Hi All,

I know I'm probably not going to get an answer to this question because I suspect it is something we'll just have to put up with, but when Nando takes a drink he literally gets about 3/4 of his mouthful of water all over the kitchen floor! He will sometimes just stand with his head down watching it dribble and then lick it up off his paws or the floor. Other times he will just walk off and leave a trail of water behind him.

It isn't a small amount of water, either. It is more like a puddle! He went to the vets for his kennel cough vacc. tomorrow and Mum briefly mentioned it, he checked out his mouth and throat and there is nothing visibly wrong with him that could be causing any pain.

Anyone got any suggestions about what we can do? Other than put a long rug in the kitchen or re-locate the bowl to outdoors?

Will he likely grow out of this, or is this just the shape of his mouth due to his breed?

Josh

Oh Josh, think they all do it, lucky if it is the floor often it's my lap.

Not any one breed in particular but I do wonder if it is something to do with the way dogs drink which is not at all like us.

My kitchen floor sometimes resembles a swimming pool after my lot (spaniels) have finished.  It is the way my boy will drink then just stand and vacantly look at you as it all dribbles back out again. :-)

LOL, Josh this made me smile..
My youngster does this, she puts her whole mouth into the bowl and then just takes on too much. She leaves so much water on the floor I have to check every now and then she hasn't had an accident!! Someone else mentioned it to me that she drinks funny... Hehe.. Never seen anything like it, nowt wrong with her medically.. She is a fruit loop though x

I once had a golden retriever who would delight in blowing bubbles in his water bowl every morning. The mess was terrible!!! I always put a thick folded towel under the water bowl to attempt to absorb some of the splashes but it doesn't really help lol

Worst I had was when I tried using dog rocks in their drinking water (meant to stop brown patches on the lawn - this was before OH gave up the lawn as a lost cause!) ..anyway, my boy decided the greatest game on earth was to 'dook' for the dog rocks.  Once entered the kitchen to find an entire (large) dish of water all over the floor and a very proud dog playing with his prize.

Oh yes - quite normal.  I think mine have competitions to see how far they can 'drip'      ...and then if you're really lucky, Nando will learn it's fun to wipe his chops on the curtains, or the sofa!!

I just keep a floor cloth handy and have learnt to wipe up before walking through there in socks :)

BTW dogs scoop the water up with their tongues - and they do it the opposite way you'd expect them to.  Have a look at You Tube for dog drinking vids.  One here

One of mine does this and he's 6yrs old so I dont think Nando will "grow out of it" I have 5 sheps and Claude is the only one who manages to dribble water all over the place. One of his nicknames is sponge gob lol Oh and he's a noisy drinker as well,you can hear him in the next room.

I have one that just laps randomly in the bowl and deposits a trail away from the bowl. Not Tara, she rests her nose over the far edge of the bowl and laps against the edge of the bowl makng little mess apart from the odd drip - very well trained :) :) :)

I have two that do the same 7 yrs and two years. The seven year old likes to drop water in your lap and the two year old likes to wipe her face on my trousers. They both like to blow bubbles and have a good swill round, I have to wash the bowl out 3 -4 times per day as it can get a bit slimey !!!
Just have the mop and plenty of old towels handy.

I've got used to it on the floor, I think raising the bowl has helped in that ears don't go in as well. It's when they take a mouthful and then shake themselves dry, drooly showers aren't recommended & why do they always manage to hit my glasses.

:-D :-D :-D

Just be glad Nando hasn't started digging in his water bowl. The first time this happened I thought the washing machine had died, but the slightly muddy sludge in the bottom of the water bowl gave it away.

I knew I was living in false hope, however I dis want to check it was 'normal' he really is something else, I'll have to video it one day! I've never seen a dog like it before, lucky we have laminate!

My GSP likes to take his drink to bed! I have slid across the kitchen floor on numerous occassions.It is very funny to watch him carry a bowl of water and his surprise when he tries to drink from the now empty bowl :-)

I leave a large of water outside but have several water bottles larger then the ones that rabbits and guineapigs use around the house with one or two litre plastic bottles attached , even the pups hsd mastered their use by 5weeks by watching the adults.

Not sure a large breed would get enough water that way but having their main bowl of water outside means the bottles are just a top up through the day.

