Every responsible dog owner knows that their dog needs to drink water to stay healthy and active, but how much should they be drinking and how to ensure they get enough? Understanding the importance of water consumption for dogs and taking simple steps will ensure your dog stays hydrated and happy all year round.
Staying hydrated is an essential part of keeping your dog healthy. Drinking enough water keeps your dog’s digestive and circulatory systems working correctly. It prevents conditions such as kidney problems, heat stroke (particularly important as the summer approaches), and liver and heart problems. Dogs also drink to cool down, so ensuring your dog maintains hydration will help him keep his core temperature stable.
Over-eating is often a concern for dog owners, but where water is concerned, healthy dogs are self-regulating and will drink what they need. This means that there will be times when your dog drinks more than others, but it will usually be related to the environment, whether he needs a drink after a long romp in the park or a hot day. If you are concerned that your dog seems to be drinking a lot, and you can’t identify why it might be, do take him to the vet, but don’t restrict your dog’s access to water unless you’ve been advised to.
8 Top Tips for water intake
Water, Water everywhere – place water bowls all over the house
A great way to remind your dog to drink is to make water access effortless. Don’t just have one bowl in your home, especially in the summer but make sure you have several – ideal one in every room and maybe even one outside
Give your dog fresh, clean water every day. He will drink from water butts, buckets in the garden, or puddles… but encourage him to drink clean bowls that you keep refreshed.
Top up the bowls at the same time each day to keep an eye on how much he’s drinking.
Get A Doggy Drinking Fountain
A drinking fountains can sometimes help encourage some dogs to drink as they enjoy drinking from bubbling water. A lot of them also come with filters to help remove the limescale and heavy metals that they may not like the taste of (one of my dogs has allergies to tap water if it is not filtered)
Make sure you water bowls regularly in hot soapy water, and that they are in good condition. Steel bowls are hard to damage, but ceramic bowls are less liable to be knocked over – ensure they don’t become chipped. Likewise, you should replace plastic bowls once they become too scratched.
Another thing to remember if your dog wears a house collar is that they might not like the noise of the tag hitting the bowl as they drink
Make A Doggy Smoothie
Smoothies are great for both humans and dogs. When you make your morning smoothie make a little extra that you can share with your dog. It is important not to add any extra sugar and make sure the fruit and veg is dog friendly.
Green, leafy veggies like kale and spinach provide vitamins K, C and E, protein, and calcium. Sweet fruits like strawberries, blueberries and apples are all good for dogs.
When giving the dog a smoothie make sure it is only a small amount of S
Add Water To Your Dog’s Food
A lot of people nowadays feed kibble, which is great, but means that your dog is not getting fluids from their food – which is large source of dogs fluid intake
Adding water to any type of food cab be ebenficialy but especially kibble. Kibble that has been soaked in water or even better low salt chicken stock can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days. Why not freeze some as will then nice cooling snack
Despite the fact people think kibble helps clean their dogs teeth it actually doesn’t. After all do biscuits clean ours? Brushing your dogs teeth with a doggy tooth paste, or ad playing with rope toys etc are much better.
Make Doggy Ice Pops
Some dogs aren’t interested in water but love licking ice cubes. You can make iced treats by freezing blocks of water or mixing in a smoothie, low-sodium broth, or other flavour additives before freezing. A silicone ice tray can make perfectly portioned ice treats.
Wash Water Bowls Daily
Some dogs drink out of mud puddles, while others avoid a slightly murky bowl. Others are sensitive to the sound of their tags clanging on the stainless steel or ceramic.
Get A Bigger Dog Bowl
It is important that your dogs water bowl is in fact larger than their food bowl and be able to hold a lot more water than they actually need to drink per day
Try and ensure it is never empty. So each morning there should still be some water left in the bowlthat you are pouring away and replacing with nice fresh water
Offer Water From Your Hand
Sometimes when your dog is thirsty or hot and worked up they may not want to drink. If you think this is the case then scoop your hand under the water so you have a small amount in your palm and give them this water. After a few scoops they will probably start drinking again normally