garden for him and it keeps him entertained for ages with him looking and pawing at the ripples he loves it,

You get used to it when you have a Leo :-)
My kitchen floor is permanently wet

Ye we have a digger, a nightmare.

My little Leo loves that game!!
Fortunately we have a downstairs shower room, so her bowl stays in there.

Mine don't dig but the old lab does love to take a big mouthful and then walk off dribbling............! I highly recomment the Road Refresher water bowl. It's designed to avoid spill if you tip it in the car but it stops then having access to more than a mouthfull at a time and dosen't spill when it gets kicked across the floor in the good morning giddyness!

my newfs also used to do this, that's way we brougt the bowl stands.LOL.

If you put the water bowl inside a large cat litter tray ( empty and clean of course) then digging usually stops, wet floors a thing of the past and bowl carrying ceases..... never failed yet.

my 12 week old alaskan malamute puppy does exactly the same, she cant help herself!!!!!!!!!!must be so much fun watching us mop the kitchen floor many times a day!

Well I don't have a dog that does it but I do have a cat who loves digging in the water bowl, she's even been known to stand with both front paws in it when having a drink.

I have a cat that digs in his water bowl as well!  Never a dog so far though thank goodness!

> Well I don't have a dog that does it but I do have a cat who loves digging in the water bowl, she's even been known to stand with both front paws in it when having a drink.

My cat does this in the DOG bowls...

> Mine don't dig but the old lab does love to take a big mouthful and then walk off dribbling............! I highly recomment the Road Refresher water bowl.

I would second this. We bought a road refresher bowl too and the dogs actually prefer to drink from it - fantastic for our setter and new puppy as their ears don't get wet and they don't dribble a river around the room, but our bernese loves it too :-D

yep bella did this as a puppy she would have a drink dig the water and spread it as evenly as she could lol and then run off up the garden with the bowl tossing it around!!!  hmmmff  (sigh lol)
so i went and bought a horse bucket put it inside a tyre and that kinda had to be the end of it as she couldnt dig in the big bowl,well certainly couldnt tip it over as the tyre kept it upright.

but i do agree the road refreshers are very good.we use ours on the caravan journey.

Well, thank you everyone!!!!

I am absolutely bowled over (pardon the very bad pun) to realise this is not only completely normal but frequently seen behaviour. I do have a spaniel bowl for the car and at the risk of spoiling my laddo's fun I might just bring it back indoors. I also have a WSS that does the same thing to the freezer door--I always assumed it was because he knows that this is the secret land of tripe dinners...any takers, guys?

Watched this thread with interest as our little Chels does this too, and it is a complete nuisance.
Have decided that as it is never a problem in the car when the bowl is hanging.....then maybe we can make it hang off the wall somehow, I will let you know how this works.

Karen :)

I thought this was normal behaviour! Certainly is in our household :-)

> I thought this was normal behaviour! Certainly is in our household :-)

I agree!  I use a very large bowl in the kitchen, as I have a Border Collie and 2 Bearded Collies.  When I brought home a tiny Yorkshire Terrier puppy, I could hear all this splashing going on! 

Went into the kitchen, to see said Yorkie STOOD in the bowl, taking turns with paws splashing and really excited as it sploshed all over the kitchen floor.  Great fun!  :-)

My dog only picks up the bowl when it is empty, he  picks it up and runs around with it to ask for more water.

My bitch used to dig in her water bowl when she was little and my puppy dog does it outside only which is good... i remember my flooded kitchen... he carries around his empty food bowl after he's eaten which is quite amusing to watch...

Both my GSD's used to do it as pups and my kitchen was always flooded too. Good news though, they do grow out of it as they become more mature..

How old is your pup? x

My little dog isn't a digger, but she will push the bowl until the water splashes out, then laps it up off the floor.  There's always a puddle next to her bowl!  I've tried giving her a shallower bowl, but it doesn't seem to make any difference - just play behaviour, I guess.

Bean is 8 months old. He doesn't do it all the time, which makes it even more interesting for us all--none of us can be sure when, or why he does it :-)

Lol, you've got to love them. Sounds like it could be happening when he is in a mischievous mood. My youngest used to drink the water, then stand over the bowl and watch the water drip from his mouth and then bite at the water and watch the drips again and then in excitement would put his foot in there and pull the bowl towards him and this was usually when it tipped over. I never thought my youngest would grow out of it and he only used to be left 2-3 hrs a day. But he did grow out of it eventually. Have you caught him at it when you have been home?

Mischievous is that boy's middle name. I have caught him in the act once and now realise that the sound I heard from the kitchen was him digging for England in the water bowl. Since then he hasn't really bothered...possibly dreaming up a new sport! The dog crew are rarely left on their own and get a decent run out every day, so it's more about his entertainment than destructive behaviour...:)