This Water Bottle Is The Only Thing That Keeps My Extremely Picky Dog Hydrated

This Water Bottle Is The Only Thing That Keeps My Extremely Picky Dog Hydrated

by Sue Jones
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If there’s one thing you need to know about Meryl, the seven-year-old pitbull mix who has agreed to share her home with me, it’s that making sure she stays hydrated is an ongoing struggle. It’s hard enough to get her to drink water at home, but when she’s outside, with sticks to chew, moss to sniff, and dirt to dig, it might as well be impossible. Distractions of the natural world aside, the main issue seems to be the vessel: Once Meryl remembers how good it actually feels to drink water, this pup can drink like a fish.

Like plenty of dog parents before me, I thought a collapsible, silicone dish would do the trick. But every time I’d try to get her to drink from said dish, she’d literally turn up her nose and leave the water untouched. I came to realize that she was exponentially more interested in water when it was given to her straight from my hand or poured directly into her enormous mouth from a regular water bottle. I’m sure being hand-fed freshly running water made her feel like the queen that she is. But, from where I was standing, these methods felt less than optimal (if not downright wasteful). Imagine my relief, then, when I learned about the Tuff Pupper PupFlask.

Part dog water bottle, part dog bowl, the PupFlask’s design provides Meryl with the sensation of running water without any of the hassle on my part. (Read: I don’t have to stand over her and continuously pour, soaking my hands, shoes, and the surrounding area, while she takes dainty sip after dainty sip.)

Instead, all I do is open the flexible, leaf-shaped dish that folds out from the side of the bottle, lay the whole thing flat on the ground, and press a button on the lid. The water flows out and collects in the dish. If Meryl isn’t particularly thirsty, there’s another button I can press to reseal the opening and avoid overflow.

If the time to pack up rolls around and there’s water left in the dish, I just open the lid again and tip the dish backward, so that the bottle is upright. The water will drain back into the bottle, and I’ll fold the dish down so it lays flush against the bottle’s side. And, with that, we both get what we want: Meryl loves that she can lap up the water as it pours from the bottle, and I can rest assured that I’m not leaving behind a trail of puddles (and wasting most of the water I carried with me).

But the PupFlask’s construction doesn’t just help me save water—it’s also sturdy enough to take a real beating. On day trips spent tramping around the woods, the last thing on my mind is sparing Meryl’s water bottle from a few dents. And yet, it looks as good now as it did right out of the box six months ago, even though I’ve dropped it, dinged it against boulders, and let it clunk around in my backpack roughly one million times. Luckily, it’s totally leak proof, so even through my less-than-gentle treatment it has yet to spill on any of my stuff. Its vibrant color scheme (I bought mine in “Quetzal Green,” but it’s also available in shades of red, blue, and purple) is an additional perk, though I’m pretty sure that bit of flair is wasted on Meryl.

Dog gear, particularly the kind marketed towards outdoorsy types like myself, is often gimmicky, expensive, or flat-out unappealing to the pup you’re shopping for. In the PupFlask, I’ve found an indispensable, affordable item that’s designed for both efficiency and ease. But the fact that it actually gets my large, hairy adult daughter to drink her water is its strongest selling point. If your dog won’t deign to sip from a dish, consider giving this slick and smart dog water bottle from PupFlask a try.

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