# Digging in water bowl



## nicosmom (Apr 19, 2011)

My 4 month old Golden digs in her water bowl all the time. The water splashes all over the place and makes a mess of the kitchen, so it's getting really frustrating! Whenever she does this I immediately take away her water bowl for a while, but as soon as I give it back and she's drank a little bit she starts digging/splashing again. Does anyone else have this issue? Will she grow out of it?


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

We had that problem with Jack when we was a puppy. I remember wanting to KILL him because he did it over and over every day! It was a mess.

One thing we tried was putting only about 2 inches of water in the bowl at a time. The other thing we tried was to buy a bucket and use a snap hook to hook it to the side of a crate. Both worked fine and he eventually grew out of it.


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## Mavrk (Mar 11, 2011)

Sunshine does this occasionally. Her favorite thing used to be to pull the water bowl with her teeth and spill it. It looks like she is growing out of that one, but she still likes to put her feet in sometimes.


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## Enzos_Mom (Apr 8, 2010)

Enzo digs in his bowl, but only when it's empty. It's like his way of telling me that he drank all of his water. lol


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## Deb_Bayne (Mar 18, 2011)

Whew, I'm so glad I'm not the only one. Bayne digs so hard we have to snap the indent back out of the stainless steel bowl. From reading these posts it looks like he'll grow out of it.


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## Limerick Main (Sep 17, 2010)

This was one of the first "tricks" that Limerick taught himself at about 9 weeks old. He does it, then looks up with a big smile as if to say "Tada!! Look what I did! Aren't you proud?"


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## SimpleSimon's Mom (Nov 29, 2009)

Does your water bowl have a pattern at the bottom that she may be trying to get to? 

When we had a water bowl with an image at the bottom our golden was always trying to dig it up. We switched to a plain bowl and the digging stopped. Good luck!


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## Maxs Mom (Mar 22, 2008)

Gabby does not dig in her water bowl, but she digs at the corner of her crate when she does not want to be in it (like when we take a big dog for a walk) and in the process spills her water all over the place. We had to keep water out of her crate for the longest time. We had a "gerbil bottle" for her water, she knew how to drink out of it, I saw her. However she rarely did, then she broke that bottle. It would not hook on her crate anymore. 

With her recent issues, we had to give her water again in a bucket. Prednisone makes them DRINK. So far so good, we started with just a little amount. She has been good whether or not we can keep a bucket for her time will tell.


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## DNL2448 (Feb 13, 2009)

It could be worse...Check out how Trip likes to drink....


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## DreamingGold (Mar 16, 2011)

Laura, that is hilarious!


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## nicosmom (Apr 19, 2011)

Hahaha that video of Trip is hilarious! Thanks for the responses. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one and hopefully she will grow out of this. We are using a metal bowl that she can see her reflection in, so maybe that's what she's digging at? I'll try putting water in a solid white bowl and see what she does.


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## LincolnsMom (Sep 28, 2010)

Such a cute video of tripp!

For Lincoln who dug in his water we actually elevated his bowl. once we got an elevated bowls and he couldn't dig so were happy. Plus it helps to prevent bloat 2 birds 1 stone ;p


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## Mavrk (Mar 11, 2011)

Great video. In the words of my 3 year old son "that's too funny!"


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## Ruby'smom (Feb 4, 2008)

Ruby used to dig her water out of her bowl and also put all of her face in and blow bubbles in it so that it went everywhere 
we tried all ways to stop her but nothing worked so we just put her water bowl on a bath mat or a towle so that it soaked up at least some of the over flow lol


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## Ruby'smom (Feb 4, 2008)

forgot to say love the video lol


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## bioteach (Nov 13, 2010)

That looks familiar! Brewer used to try to drink the entire swimming pool dry. We had a pool cleaning system called a Pool Valet that had pop-up heads that jetted water to move debris down to the drain. Brewer waited until the head popped up and tried to dig it out of the plaster. When the jets stopped he would too.

Now Nugget digs and blows bubbles in his bowl. At least he's well hydrated......


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## Dragonz Saga (Jan 13, 2014)

Hahaha Tony is doing exactly the same thing, he used to drink properly when he was two months or something, now he just keeps making a colossal mess of the bowl. 
Reading queries here and seeing hilarious solutions, I feel hopeful he'll grow out of it. 
My solution is that when he is taking his sips *or acting like he is* I make sure he is not able to put his paws in the bowl


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## goldlover68 (Jun 17, 2013)

She is not 'digging' in her water bowl! She is playing in her water.....LOL

You have a real Water-dog!


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## ktkins7 (Jul 20, 2013)

Ella used to love to do this, but at some point she did grow out of it. We would just only fill the water bowl about a quarter of the way and keep an eye on it to replenish as she drank it.

The other thing she liked to do, and still does sometime, is blow bubbles and sometimes try to bite the bubbles. Before she grew out of putting her feet in the dish, she would blow the bubbles and then hit them with her paw. While cute it did make a mess.


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## Fairouza (Apr 7, 2014)

Phew, glad to hear it will be over soon! Little Fairouza does it I think to cool herself with the water when the weather is too hot, so now I have to stand next to her each time she goes to drink and almost take her paws outfox the water. I will start applying the idea of putting water little by little,but I'm a bit worried to forget and she dehydrates but worth a try


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

They do grow out of it(and then you kind of miss the playfulness). I put Copley's dish in a small sized baby pool for about a month when he was little.


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## Barkr (Dec 23, 2011)

If you are worried you will forget to refill the water bowl use several bowls with small amounts. You really don't want you puppy to become dehydrated ! I put Roxy's bowl on a bath mat when she was a pup she loved to play in her water bowl it did pass and I kinda miss it.


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