Here's a new one: Afraid of water bowl?
 

Has your dog every shown reluctance to drink out of its water bowl? I'm not talking about not seeming thirsty -- I'm talking about backing away, barking at his water dish and needing reassurance or coaxing to get him to drink.

Eddie, 7, has been doing just that lately, and I've never noticed it before the last month or so. There have been no changes in his water dish or water quality or even where he drinks.

I've wracked my brain to try to figure out what it is. I've tried changing dishes. I've tried changing sources of the water (we use bottled, but I tried tap). Nothing seems to help. After taking a few sips, he backs away, barks if I'm not there and only tenuously returns to the bowl.

My wife came up with the best guess -- she wonders if he's getting water in his nose when he drinks. Yorkie snouts are so short, maybe there's something to it.

The only change I can think of is that I recently let him drink out of my hands while on a therapy visit to the hospital and forgot his bowl. He was real thirsty and lapped it up, no hesitation. Maybe he's decided that's his preferred method of drinking?

Thought I'd put it out there in case it's not just an isolated incident.

I've had a couple of similar things happen, but I'm not sure either matches what's going on with Eddie. Maybe they'll give you some ideas to help though.

Becca became afraid of eating out of her food bowl a few years ago. Poor little girl, she'd edge forward and then jump back whimpering she was so scared. I changed dishes, locations, everything and nothing helped.....until I tried a metal dish with rubber on the bottom. I figured out that the other dishes were sliding slightly on the smooth floor and making just enough noise that it frightened her.

Then Alexander became afraid of the water bowl a year or so after that. I got lucky when I switched out the shiny stainless steel bowl for a porcelain/ceramic one and that solved the problem. He was in the early stages of losing his sight (old age) and I think the shiny metal was startling him when he drank.

I hope you find out what's going on with Eddie soon.

Did his water bowl get knocked over or into and maybe make a noise that startled him?

Max went through this when we used stainless steel bowls. I tripped over the bowls a couple of times and made a lot of noise. Things improved when we changed to glass bowls. He is still leery walking between the 2 stainless steel kibble bowls (all of the dishes are in the passageway to the kitchen, terrible place, but that is where they like their stuff).

Eddie's thoughts may be different considering he is growling at the bowl.

Max was afraid of his reflection in the stainless steel water bowl too.

The kibble leaves enough "grease" or something to make his food dish less reflective. He prefers eating off of our porcelain plates.

The ideal for us would be to put ceramic on a rubber mat. I should do that.

It sounds like he just likes your hands. lol

..but if he is getting it in his nose, maybe a water bottle would help.

Good ideas, you guys. Thanks! I did notice just now that the rubber liner on the metal bowl has slipped off, partially. Maybe it is occasionally moving on him. And, yes, it frequently gets bumped and could have scared him. I don't know if I have a good alternate location for it, but I'll give it some thought.

I think I'll also try a porcelain bowl. The alternate one I gave him was plastic. Hmm, just saw Crystal's post. Maybe I will try a water bottle too.

The barking isn't aggressive. It's more like the bark he gives me when he wants something from me -- to go outside, to eat, etc. He's asking for help.

Neither one of mine have shown fear of bowls, but we do use a water bottle. Jada would occasionally get choked when I was giving them water from a bowl. The water bottle works perfect for us and an added bonus is no wet facial hair.
I hope you can figure out a way that will work for Eddie.

Really?????

We've been having an issue with Ellie. When she drinks too much or too fast, she chokes and coughs. Actually just talked to her nutritionist about it and we're going to try a few things. Her vet wants me to try a bottle. Was it easy to train her to use it?

What kind of water bottle do you use? Something like this?

Lixit Water Bottle for Large Dogs at PETCO

Oh Mike....Razz says he knows what the problem is. Eddie is trying to tell you, he wants one of those recirculating fountain things. So a trip to the pet supply store is in order, where you can pick up some tasty treats while you're there:p

lol....who knows why they do what they do. I've got one that will eat only in the living room or on my bed, another that prefers her bowl on her bed. Two that will drink out of the pet fountain, the others are afraid of it. I don't dare let a bowl move while they are using it though, as that spooks them all.

