How to get a dog to stop playing in a water bowl?
Irma Hermann
2025-06-15 21:15:48
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: 8
I ended up placing a heavy water dish inside a shallow tub. Beneath the water dish are several flat weight plates under a towel, preventing the dog from tipping over the entire shebang. If she's getting excited or in a playful mood you could try redirecting her excitement to something else for example a frozen food stuffed toy or a favorite blanket. In the short term, I'd suggest you could get a no-spill bowl that would make it more difficult for her to dig into. We put the water bowl up off the floor and that solved the problem. We had a puppy stay with us recently who did the same thing, what worked for us was keeping an inch or less of water in the bowl. Whenever she is about to dig in the water call her over to you or just simply pick the bowl up. Never ever yell at a dog or hit them because they will not learn anything if you do so.
Morgan Fisher
2025-06-15 21:03:41
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: 10
I suggest doing away with water bowls all together and use buckets instead.
We attach ours to crates with either a clip or a carabiner.
When we have very young puppies, we attach them with 2 clips, one on each side to give it greater stability.
The way we have them attached, puppies can’t get into them.
Dogs cannot tip them over.
We simply raise the level until it is too difficult to be worth the effort to get paws in.
Once the habit is gone, we lower the bucket back to ground level.
We use stainless steel buckets between a quart and a gallon in size.
Jeromy Schowalter
2025-06-15 20:51:33
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: 12
First, stay calm. Don’t react with heightened voices because all your dog hears is the cheerleading squad that is screaming their name – this reinforces the behavior. No spill water bowls do exist, which is one option to get them from spilling water everywhere. Likewise, when filling your dog’s bowl, only put a little water in the bowl. Less water in the bowl makes splashing less fun. If your pup starts to dig in the bowl, a gentle nope and then picking up the bowl for 5 minutes, this disrupts their behavior. Lastly, make sure they have plenty of proper toys to keep them entertained – fun toys make the water bowl look less fun!
Natasha Greenfelder
2025-06-15 18:55:58
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: 12
Dogs take any action as a sign of encouragement, and you must ignore her when she turns her water bowl into a wave pool.
Your current strategy of yanking away a Tupperware container only reinforces her behavior, and I’d guess that this whack-a-mole routine has become her favorite game in the whole wide world.
A cute dog can’t pay to fix water-damaged floors, so prepare for her aquatic ballet by buying a spill-proof bowl or laying towels under and around her drinking area.
You can also reduce the water level in the dish so she has less liquid to play with.
Walk away when she begins to splash and wait a moment before cleaning up the mess, ideally with her out of the room.
You’ll want to reward good behavior, so give her a tasty treat whenever she follows her Emily Post and drinks from her bowl without spilling.
Some dogs will dip their paws into water to cool down, so make sure your pup isn’t overheated.
She also might be enticed to dig into her bowl if there’s sediment or food at the bottom, so keep the dish as clean as possible.
She’ll soon grow out of her wet-and-wild stage and commit to hydrating like a mannered adult.
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