How to get my dog to drink her water?

Question

We got a new dog a few months ago, an Australian Dingo mix.  She's a great dog, eats good, etc.  But she will hardly ever drink the water we give her.  We've used filtered water which we drink ourselves and used water straight out of the spigot, but she doesn't seem to like those.  She will drink toilet water if we forget to keep the lid down and she'll also drink from rain puddles outside.  What can we do now?

Ghilly · Accepted Answer

If you make sure she has no other sources of water,m she will have to drink the water you put down for her in a bowl.  Make sure the lid is down on the toilet, although even though it sounds gross to us, dogs prefer toilet water because it's probably the freshest water in the house with respect to being replaced.  Think about it - every time someone uses the bathroom, the water in the toilet bowl is replaced.  To a dog, that's like popping open a new bottle of Perrier every time they want a drink.  If you fill their bowl from the sink, unless you dump it and change it every time they take a drink, the water is going to be sitting there until the bowl looks like it needs to be filled again.

I would be very careful about letting her drink from puddles unless her vaccinations are flawlessly up to date, and even then there are no guarantees.  Wild animals also like to drink from puddles, and the thing is, there can be wild animal pee or poop in that puddle if the puddle has formed over an area where a wild animal urinated or defecated, leaving the opportunity for your dog to be exposed to leptospirosis if the wild animal is infected.  So drinking from puddles can be a dicey proposition and one that should be discouraged at all costs. 

You are just going to have to be extremely diligent about making sure the toilet seat is down, not let her run around outside unattended if there are puddles, and make sure she has many sources of fresh water around your house and yard.  If she gets thirsty and her preferred sources are not available to her, she will drink what you want her to drink.

Ghilly

kabs8 · Answer

Thank you very much for your input.  I really appreciate it.  I'll just have to be more aware and change her water often.  Thanks again.

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