# H2Oooohhh...???



## LostLakeLua (Sep 6, 2009)

Forgive me for the nerdy subject.
I wondered what all of you use to water your dogs? Both the kind of water, and what you dispense it in.

For the longest time we were using a tiny water fountain for our dogs; I loved it because it kept the water from going stagnant and it could only hold so much; so I knew it stayed fresh as I had to refill it frequently. Now though, we just have one of those plastic dishes with the bottle on top upside-down that automatically fills.

As I was refilling it today I got to thinking; should I really be giving my dogs tapwater?? I go so all out with their diet trying to make everything perfect but yet I'm making them drink from the sink?? My two cresteds are white and get terrible tear staining, despite the fact that they're both on raw and don't have dyes or anything in their food to contribute. I know it can be a pH thing also, and thought maybe our city water played a factor.

We could easily get a filter; or very inexpensively just buy a gallon of reverse-osmosis water for them to keep it filled. I make sure to thoroughly clean out the plastic container each time I refill too, as I know plastic can trap bacteria. But I just got to wondering what all of the rest of the chi-ppl do for water.


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## foggy (Oct 12, 2009)

Regular tap water in a ceramic bowl. I change their water every morning and then again later. Mine don't seem to drink all that much really.


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## MiniGrace (Oct 31, 2011)

I give my dogs regular tap water in clear glass bowls. I have an extra set of bowls so each night I run one set throgh the dishwasher and put a fresh set out.


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## CHITheresa (Apr 30, 2011)

We have Delicious well water that what we all drink. Amberleah drinks out of ceramic bowl. But she needs a bigger one. she drinks it dry in few hours.


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## jesuschick (Dec 5, 2010)

We have one of the 5 gallon jug water dispensers. We get water to drink from there and they do, too. It is spring water.
Their food and water bowls are all vintage Fire King milk glass. Just because I could not resist them since my house is vintage/lodge decor. 
In their "day care" room, they have stainless water bowls. I did not want them to have glass unsupervised.


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## mooberry (Jan 31, 2011)

No fancy filter just tap water here


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## hershey109 (Jan 11, 2011)

Regular tap water in her stainless bowl. I change it in the morning before I go to work and again around 7pm at night.


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## svdreamer (Feb 20, 2010)

Tap water. I have one of those upside down plastic waterer thingys, but some of them are afraid of the bubbles, so I also have a plastic water bowl that gets filled about 3 times a day.


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## PrincessCupcake (Nov 17, 2011)

I give my baby tap water. Heck, I drink tap water myself from time to time. When I was little, and we used to play outside I would drink from the water hose. I probably wouldn't do that now but I don't think it's bad to drink tap water.  I will probably buy my baby some bottled Texas Spring Water though because I don't like the way the water in this apartment looks!


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## elaina (Jul 1, 2008)

Good question. lol. i buy the gallon jugs of spring water. My girls get spring water from a ceramic bowl. i wont drink the tap water here, so neither are my dogs going to drink it


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## lynx8456 (Feb 26, 2009)

Hannah has a small bowl in kitchen that is filled with Poland Spring water 4-5 times per day. The boys and the cat drink from it to, but primarily the boys have a 1 gallon upside down jug in the living room that they like. That get's filled every other day. Both boys also drink straight off the poland bottles that my husband always has. He trains them to do this when they are puppys so if we don't have a bowl with us when we are out and about they can drink off his water bottle. They never dribble a drop!!!! Gotta Love It!


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## RandomMusing (Aug 27, 2011)

I have a Brita pitcher I fill with tap water and keep refrigerated which I use for myself and the girls. They use a ceramic bowl which is filled fresh each morning.


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## doginthedesert (Oct 10, 2011)

CHITheresa said:


> We have Delicious well water that what we all drink. Amberleah drinks out of ceramic bowl. But she needs a bigger one. she drinks it dry in few hours.


ENVY!! We keep trying to buy houses in an area that has amazing well water but the short sales are such a PITA to close, so we are still stuck with las vegas tap water and it is gross. I drink bottled water cause i think our tap water tastes funny, so I put it in the dog fountain too.

We have a ceramic fountain from Drs Foster and smith, I love it. I think it keeps things fresher and cooler, but it is a pain to clean out (something I do twice a week).


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## Natti (Jun 24, 2010)

Filtered water here. They have 2 plastic bowls we use - one is in the dishwasher while the other is in use.


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## 20887 (Mar 16, 2011)

I have 2 ceramic bowls that are in a raised metal holder for water. I also add water to their food most meals.


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## flippedstars (Dec 16, 2009)

I give bottled water - we never had a problem with tap water when we were on city water but as soon as we moved out to the 'sticks' all of our dogs, especially Bryco, started tear staining almost immediately. Bottled water fixed the problem right away. We have well water here so obviously it has 'more stuff' in it than city water.

I use ceramic or stainless steel dishes - water or food from plastic can cause loss of pigment in dogs because of the chemicals that leech from the plastic into the water.


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## Jerry'sMom (May 5, 2009)

tap water in a ceramic bowl


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## jan896 (Dec 9, 2009)

funny you should have this post..... I did an experiment a few months ago(I was bored)... plain Tap water(City Water) , Deer Park Bottled Water, or one of those Filtered Fountain water bowls(Drinkwell Platinum Pet Fountain)....... I wanted to see if the 2 dogs could tell the difference. I did the experiment for a week....I cleaned the bowls each time clean water was offered(once a day). They had access to only one version of water during the day to make sure location wasn't the preferred way to drink.

More water was drank when the bottled water was used with the filtered Fountain being second place...but its too expensive to offer the bottled water to them everyday  Normally, they have 2 water bowls thruout the house(ceramic bowls) and the filtered fountain bowl.


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## 20887 (Mar 16, 2011)

Hmmm.. Both of my dogs have tear staining and I don't think it is from their diet. I will try giving them water from my filter instead of tap water and see if it makes a difference, since it worked for some of you.


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## EmberLuvu (Oct 24, 2011)

Filtered. Since Ember is so little, I turn our Brita filter on at our kitchen sink, wait about 2 seconds then fill up her little bowl with water and place it down. It's changed 2-3 times a day.


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## Finn (Sep 14, 2010)

Mountain water. They have individual water bowls in their kennels but they prefer to drink out of the community ceramic bowl. Who knows.


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