Is a dripping wet beard a good thing? You betcha! If your dog is drinking water, that beard will drip (sometimes even the long ears drip), showing you she is hydrating. July is Pet Hydration Month. Dogs are actually 80% water, so with the heat of the summer it is super important to make sure they are drinking plenty of good water.
How do you keep your dog hydrated?
Always have an available water bowl
It’s important for your dog to always have access to fresh, clean water. A traditional water bowl works just fine. Make sure you change the water at least once a day, and wash the bowl. Most of our bowls are long ear bowls so our ears don’t fall in as much. Our basic water bowl is stainless steel, and we have more than one so we can put them in the dishwasher. Take the rubber grip around the edge off as the dishwasher will dry it out.
Try filtered water bowls
We have four water bowls around the house, and one outside. By far the favorite bowl is our small Torus filtered water bowl. Mom has to fill it several times a day. For some reason, this water is the best ever. We have a larger version of the bowl in the back room where we often go for some quiet time, but we don’t drink out of it nearly as much. Mom says we drink better water than she does because her water isn’t even filtered.
Try a fountain for the running water attraction
Upstairs we have our ceramic fountain. In the summer months we tend to drink more out of this one than other times of the year. The porcelain keeps the water nice and cool. Mainly this fountain is for the kitties, but they always enjoy some of our slobber in their water. Fountain bowls are a bit more work to clean, and also need their filters changed regularly.
Keep fresh water outdoors for your dog
Don’t forget to keep fresh water outside for your dog. We have a big bowl outside as it doesn’t matter if my wet beard and soaked ears make a huge mess. Be extra vigilant about keeping the outdoor bowl clean. Bugs and other things fly into the water, and it is often warm, which helps bacteria grow. Never use a metal bowl outdoors as it will heat up in the sun, and get very hot. Take care to remove items in your yard that hold water your dog can get into, such as watering cans, buckets, and other similar items. If your dog drinks that dirty water, it can make them quite ill.
Never leave home without water for your pup
If you take your dog along in the car for any reason, always make sure you have water for her. You never know what might happen along the way. Especially on hot days, even a flat tire will mean your dog needs water to help stay cool and hydrated while waiting for help. (My mom would never think to change a tire herself!) We always have a jug of water and a collapsible bowl, along with a battery powered fan in our back seat dog kit. Out kit also has a towel to wipe off my dripping wet beard, or it can be used to soak in water to cool me off.
You are responsible for your dog’s hydration
Your dog isn’t able to go to the faucet and get a drink when she is thirsty. It is up to you as a pet parent to make sure your dog has fresh clean water available at all times. If your dog isn’t big on drinking enough water, wet food is a great way to add some moisture to her diet. Raw fruits and veggies are another way to sneak in some water into your dog’s diet. Proper hydration is very important in the heat of the summer, but it is important year round. Even in the midst of winter dogs dehydrate from all the dry air caused by the heat being turned on. As long as you keep that fresh water out, your dog should be in good shape!
So important to have plenty of water. We watched some bison the other day, and a few went to a puddle to drink, talk about dripping beard. Lol
I hope they shook their heads to let that water fly. When Mom gets close enough to me, I enjoy doing that, LOL!
We got lots of water and several fountains at our place and even make sure our feral kitties have plenty too!
That is super important for kitties too. I don’t know why kitties aren’t usually big fans of drinking water.
Great post! We do all of these things for Honey because we’re always out in the heat or the sun. But our special twist is that we are her servants in all of these things.
I fill her water bowl every hour or so because the water gets warm and collects hair. And Honey is very fussy about drinking clean water.
She also likes running water so I pour it out of the bottle for her so she can lap up moving water. Spoiled pup!
We sometimes drink out of the hose outside when Mom holds it up for us. My sisters and I are not fussy about the water but Mom wants it clean for us. Just keep her away from the salt water! Katie grew up drinking salt water as a pup and could always drink it without any issues, but most dogs can’t.
All great advice
Thank you. Hydration is important.
Thanks for the great reminders Emma! We make sure Mama puts water upstairs and on our porch just in case we get thirsty!
xoxo,
Rosy, Arty & Jakey
Mom says sometimes we drink just because the water is there, which is a good thing.
Pierre has the dripping beard and Bentley has the jowls and ears so we totally understand! The boys enjoy their fresh water too. ♥
For some reason, my left ear always falls in the water, but never my right. Mom says I must be crooked. Humpfff…
If only we had a normal Black Dog, we could follow your lead. But he has obsessive-compulsive disorder, which he’s applied to many things over his lifetime. By far, the most consistent one is water drinking. If given the option, he drinks so much that he “washes out” his kidneys, and they don’t work right. So, we have a water routine that doesn’t involve unlimited water. But, it seems to work!
As always, your photos are fabulous!
Wow! I’ve heard of people dying from drinking too much water, but not dogs. Interesting, but a bad problem to have.
Loving the wet beard <3 It's adorable and… so good to see you drinking so much!
We’re a family of heavy drinkers! LOL!
We didn’t realize until after Cricket was gone that Luke wasn’t drinking much water. Cricket was drinking so much because of her heart meds, that we were filling the big Torus bowl constantly! Luke would drink out of the bowl in the bathroom more often so we thought he was drinking enough.
I think part of the reason is that now he gets the Grandma Lucy’s re-hydrated food and we add a lot of water to that. We got just a smaller ceramic bowl so we could track better how much he’s drinking. I’m thinking of going back to a fountain because he used to like that when we had it. They are kind of a pain to keep clean (Sam has one), but I want to be sure he is getting enough.
They are a pain to clean, but we all enjoy drinking out of it, especially in the summertime.
We obviously always have wet dripping faces , Mom wipes them in the house because we throw off a lot of water. We have 2 metal bowls that have to be clean and cold for us to drink Mom fills them all day; Mica will empty the smaller one in one drink, I (Aspen) go back more often. We also have a large filtered one in case the metal get warm or empty. Mom has a filtered one in the garage that starts with ice and water in this hot weather which keeps it cold for a long while, Mica loves that one and we both love the hose.
With the heat, the cold water is the best. No pup wants a bowl of warm or hot water, yuck! Keep on drinking!
Lots of great tips here. How does Mom contend with wet beards in the house? I have trouble keeping things clean.;-(
We have water on the floor around the bowls, but usually, we go lie down after drinking, so our beds or the floor gets the majority of the water.
Such great information, thanks for sharing!!
People and pets need to stay hydrated but many humans are not good about doing it.