Hopefully switching to a different bowl will help Eddie. Good luck!:)

This is the size I use Amazon.com: Quick Lock Flip Top Water Tank With... , but with Lucy I am sure the bigger size would be more effective for you. It took literally seconds to get Jada and Bogie to use it when we first got it. I put a tiny dab of peanut butter on the spout and that is all it took.

Thanks, I think I'll give it a try. And Lucy is too slobbery. I keep her away from the Yorkie water bowls!

My son has a Chocolate Lab that was sick with a fever a couple of years ago. They took him to the vet and they put him on an antibiotic. He had a bad reaction to the antibiotic and started having seizures. It went on for a while because the vet thought the seizures were caused by the fever and not the medication. Anyway, when he was finally getting better he started staring at the water in his bowl and barking at it. They assumed he was seeing his reflection in the water but were not sure about it. When he was sick they had tried to get him to drink more water but this activity started after he was getting better. Don't know what caused it but he did stop after a week or two. That is the only time I have seen a dog act like that.

I try to get Gracie to drink more water by giving her a drink out of a water bottle that I pour slowly into a clean bowl. I have one of those pop up drinking caps on the bottle. She loves it. I know it's a bit strange but it gets her kidneys flushed out.

My old Jazzy was freaky about all sorts of things...one of the things that scared her is when her tag clinked the water bowl? Did you change her collar or tags? When her vision started to fail her she was scared of dark corners and reflective things too.

More good suggestions. Thanks, everybody.

Eddie's tags are attached to his harness, and he doesn't wear that in the house. I thought of the reflection, too, but couldn't solve it short of moving the water bowl. I'm liking the water bottle idea. It might be just "special" enough for him to like it.

I have one of the automatic watering bowls and Natalie would drink out of it and when it starts girgling, she would back up and bark at it. It took her a while to get use to it but now it don't bother her. My point is it could be anything that is scaring him so all the ideals on here are great!

Very surprising that a super smart well trained Yorkie like Eddie would have a phobia of any kind.:D

I like the porcelain material too, its easy to clean and no scarry reflections.

Ha, Shawn :) Eddie has his quirks -- I just don't brag about them as much ;p

Porcelain is sounding better all the time. I bought a water bottle, but it's one that attaches to a crate. I don't crate him. I suppose I could tape it to something, but it also leaks. And Eddie isn't crazy about it. I could teach him, but the leaking is an issue.

I had the same problem with the water bottle I used for my bunny. When you fill it, put the cover on and leave it facing down and push the bally thing up with your finger letting some of the water out. That seemed to make the proper vacuum it needed so it wouldn't leak. I returned a few before I realized I had to do this. Try it, I hope it works.

Good luck with Eddie. My Wally was afraid of the stainless bowl also. He saw his little reflection and it scared him :rolleyes:

Thanks, I'll give it a try. My technique of leaving it on its side on the kitchen counter didn't go over too well with my wife.

You could always go to a ceramics studio and have them cast your hands and make a ceramic water bowl out of them....:D

Maybe have the vet check his vision....

Genius on the porcelain bowl hand thing! And I will do the vision check, because it's just odd. He's not dehydrating or anything, it's just sad to see him struggling at it.

Afraid of water bowl
 

Hi
My 7 year old Yorkie began being fearful of her water bowl about 6 months ago. She actually did the same thing about a year ago with her food bowl. That one I figured out. I noticed when she was eating the tiny little charm on her collar hit the bowl and freaked her out. My solution for this was and is to always take her collar off just before each meal. As I said about 6 months ago she started doing the same thing with the water bowl. Unfortunately having her collar off did nothing to calm her fear. Lucy when she will go near her water bowl will get as far away as possible leaning forward just enough to get a sip. I know she is still thirsty because then she backs up and barks at looks at me, LIKE HELP! I feel so badly because her fear is so real. I have changed bowls, locations, raised the bowl, etc. just about anything you can think of. If I bend down and hold her water bowl under her chin she will lap it all up. I even tried for days to come,rely ignore the situation. Everyone saying when she is thirsty enough she will drink. Well yes she will but not enough and she is so afraid, I feel so badly. The fact that she barks while looking at me just kills me. LUCY never barks at anyone or anything so I know thus fear is real. Anybody have a clue what else I might do?

