Dog's Water Bowl- Possible Drowning Hazard...

Hi all,
Ok this might sound a bit silly but it's playing on my mind.

We have a big bowl of water out the back for our cat and dog to drink from during the day (as you do). But ds has become a bit of an escape artist of late, and can now let himself out the back door (and he's not even walking yet).

Obviously, we keep the back door locked, but we always seem to be going in and out and we sometimes forget.

My fear is that ds will get out the back door and into the dog bowl (which he is fascinated with ) and something terrible will happen. I've thunk and thunk but I can't seem to think of how to secure it- there is nowhere to put it that the dog can get to but ds can't.

A friend said to me the other day "Well, what are the chances?" But I'm sure there have been people who have said that about their fenced off pools too.

How to secure the bowl? Any ideas would be helpful :)

I cant think of anything to be honest.... my first and only thought (although i dont think very hard these days) is to change the bowl to a more shallow bowl? That way if DS does 'fall in' its not deep enough to do any harm?

sj I thought that too- but then I remember how they say a child can drown in 2cm of water :o (yep, I'm a leedle bit paranoid....)

Really?? Gee i do have a lot to learn before mine arrive! :redface:

Could you get one of those ones where the water comes out when the cat/dog licks it? Dunno if there is one (you can get them for mice I think lol). Maybe worth looking in to?

Could the dog get into a playpen?
If so you could put a playpen around the water.
Our cat's stuff is in the laundry with a safety gate over the door. The cat can get in and out but the boys can't. Yasin got at the kitty litter box long ago and I never, never, never want a repeat performance.

ETA - A tiny baby might be in trouble if it fell in a water bowl but I think a 1 year old would probably pick themselves up and do it all over again.

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Could the dog get into a playpen?

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I have no doubt she could dacholstar... she probably chew numerous holes straight through it and then throw it round the yard a bit for good measure!! Good idea if she wasn't such a destruct-a-staffy.

sj I'm not sure if that's an old wive's tale or not, but I don't want to take that chance ykwim?

ETA- Just saw your ETA dachlostar.... maybe I am being a bit paranoid here?

Do you have any sort of platform that the dog can get to, but your little one can't? High cubby house with a ramp or similar?

Kate, unfortunately we don't- and I think the dogs climbing skills are a good match for ds's... there would be nowhere that ds couldn't get to that the dog could :dunno:

we have water feeders for our dog and cat - it's like a bottle that sits in a shallow bowl and only feed water out when the water level reduces (it only has about 1cm of water in it)

i've had them for about 6 years for my dogs, inside, where my bro's kids come and go, and not once has there been an issue - it's barely enough water out for the kids to notice, but supplies plenty to keep animals happy.

i picked them up at bigw for about $13 each - have no fear of my kidlets getting near them...

if you're worried about baby doing anything (or destructo staffy taking off with it), you could probably secure it to a wall somehow...

Thankyou BG!! And Leasha hun I missed your post before, but thank you very much too. I'll go and pick one of those up today. And destructa staffy just might decide that it's a new toy... but for that price I'm more than happy to try it :D

what about a bucket inside a milk crate, cat will be able to balance on edge to get drink, dog will be able to put head inside to get drink

If you put another bowl inside your dogs water bowl upside down that might help.