Hi Folks, (Not so ) Little Ziggy is just gone 11 weeks and is doing fantastically well. As a first-time owner, the learning curve is steep but he's a great little guy, easy to train and lots of fun. My wife and I work from home and we have a setup for him downstairs with a 6'x6' pen with his crate, a separate vetbed, his crate and a few toys/things to chew on etc. He gets out once an hour or so, has very few accidents and will, most of the time, behave himself. One issue we do have revolves around his water bowl. Frequently he will seem to take umbrage to it being there, beings to bark loudly, paw and eventually spill it all over the place. The pen is setup on a tiled floor so it's no big deal to clean it up. We have tried 3 different bowl types (stainless, ceramic, plastic) and the behaviour is the same with each. I wondered if anyone had any suggestions to try and remediate this as I'd rather he drunk the water although it does have the added bonus of keeping the floor clean! Thanks!
Hehe, Squidge was a nightmare with her water bowl as a puppy. She would pick up lighter bowls, throwing the contents everywhere and, if she couldn't do that, she'd dig enthusiastically in it until all the water was on the floor. Brilliant game. With her, I couldn't keep a bowl in her pen, but offered it to her very regularly throughout the day instead. She grew out of it eventually.
This is a common thing with puppies. I simply found a bigger, very heavy bowl and only filled it about a third full. It was an old ceramic mixmaster bowl from a thrift shop, actually. This meant much more frequent refills by me but he eventually grew out of the "play in the water bowl" phase. Make sure you take a video before you switch bowls, it is awfully cute to see them doing that.
All my labs when pups have had a fascination with the water bowl , all grew out of it within a short space of time . Here’s Alfie digging his way to China
Oh the little sweetheart! Such dedication! That's what they mean by 'dogged determination'! Joy did the same when very young but I'd kind of forgotten until I saw this thread.
That's so cute! These no-spill travel bowls are supposed to be good, though I have never personally tried them. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Prestige-Road-Refresher-Spill-Water/dp/B001GULX04?th=1
Thanks for the responses folks. Good to know my little lad is normal...ish. I actually bought the Prestige bowl but he can pick that up by the lip, he's very determined!
