Water Drinking In Public

[SkySoaringMagpie]

One of our dogs is very reluctant to drink in public/away from home. He's not the world's most relaxed dog but he is pretty good in other respects and will sleep away from home in a crate. He gets the same water away from home as he does at home because we take water with us rather than using whatever is on the grounds we are at. He will eat away from home, but is not as keen as he is at home.

It is not that he will never drink in public, and in fact he is slowly improving, but he still worries me - it can't be good for his kidneys to wait until he is desperate or just happy enough with his surroundings to drink. Also I want to do the ET with him which he could do standing on his head at home from a fitness perspective, but which would present problems at the sports ground if he didn't drink regularly.

I have tried praising when he drinks with a view to putting it on cue, but the praise immediately snaps him out of drinking and he puts his head up to focus on me instead. I then tried doing very low quiet praise, but even that distracted him. I may try petting him instead as he loves massages but that means I have to get close enough to him while he is drinking without him stopping to focus on what I am doing. It's as if any kind of distraction at all in the environment will make him bring his head up away from the bowl.

I guess that's useful from a survival perspective if you don't want to be eaten by a predator, but it's driving me nuts! Help!

[Erny]

My previous girl (avatar - bless her cotton socks) was much the same. I used to put one of those small 'single-serve' containers of milk in with her water when we were out and this certainly successfully encouraged her to drink.

You could do similar - or perhaps use Active Manuka Honey as an alternative, or randomise. Don't flavour up too much water though, as you will likely find that your dog will guzzle too much water in one sitting, and that's not good either.

[sandgrubber]

When I was doing tracking, one of my fellow trackers had a kelpie who was awful about drinking. She succeeded in teaching the dog to drink water squirted from one of those back-pack water bladder thingies.

[SkySoaringMagpie]

erny and sandgrubber.

I will try the milk or honey option first, if that doesn't work, will see if we can make a game of a water bladder.

Edited because I can't spell

Edited April 18, 2009 by anita