Sheltie won't drink water

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walloongirl

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Our shelter sheltie Jack will not drink any water. We have to fill up his food with water and he has to drink the whole bowl to get his water. Has anyone had this problem and how to make him drink regularly. He does eat snow, but summer is coming. Help.
 
So, will he only drink if the bowl is full? Or won't drink at all?

If he will only drink it if the bowl is full, he could either be freaked out by the bowl or the shadows in the bowl when the water is emptied or something of that sorts.
 
Tasty treat

How about ice cubes? I lived in in South Florida for many years and always worried that my dogs didn't drink enough. So I mixed up 1/3 low sodium chicken broth and 2/3 water and froze it in ice cube trays. They could not get enough, they thought it was a treat. Hope that helps.:cool:
 
Shelties love ice cubes

Our two Sheltie puppies, ages 11 1/2 months and 6 1/2 months, absolutely love ice cubes. Also, we have a bowl of fresh water outside, by the back door, for when they are outside romping around. But the ice cubes are their favorite. They must think they're getting steak.
 
I will add my agreement to the ice cube thing, as my dogs love them, especially in the summer. I use chicken or beef broth mixed with water.
 
We have very spoiled girls :rolleyes2:
They will only drink from their circulating water filter -- no standing water in bowls.

This is similar to what our girls have:
filtered water

**warning**
Cats love to splash in this! Our kitty Nick treats it like his own personal bathing station :lol:
 
OH MY!...LOL...I thought my sheltie was the only one with strange drinking habits! Joey is my first Sheltie and I am not used to his quirky little habits. First odd thing is he drinks from the back of the bowl and drings from the edge only...never from the middle of the bowl like a normal dog! How odd to watch. Secondly, he really does NOT dring very much and of course this meand he soesn't pee much! I was worried about this and was afraid he may develop some type of bladder or kidney problems if he continues like this ( he is only 1 1/2 years old). I talked to someone and they recommended that I purchase one of those fountain drinking bowls. They were originally designed for cats who like to drink from faucets. It is a circulating fountain with a filter in it ( it plugs in ) and I put ice in the extra chamber every morning to keep the running water cold...and lo and behold, the little spoiled prince LOVES it! He is drinking SO much more now! What a great invention! He will ONLY drink from the spout part...never the bowl on the bottom. It is made by a company called "Drinkwell", but there are many others on the market...though I don't know if they work as well as this one does. Hope this advice helps!
 
Joey's Mom said:
OH MY!...LOL...I thought my sheltie was the only one with strange drinking habits! Joey is my first Sheltie and I am not used to his quirky little habits. First odd thing is he drinks from the back of the bowl and drings from the edge only...never from the middle of the bowl like a normal dog! How odd to watch. Secondly, he really does NOT dring very much and of course this meand he soesn't pee much! I was worried about this and was afraid he may develop some type of bladder or kidney problems if he continues like this ( he is only 1 1/2 years old). I talked to someone and they recommended that I purchase one of those fountain drinking bowls. They were originally designed for cats who like to drink from faucets. It is a circulating fountain with a filter in it ( it plugs in ) and I put ice in the extra chamber every morning to keep the running water cold...and lo and behold, the little spoiled prince LOVES it! He is drinking SO much more now! What a great invention! He will ONLY drink from the spout part...never the bowl on the bottom. It is made by a company called "Drinkwell", but there are many others on the market...though I don't know if they work as well as this one does. Hope this advice helps!
Click to expand...

Milo, my parent's sheltie will also only drink from the back of the bowl and only from the edge. He has always been like this, even from a small pup. I don't think he likes getting his nose wet. My sheltie Sadie looks at him like he's crazy, she has no problem sticking her nose right into the water :lol:
 
Madi doesn't drink much water either unless she's been playing, then she dives right in and laps it up.

She also loves ice cubes. Never thought of adding chicken broth to them! What a treat that would be for her :D
 
I don't know if this will help or not, but I had something very similar happen with my 5 month old Sheltie, Pogo and his water bowl. He either drank the entire bowl (what seemed to be anyways) in one sitting or not drink at all. I wound up taking him to the vet for something completly unrelated and it called for a complete blood work. He found that his kidney count was WAAAYY above normal range :eek2: and my vet thought he was in the begining stages of renal disease :uhoh:. He did a urinalysis and discovered that it was a simple UTI.

I started thinking about it and thought that it was pretty clever thinking on his part-he was either trying to drink as much as he could to dilute his pee so it didn't burn as bad or he thought if I don't drink at all, I don't have to pee and therefore it won't hurt.
 
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