Hello! My husband and I just adopted our first husky named Nymeria. She just turned 3 months old.

We are having an issue with her digging in her water bowl and spilling the water everywhere. At first, we thought she was just hot after a walk (we live in Southern Utah where it is hot in the summer!) but now she does it basically anytime there is water in her bowl. We have also made sure to clean out her bowl in case she was digging for something floating in her water.

We aren't really sure what to do - we want her to have access to water all the time so she doesn't get dehydrated but we just end up with water all over our floor and a thirsty pup. Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thank you in advance!!

Ours did/ do that too. In fact, there was another thread on this topic recently and it made me realize I hadn't seen them do it in months.

Until about two days ago. They are back doing it.

Sorry, don't have any advice, other than only leave the water dish down until she's done drinking, then pick it up.

For the most part its a puppy thing they usually outgrow. My mom had a springer that was terrible about it, but he would also lay in the puddle after he knocked the water out.

Some breeds are more likely to do it and huskies are one of those breeds. Mine have a kiddy pool in the yard. If your pup has decided water splashing is the best thing in the world then a kiddy pool may be the way to go. The other option is to stay really on top of using redirection every time.

I have usually used a modified version of natural horsemanship and resistance free training on my dogs. In the case i would find a way to stop the digging in the waterbowl by finding a place that the behavior is acceptable such as a bathtub or in my case the kiddy pool. You could then take it one step farther and create a command along with it.

In the short term this method will not work nearly as well as traditional bribe training but in the long term with stubborn or not eager to please breeds it creates a closer bond and a better behaved dog without having to rely on a treat.

And no i didn't invent this method and the monk that spent the summer teaching me this method said it was ancient tibetan technique used for training the Tibetan mastiffs and Tibetan terriers that protect the monasteries. Its more of a symbiotic relationship then a master/dog relationship