# 6mo GSD drinking water very sloppy?



## DESURAIN (Apr 3, 2019)

I am hoping this is a puppy trait he will grow out of but he is extremely messy with his water bowl.

The floor is literally soaked at all times, and worse after he drinks like every 10 minutes he will walk around the house with a mouth full of slobber dragging it everywhere.

The couch, floor, sometimes walls, his drinking slobber gets all over the place.’how do I make him stop.


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## tc68 (May 31, 2006)

DESURAIN said:


> I am hoping this is a puppy trait he will grow out of but he is extremely messy with his water bowl.
> 
> The floor is literally soaked at all times, and worse after he drinks like every 10 minutes he will walk around the house with a mouth full of slobber dragging it everywhere.
> 
> The couch, floor, sometimes walls, his drinking slobber gets all over the place.’how do I make him stop.


Mine's almost 17 months old and he still does that. I've pretty much surrendered to the fact that he will be a sloppy drinker for the rest of his life. So now, I keep several rags on the ground around his bowl. Every time he finishes drinking water, someone will wipe up the trail of water with the rags using their feet (so you don't have to bend down). If I'm correct, there's actually a thread in these forums (or elsewhere) about sloppy drinkers. Apparently it's quite common. I also keep a hand towel handy to wipe up his mouth especially when it's really slobbery.


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

Slobber is normal at this age but not drinking every 10 minutes, which could be a health issue. Does he pee constantly too? One of the pups I raised would take a mouth full with water and watch it run out on the floor of bowl even. He did grow out of that.


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## tc68 (May 31, 2006)

I forgot to mention...there are "support groups" out in the internet for sloppy water drinkers. I'm not kidding. I actually found one once. Can't remember the web address. In fact I've seen places that sell special water bowls supposedly designed so that there are minimal water spillage afterwards. I didn't get one then, but when you brought this up, it reminded me about it. I thought it was a little stupid then but I may go revisit that idea again.

A little anecdote....when my sister and her husband watched my dog for a while when I was travelling, she put the water bowl on a step in the garage. When he wanted some water, he'd head for the door to the garage and sit and wait until she/he opened the door for him. They didn't want their wood floors to get water damage. So most of the water spilled in the garage. It worked for them. My kitchen floor is tiles so I don't mind it so much.


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## DESURAIN (Apr 3, 2019)

I’m thinking of trying to wipe his mouth with a towel every time he drinks until he gets the message.

He likes to drink and then walk around the house with the water trailing from his mouth, and sometimes we are lucky and he will shake his head flinging it everywhere.


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## Nigel (Jul 10, 2012)

DESURAIN said:


> I’m thinking of trying to wipe his mouth with a towel every time he drinks until he gets the message.
> 
> He likes to drink and then walk around the house with the water trailing from his mouth, and sometimes we are lucky and he will shake his head flinging it everywhere.


Good luck with the towel! Mine assumes that means tug time. Our male is 15 months now and will still make a mess. To make matters worse he will pick the bowl up and carry it around sloshing water everywhere and it’s a good sized one. It’s warmed up enough so his bowl stays outside for now and far enough away that the drool strands succumb to gravity before returning inside. I made a prototype box from wood with a lid that has so far kept him from lifting it. If this continues all make a more permanent one from steel or aluminum.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

I don't mind the walking through the house with a mouthful of water nearly as much as walking through the house carrying a water bowl!


One of mine LOVES to pick up the (full) water bowl and walk around sloshing the bowl's contents through the house. He's probably close to 12 years old. He's totally blind and never grew out of mischief. We have invested in an array of no-tip, hard-to-carry bowls to try to outsmart him -- he just thinks they're puzzle-games and sometimes flips them over just to show us that he still can. 



I keep the water bowl in a bathroom, on tile. It's on an absorbent mat that gets washed frequently. There's also a stack of clean-up towels close by. 



My honest advice is to just realize dogs are often messy. As messes go though, at least water is easy to clean up. Wipe down the mess and get on with life. I've come to realize that there's too much to enjoy to let yourself get too aggravated by water messes, as long as they're healthy and happy. (My next house will probably have Saltillo tile through most of the house though....)


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

Nigel said:


> Good luck with the towel! Mine assumes that means tug time. Our male is 15 months now and will still make a mess. To make matters worse he will pick the bowl up and carry it around sloshing water everywhere and it’s a good sized one. It’s warmed up enough so his bowl stays outside for now and far enough away that the drool strands succumb to gravity before returning inside.


:rofl:


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## CatMan900 (May 24, 2018)

My puppy started this around that age too. He’s 1 year now and is a lot better. He won’t spill the water anymore. He does occasionally still but not every day like when he was a lil pup


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## crittersitter (Mar 31, 2011)

GSDs aren't neat little dogs. They tend to be a bit messy. You'll get used to it.


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## middleofnowhere (Dec 20, 2000)

For prior dogs - chum bowl or buddy bowl worked wonders. The current duo - still sloshed water with those bowls so "Neater Feeder" became our water bowl. Works great.


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## Jenny720 (Nov 21, 2014)

I have would floors in my kitchen and it is rough on wood floors. luna was the messy drinker as she matured she seemed to be neater. So there may be hope.