German shepherd Joe , would put his whole head in his bucket , then walk with mouthfuls of water ..and then come to love us ...in the house I put newspaper underneath and keep changing it ....

I stand the water bowl on a bath mat - the thicker and larger the better! I have 3 of the same breed, but they all have very different "splash zones". The master is Daisy, as one of the other poster's has mentioned, I used to think someone (usually the boy) had pee'd indoors, but it's usually Daisy - having filled her chops with water, she'll walk away from the bowl leaving a trail across the kitchen floor. Dolly and Dave are much neater, although they all do love to rub their chops across the sofa's!

You could try one of the road refresher bowls (http://www.roadrefresher.com/). It doesn't solve the problem entirely but certainly the trails left are a lot smaller as they can't take on so much water all in one go.

I have two that like to spread water everywhere and wander off with a mouthfull to trail it all over the kitchen but the youngest is such a neat and tidy drinker it's untrue. She can have a huge drink and not make one splash, she is also a slow eater and is carefull with that as well....pity she is not a little more ladylike with the way she charges around knocking people flying whan playing !!
I use a large tray with a bathmat or towel on it to mop up the worst. Did you know that cats curl thier toungues upwards and lift the water to thier mouths but dogs flick thiers under and throw the water in !
Aileen

Watch these videos :-
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1827299/time_warp_dog_drinking/
Sorry I am wrong cats lift the liquid with the bristles on thier toungues !
http://search.orange.co.uk/newvideoredirect?sv=ivideo&q=video+cat+drinking&b=-9&brand=ouk&pge=1&category=All&orderby=Relevance&cat=video&uu=0000013441515ec70673497b85a9d8ce&pos=2
Aileen

How very strange. That looks like a really inefficient way of drinking doesn't it

> but dogs flick thiers under and throw the water in !
>

LOL In their mouths and everywhere else!!

I have a friend with several GSDs and she puts their large heavy china bowl inside a large litter tray, for some reason it stops their shenanigans :-)

My old lab in particular does this, or rather used to, now I have a 'road refresher' water bowl. It's brilliant! Its designed to not slop in the car but it also has the effect of stopping dribbling because they only get a mouthful of water at a time. It very rarely has a couple of drips around it but that's all. huge improvement on the mess I got with a regular bowl and well worth the money IMO. (and no I don;t sell them!)

One of my previous dogs did this, she had an undershot mouth. Now one of my GSDs dunks her whole snout in the water bucket right up to her eyes, I think she must be part Newfie with her love of water.

My mum's male GSD was a nightmare for doing this as a puppy...if he wasn't dribbling the water everywhere he was playing in it.  My sisters Leonberger was even worse....she soaked everything and would stand in the water bowl lol.  They have both got better as they have got older!

Today I had the novel idea of putting an upturned plantpot in his waterbowl so he cannot gulp so much and dribble it everywhere. It worked until he cottoned on and knocked the plantpot out of his dish! He is very clever I'll give him that.

I have looked at the non-spil waterbowls but I like using his stand for his bowl so that he doesn't have to stoop too low to drink. I wonder if it can be used with a stand?

If you look at the link from the last post I made, they do some sort of attachment which raises the bowl by attaching to a metal crate.

My last dog (lab cross) would leaves trails of water all over theplace, he never grew out of it. As he got older I raised his bowl (put it on the bottom step of the stairs), it never made a difference to the amount of water he waould dribble accross the floor.
Strangely enough, my slobebry Mastiff does not leave trails of water, I do put a mat under his bowl to catch the masses of slobber that gush out of the sides of his mouth all over the floor while he's drinkning.

I have a friend with several GSDs and she puts their large heavy china bowl inside a large litter tray, for some reason it stops their shenanigans

I do this as well, put the water bowl inside a large cat litter tray. Then they walk away and regurgitate a mouthfull across the room. You just can't win, no wonder we love them so much !!!

I may start feeding him inside his crate, too. So that I can have his food and water at the same level on his stand. Have ordered one and will let you all know how I get on with it! Once again you have all been superb with your help and advice

How about raising the bowl on newspapers, did that for a long time until OH made a box for it to stand on -  being ungrateful - the papers were better as they absorbed drool, overflow & could be changed when wet.

I bet if u gave him tea in his bowl he wouldn't drop a bit ! My freind used toi give t to hers as a treat water went everywhere t never got spilled
t