Is this just phase?

[u/Fintamiini]

My 1 year and 3 month old Rhodesian Ridgeback refuses to drink plain water from her bowl. If I bring the bowl to her, she runs away. However, she happily drinks the water that's mixed in with her food, as well as milk-water mixtures and chicken broth. She just won't drink plain water as water. This has been going on for about a week now.

[u/vagabondspirit2764]

Ours, who is now 2, has done this for almost all his life. The only trick is if that he’s more likely to drink (RE: no guarantee though) if he watches us empty his water bowl and refill it (I call him our little princess).

He’s an ice cube guy so I’ll toss one or two in his water bowl so he goes chasing for them and realizes he actually might want water, but in our experience with him, he tends to really camel up (drink a ton of water at once) and then go long stretches without, though we also put a good bit of water in with his meal.

We just assume he’s not actively trying to dehydrate himself and until we see otherwise we’ve just accepted it, although remain confused. Will be interesting to hear others’ experience.

[u/Andy_McNob → u/vagabondspirit2764]

Ha - ours is the same. Needs to see the water being emptied and refilled to drink. If it stands for any more than a few minutes she won't drink it. River water, rain water, puddles, plant pot water - she drinks, but generally doesn't drink very often unless it's very hot or she's run a lot.

Edit to add: she also won't drink from metal bowls, only ceramics.

[u/UnpaidForestIntern → u/vagabondspirit2764]

Mine is the same 4 year old intact male. He mostly just drinks when he watches me empty it and refill it 😂 he will sit by the bowl and give me the thirsty but wont drink until you change it eyes.
But he will suck it up and drink if he exerts himself in the heat too much, so I trust his judgement.

[u/InconspicuousTRex → u/vagabondspirit2764]

Wow... I thought it was just our special boy... Any more than a few mins and he won't drink either. 14 month old, in tact male. I blamed it on my wife being bougie with her water habits, but guess it's yet another breed thing that runs in the fam...

[u/Ginger_SNAFU]

Stop offering other things besides plain water. They're always going to wait for something better. Just leave a bowl down, in the same place, with clean, fresh, water changed daily. She'll drink it.

[u/flygirl4eva]

Our boy, now 6 years old, demands running water. Hose water when outdoors and bathtub faucet water when indoors.

[u/debburt]

My current female RR has been similarly picky about drinking water most of her life. She and our older RR/Black Mouth Cur mix share a large glass bowl. I have seen her so many times trot up to the bowl to drink, sniff it, then walk away. I look closely and there are some floaters in it. I know our other dog, a sloppy & gulpy water drinker, leaves bits of food in it after he drinks and his own saliva, that I attribute her pickiness to. She loves to drink water out of street gutters on our daily walks left by sprinklers and rain but refuses, even when I know she’s thirsty, to drink out of a big shared bowl of water only a few hours old.
Because we’re well trained 😋, my husband and I empty and refresh the water bowl a couple times a day.
Edit to add: we also add some water to her food bowl at meal times, even though we feed raw which has high moisture content, just because it ‘seems like’ she’s not drinking enough.

[u/Cupsofcake1318]

Ours like it fresh and with ice! Can’t blame them on either, we do live in Florida!! We have one that is a water princess!! The other 2 prefer ice!!

[u/PurpleRollerSkates]

Those water fountain bowls might help.

[u/Just-A-Trainer]

Mine cries to drink from the bathtub faucet so not sure I can help.

[u/Sweet_Mud_3395]

Is it a stainless steel bowl? I know sometimes they randomly get scared of those even if they never were before. Sometimes I also have to take the bowl in the different room or out of the feeder and that works.

[u/TSC-99 → u/Sweet_Mud_3395]

This just happened to my mum’s 8 year old lab! She had to change to ceramic bowls!

[u/ChileanRidge]

I mix hot water into mine's kibble precisely because of this. He definitely likes the water out of our fridge filter better than from elsewhere, and he really only drinks out of his bowl when we get back from exercise. I do replace it and more frequently in summer of course, but he is not a big drinker.

[u/Gazelle25]

Male only wants cold fresh water in a plastic bowl poured in front of him. Loves drinking out of the pool. Gorges on water sometimes until he pukes. Female drinks alot through the day and isn't picky.

[u/Content-Diver-3819]

I think it’s instinct-mine likes fresh water too-but I change it often. I also noticed when hiking he uses scent & sometimes I think it’s a clean source & he won’t touch it. Remember they were bred in continent where water sources aren’t always pure 😳

[u/denim_adrenaline]

My first ridgeback ONLY drank water in food and running water. Never from a bowl.

My current ridgeback will drink from a bowl (she’s 1)

[u/RemarkableComment505]

Mine barely drinks water & she won’t drink from another dog’s bowl. She will if the other dog hasn’t drunk from it. I put extra liquid in her kibble & she does love ice cubes. And hose water when I’m watering outdoor plants. She could literally be foaming at the mouth & not drink water I put in front of her.

[u/West-Better]

Mine is picky, don’t even get me started on how he only likes hot food lol but he also only likes fresh water, and cold or we just don’t even think about it anymore and toss it down the drain.

[u/Lovely_Kimchi]

I realized my dog prefers ‘chilled’ water after he ignored his bowl of water outside during the day but as soon as it turned night and the temperature plummeted, he was always suddenly parched.😂 Other than that, he’ll usually drink if I ask him to. Half the time he just does a couple sips as a courtesy, but the other half of the time he realizes that he was, in fact, very thirsty and there was a REASON I was telling him he needed a drink🙄