How much does your dog drink?

i wasnt sure where to put this, so it will probably need moved lol. was going to put it in diet and nutrition but wasnt sure... so just thought i would put it here...

anyways, how much does your dog drink?

ive noticed that jake very rarely drinks... he will have a wee drink after a walk but apart from that, he doesnt seem to drink at all. maybe just the odd few gulps...

i have also noticed that he prefers to drink water from outside in the garden, we have a few buckets out there and he prefers to drink out of them than his dish. even though his dish always has fresh water in it... i dont get it...

Werm is the same, she will drink after eating but i don't see her drink much from the fresh water bowl- puddle on the road and she laps it up through......

ruby is the same i dont see her drink much from her bowl all though she always has fresh water in it changed at least twice a day,
she also drinks from an old bowl that is outside filled with rain water, for example the other day we had been out on a walk, ruby had had a good play with a doggy friend came home and she had a small drink from her bowl then went out side for a wee and had a big drink from the bowl outside, i dont get it but saying that she also will bury her chews then dig them up a few days later when they are all wet and covered with soil i'm begining to think she doesnt like clean things

Moxie used to be like that, very rarely had a drink unless we've been training/working/walking. Now that she has renal disease, she is emptying her bowl every day. Thats actually how I first noticed something was wrong with her.

A quick way to check if your dog is adequately hydrated is to lift up his lip and press your finger against his gums. As you pull your finger away, it should slide right off, the gums should be moist. If your finger sticks, or the gums feel dry, your dog is dehydrated.

Jake may be drinking from the outside water because it's cooler than the inside water. Adding some ice cubes to his water bowl might encourage him to drink more.

Louis I hardly ever see drink water maybe once or twice a day but thats it, Scratch was a big water drinker but a bit less now but about 4 times a day, Jed it just depends, but you know when he drinks water outside as he shoves half his head in the bucket and you hear him slurping.
Maybe they could do a study on why dogs like dirty water, ie rain water or even drinking out of puddles as I know if there is a choice for all three puddles are number one on their list, maybe mud tastes nice to them

my lot are big drinkers, I have a square basin in the kitchen, not sure how much it holds, but they go through at least one and a bit basins in a 24hr period, in hot weather it will be up to two basins a day.

im glad jake isnt the only one who doesnt drink a lot i always worry about things like that, but i guess he must be ok if he has the water available and chooses not to drink it?? although, typically just after i posted this thread, i let jake out for his last toilet chance before bed and he came in and took a massive drink out his bowl he was just trying to prove me wrong and make me feel like an idiot

thanks, i will try the ice cubes

aw, jed is such a dafty jake loves sticking his head under the water lol.
i think it would be interesting to know why dogs choose that water to the water in their bowl. jake would always choose it over that in his bowl lol. anyone know??

I think the rule of thumb is, 1floz of water per pound of body weight per day? or something like that? must go and look it up, but there will be a variation in individual dogs,

based on that,

vinnie, = 52kg which is 114/115lbs = 115floz ...= just under 6 pints? gee im rotten converstions so sorry if I got the above wrong lol

Teagan drinks after exercise and after food.
She doesn't even get through a bowl a day!
She does prefer the bowl upstairs though - even though it's the same water, and the bowl is made from the same material as the one downstairs!

Some dogs don't like chlorinated tap water. Chlorination seems to vary from area to area ,when we lived in Somerset our water smelt like neat bleach so I dread to think what it smelt like to dogs. I used to have to give my dogs bottled water.

Some dogs like water fresh straight from the tap, I guess it is oxygenated when newly run from the tap and tastes fresh/'lively' . Others prefer water which has been alowed to stand giving chemicals a chance to evaporate.

If dogs are fed a complete food (which is of course dehydrated) they tend to drink a lot more than dogs fed on fresh food.