This is the dog watering station I bought shortly after we arrived in Arkansas four years ago. It served us well until Jack the Aussie pup decided it was a dog toy and started knocking the 2.75 gallon jug off of the stand and batting it around the back porch, dumping the water in the process.
It only took about a week of this abuse to crack the jug. This destroys its ability to hold the water in place by vacuum and causes the water to overflow the feeding bowl until the jug is empty.
Dogs need ready access to water, so I went to Petco in search of a replacement. I found this Petmate Replendish waterer with a 4 gallon jug with a bayonet locking mechanism that secures the jug to the stand.
Since a pint of water weighs a pound and there are eight pints to a gallon, the filled jug weighs a hefty 32 pounds. Twist-locked into place, it should withstand the battering of a four-month-old Australian shepherd puppy, I reckoned.
I reckoned wrong. Even though Jack is just a tick over 30 pounds, he had the jug detached and emptied within 10 minutes of its debut on the back porch. I didn’t witness the actual deed. The first clue I had that something was amiss was when I heard the jug being bounced around on the concrete. How in the hell a 30-pound puppy can defeat a waterer that outweighs him is a mystery, but I think it has a lot to do with him being an Aussie.
So the new waterer has been moved into the back hallway, just inside the back door and I’ve taken to refilling the base of the old waterer from a pitcher a few times a day in the hope that Jack will settle down and realize that dumping his water results in unquenched thirst.
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