Drinking water seems a chore

Hello Staffy Lovers.

Me and my wife recently adopted a beautiful white staffy called Luna with an age range between 2-4yrs from her history old but we are leaning more towards 2-3 purely down to her still having alot of puppy tendencies.

We have noticed that it can be a struggle to get her to drink, even after a long walk she will still not drink. Luna is the second Staffy I have had, Bella always drank but only even ever ate 'human food', but Luna eats jellied (does jelly hydrate dogs?) dog food. We have know started to add quite abit of water to her food so atleast we now know she is getting fluids.

The rescue home we got Luna from said dogs will drink when they need too and not to worry.

Can anyone on here offer us reassurances regarding fluid intake?

Regards Steve

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Hello and welcome

Luna is very pretty with her “butter wouldn’t melt” expression ... what is she doing behind that cushion ?

I would also be inclined to think that a dog wouldn’t go thirsty, especially as water was available.
Here are a few things that you can check to ensure they’re not putting her off :
Is her water bowl metallic ? If so, ensure that her collar/dog tags aren’t frightening her when she’s trying to drink.
Is water particularly hard in your area ? Maybe try bottled water or filtered water in case she doesn’t like the taste
Have you washed the drinking bowl often enough or too often ?
If there’s a buildup of limescale in the bowl, use vinegar to clean and then thoroughly rinse.
Is she peeing correctly ? (Frequency and aspect)

Mine don’t like dirty water so I rinse and replace water several times a day.

Hi Nifty,

Luna had actually fallen asleep in that position and had just woke up lol.

Her bowl is ceramic and cleaned everyday with fresh water mornjng and night. Im not 100% but our wster does not seem too hard. I forgot to mention she goes mad at the water hose so thats one wsy yo get her to drink without her realising lol

She will shock us (like she has tonight) and just go have a drink so I think you are right where she wont let herself go to the extremes of thirst and just drink what she needs, no more.

Hi from me & Katy. I thought I had the same problem with Katy as she rarely drank. She has always been fed dry kibble but until the age of about 3yrs she was never really interested in water. Now she drinks a lot more & I have to refill her bowl often during the day!