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## coolgsd (May 1, 2010)

Check his jaws and teeth formation. He may have some issue that are abnormal at his age. That is a typical time to be losing baby teeth -make sure there are not problems with that as well.


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## sebrench (Dec 2, 2014)

Mine are very messy drinkers, unfortunately. They make special water dishes to reduce spilling. I almost bought one on Amazon once, but changed my mind, so I don't know if they work. For a while I found putting 4-5 inches of water in a big 8-quart stock pot was somewhat helpful. Then I started putting their water outside on the back porch. They tell me when they need to go out, and can make all the mess they want to out there. Problem solved!


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## LRP (May 8, 2019)

DESURAIN said:


> I am hoping this is a puppy trait he will grow out of but he is extremely messy with his water bowl.
> 
> The floor is literally soaked at all times, and worse after he drinks like every 10 minutes he will walk around the house with a mouth full of slobber dragging it everywhere.
> 
> The couch, floor, sometimes walls, his drinking slobber gets all over the place.’how do I make him stop.


This is something you will have to live with, which is why we feed/water our GSD's outdoors. Both my GSD love water and will take any opportunity to play in it, including there water bowls. They splash when they drink and usually walk away with a soaking wet muzzles. They currently have 2 - 3 gallon water jugs, a 30 gallon bin we fill up for them and a kiddie pool to play in. We started off saying if they were wet they couldn't come in the house but it got to be to where we could never be with them... so the new rule is if they are tolerable they can come in but only on the floor and we cover the couch just to keep it clean. These dogs love water and with it being almost 90 here this weekend, I would rather them be wet and happy then dry and miserable.


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## kbcrking (Feb 2, 2013)

You might get lucky and he will grow out of it. My GSD is 9 and still loves to stick his whole face in the water to take a drink. i got him a large automatic waterer with a 5 gallon barrel on top. Heavy enough where he can’t carry it around and the bowl is too shallow for him to stick his face in it. Works great and I only have to fill it up about once a week. I keep a big deep water bucket and kiddy pool outside so he can go for it outside all he wants.


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## NaughtyNibbler (Oct 28, 2018)

My puppy is 11 months now. She is still a messy and enthusiastic water drinker, She likes to dig the water out of the bowl or play with the bowl and dump it over. I cleaned up a lot of floods, before I wised up and permanently made her indoor water source a water-filled bucket kept inside of a bath tub in the bathroom. For her outdoor water source, I have 2 locations with a large stainless steel bowl, that I station at the top of an appropriately sized garden pot (with something like rocks in the bottom to weight it down).


I'll probably wait until she is around 2 to try a water bowl on the floor in the house. I've made some bad decisions, thinking she was behaving better with water, only to have her dump a bowl or bucket of water on the floor.


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

A good friend recommended getting a 4 quart stainless steel pail. Available on Amazon. Fill it to only 1/3.
Problem solved.


That being said, every 10 minutes is not normal. Might want to get that checked.


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## LRP (May 8, 2019)

NaughtyNibbler said:


> My puppy is 11 months now. She is still a messy and enthusiastic water drinker, She likes to dig the water out of the bowl or play with the bowl and dump it over. I cleaned up a lot of floods, before I wised up and permanently made her indoor water source a water-filled bucket kept inside of a bath tub in the bathroom. For her outdoor water source, I have 2 locations with a large stainless steel bowl, that I station at the top of an appropriately sized garden pot (with something like rocks in the bottom to weight it down).
> 
> 
> I'll probably wait until she is around 2 to try a water bowl on the floor in the house. I've made some bad decisions, thinking she was behaving better with water, only to have her dump a bowl or bucket of water on the floor.


Our female, _professional water dog_, does the same thing with our water bowls. We empty the pool at night so she stays dry enough to hang inside with us but she always finds a way to be wet and play with water. All of there water is outside for this exact reason. I can not tell you the amount of times she has come running in the doggy door, soaking wet, to snuggle on the 
couch :surprise:


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## Dunkirk (May 7, 2015)

Here's an Australian product, 

K9 Cruiser non - spill Bowl

The K9 Cruiser Bowl is a proprietary designed anti-spill pet water bowl built with durability and made for a purpose. The unique design of the water bowl discourages dogs from playing with water.

It also ensures that spillage is minimal as water is secured within the cavity of the bowl, yet the water also provides substantial weight so as to prevent the bowl from being overturned by playful dogs or puppies.

Approximately 2.5 litres can be stored within the vacuum walls of the bowl. On average, this amount is more than sufficient to supply the needs of your pet per day regardless of age, size and/or activity, whether at home or on travel. The bowls are 21cm in circumference and 11cm high. 

A small opening in the bowl ensures consistent amount of water available for your pets all day long (approximately 20mm in depth) giving consistent supply of fresh and clean water to your pets.

The bowl is made from food grade UV resistant plastic for durability and both the lid and the base can be separated for easy cleaning.

Perfect for dogs who are messy drinkers or like to dig in the water bowl
The Cruiser Bowl is perfect for tradesmen utes because there's always water left after a few hard corners.
The Cruiser Bowl is ideal for those who travel
Also perfect for dogs with long ears


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