As far as you know she is healthy, right? Not having any seizure like activity where she stares into space for a while or any other strange behavior?

If you are quite sure she is healthy and her vision is good then you could try one of the many other watering devices available for dogs. There are battery operated fountain like water devices. They make free standing water bottle holders for dogs.
If you do an internet search for "free standing water bottle stand" you will find a variety of different ideas.

Other than that you could work with her on her fear. Sit with her and try helping her to see that the water is not going to hurt her. She may have had some experience where she got water in her nose that may have scared her and she now needs some "therapy."

I once had a little dog that would not drink out of a water bowl because he found that if he got in the bath tub after someone took a shower there was water that would drip out of the faucet. That tuned into a lifelong love of fresh water. He would jump in the tub whenever we were in there and wait for us to turn a small stream of water on for him to drink.:rolleyes:

Sounds like someone got spoiled daddy feeding outof hand. Itdoes not take long when its something they like. Thats any breed. We made the mistake of feeding our pap by hand she had to have daddy feed her not mom. She is broke since we have boo. Try giving it to her like you. Did before see if she takes it. This may have already been suggested if so ignore.

Could her hair be getting wet ? And she dont like it. My pap hates wet feet she touches the ground like ewwww. Just a thought

Piper inevitably 'chokes' after drinking. I'm intrigued to hear of these water bottles...Why do they work? And how would I go about teaching/training and/or encouraging Piper to use the water bottle? I learn so much (pretty much on a daily basis) all of which is enlightening and helpful.

my last yorkie went through a period where out of the blue he was afraid of his water bowl. He would stalk it, splash the water out of it, jump back suddenly from it, never figured out why other than he liked licking the water up from the floor after he splashed it out. It drove me crazy since I always had a puddle of water on my wood floor, then he started tipping the bowl over and dragging it around at that point I started doing everything to keep him from being able to move or splash it, I went through about 5 water dishes and several place mats until I came up with a combo that worked. I bought a heavy ceramic dish set that was raised in a metal stand, then I found a rubber place mat with a lip that sort of suctioned to the floor, so he could not drag the place mat around or pull the metal stand off the placemat, and since the rack was placed in the middle of the placemat it made it hard for him to splash the water out, because he would have had to stand half on the placement, eventually he gave up and drank from the bowl like normal. He also went through a period where he would not eat his food out of a bowl or a dish, he was thin and picky on what he ate, so he had to have wet food each day and what a PITA to have to keep putting that on the floor, someone suggested a piece of saran wrap which worked but then he pulled that all over the house, then I would cut a small paper plate to be the same size as the food and eventually I kept letting more of the plate show until I no longer had to trim it, that quirky behavior lasted over 6 months. LOL this is one of the reasons I wound up getting a yorkie mix this time, some of these purebreds sure have some high strung behaviors.

Interesting, I'll have to experiment like that. I'm the OP on this thread of THREE YEARS AGO, and I'm amazed it's common enough that the thread is still going strong!

Surprisingly enough, Eddie stopped being afraid of his water bowl after about six months, then went a couple years with no problems. Suddenly, just recently, he started doing it again! He will bark when he's thirsty and won't drink until I go there and encourage him.

Then, when he drinks, he just slips his tongue in along the corner of the ball and takes a few slurps, then backs away before he goes again.

Drives me bananas that I can't figure it out. Maybe a raised bowl will work.

could he have a tooth ache? cold water on the tooth, gives him a little tingle? IDK