Hi all,

My lil monster (just over 3 months old) wont stop digging in her water bowl, and I am wondering what that means/triggers. She has a basic stainless steel bowl water/food 2 pan combo, kinda shiny. She will drink some then just goes to town digging in it, I try to discipline her while doing it but she is focused and stubborn about it. Any ideas why or suggestions on how to stop this?

Thanks

Lunathehusky wrote:

Hi all,

My lil monster (just over 3 months old) wont stop digging in her water bowl, and I am wondering what that means/triggers. She has a basic stainless steel bowl water/food 2 pan combo, kinda shiny. She will drink some then just goes to town digging in it, I try to discipline her while doing it but she is focused and stubborn about it. Any ideas why or suggestions on how to stop this?

Thanks

Sorry to say...she digs in the water because she likes to dig in the water. A common complaint on here - use the search function for suggestions. My experience? Archer just plain out grew it. For a while I was always replacing water

Miya does this, only at the dog park..I can yell at her no a hundred times but she just ignors me. At home I keep the water bowl outside its a husky thing XD

This is very common and completely normal. I am pretty sure every Husky I know in person does this. Thankfully, mine only does it in dog parks and never at home. I think I remember correcting it once at home when he was a puppy, but I'm not sure.

If you're like me and you enjoy having some ideas of the why behind behavior, Huskies are diggers not only in water but in dirt and snow as well.

A specific breed based idea as to why they do it is because the breed was developed in cold, snowy climates, digging allowed them to burrow below the surface to avoid wind and keep warm.

Another, related idea is that dogs emit lots of heat from their paws. It's the only place a dog sweats on their body. Because Huskies are so fur covered and tend towards being warm or being overheated, wetting their feet and digging in water cools them down and regulates their body temperature.

Not sure how much water that holds.......but it's food for thought.

Great thanks for comment I figured as much. I didnt know about sweating through feet though good to know. looks like I'll have to fill up the kiddie pool for her and let her go nuts maybe that will quell the digging in her bowl for drinking.

Lunathehusky wrote:

Great thanks for comment I figured as much. I didnt know about sweating  through feet though good to know. looks like I'll have to fill up the kiddie pool for her and let her go nuts maybe that will quell the digging in her bowl for drinking.

Good luck with that I had 4 or 5 water bowls around and the kiddy pool...Archer dug and splashed in everyone. Every time he took a drink

Yeah, Deacon does this every time we go to the dog park. It is funny because none of the other dogs will do it until they see him do it, and then one by one other dogs will go up and start digging in the water bowl.

tdmoore44 wrote:

Yeah, Deacon does this every time we go to the dog park. It is funny because none of the other dogs will do it until they see him do it, and then one by one other dogs will go up and start digging in the water bowl.

Archer, the puppy, aged 4-6 mo this past summer was the offender - Ami, the adult, would go to a water bowl in the backyard, Archer would come dashing up, stick his face underneath Ami's face, take a quick drink then start digging madly with water flying and bowl tipping. Poor Ami would step back, watch the shenanigans and when it was over go back for his drink...only to find the bowl empty He still budges, sticking his head under Ami but at least now all he does is drink and leaves some water for Ami.

So hopefully puppy will also outgrow this...

Ive had 5 huskies in my lifetime, none of them did this til my current boy husky, Kohdi. And he's a year and 8 months now...and still does it:facepalm: First time he did it after I got Mishka, she gave him a look like I can't even describe, it was like "dude!! really?!! I'm thirsty!!, stop doing that!!"

Jeff, I like the theories you posted, they make more sense than the one I came up with, LOL. I watched Kohdi digging in a mud hole one day <sighs...I let that boy have TOO much fun> and it looked exactly like it does when he digs in his water bowl, which goes something like this...dig dig dig, stop and watch the water, dig dig dig, stop and watch the water and so on, well when he digs in a mud hole, he digs out all the water, but the hole refills itself so I theorized huskies do the water bowl thing cuz instinctually they dug in the snow to maybe get more water the deeper they got, or "fresher" water? I kno, im stoopit

Btw, I stopped it from happening at home by elevating his water dish. I almost broke my azz slipping across the wet tile... too many times

I forgot about this incident...it wasn't a water bowl, it was the tub in a hotel. Silly me thought I was going to give Ami a bath at the hotel...closed room, small, all tile, easy to clean up...WRONG!!! Started the water into the tub, dog jumps in, starts madly digging at the corner of the tub where the water was all roiled from the spout. I was terrified he was going to destroy the tub and we would be paying for a bathroom remodel. Then he started jumping in and out of the tub, dragging tons of water with him...all over the floor. Used every towel and bathmat to mop up and called for more

His digging in the tub was exactly what he did at a certain point on our walks in the spring...there was a small rivulet down the hillside that formed a, maybe 18 inch diameter, foot deep pool. It, too, was all churned up from coming down the hill and formed bubbles and foam, and made little noises which got him all excited like there was a small animal in there. For weeks, when ever we took this route, he would stop and dig until I got tired of watching him...he looked so intent and excited I did not have the heart to stop him. Which meant one very muddy dog when we got home...I really think the "purpose" of this is that the water appears to have a life of its' own, like a squeeky toy or kong, it "responds" unpredictably to his movements. He certainly acted like the water was prey of some sort, with ear full forward, eyes lit up, body tense and focused.