The Poor Dog Thirsty?

[Nehmo Sergheyev]

Auto-fill water bowl, how to make:

Critique welcome (like I needed to say that).

[Doug Miller]

Why go to all that trouble? You already have a water bowl for your dog, that, while not actually auto-filling, at least gets manually refilled regularly.

It's in your bathroom.

[Nehmo Sergheyev]

- Doug Miller -

- Nehmo ? Normally, in the gooseneck of the toilet bowl, the bottom of the bowl, there is water from the last flush, and people *think* this water is automatically replenished. But it?s not. If there is water pressure in the line, the toilet _tank_ will be automatically filled. The tank does not automatically fill the gooseneck of the bowl.

In certain situations, like when the dog(s) is locked in the home and the humans don?t return for a time, like in NY around the WTC right after 9-11, or perhaps when the humans get killed in a traffic accident, the dogs will drink empty the water in the gooseneck of the toilet bowl.

[Dr. Hardcrab]

Very creative, but I still think they wopuld be a pain. At least for me.

I have one of the water dishes with the up-side down containers that keeps the bowl full (untill the conatiner runs out). The problem with them is I have to clean them out once a week because of the slime/algea (or whatever it is) that grows in the bowl. Not too big of a deal because I have a brush set aside just for that.

I can imagine trying to clean all of the mechanisms in YOUR water bowl. Then again, maybe you don't have a problem with slime/algea....

[Pop]

I'm going to take the opposit tack of posts so far and say I like that idea and the simplicity of it. I've got lots of buckets around, a pressure washer for cleaning them whenever I do the car, and several borken sump pumps with still working switches. A good slosh and the water's quickly refreshed, too.

It pays to recycle the recycled recyclables sometimes; I do it as often as I can .

Pop

"Nehmo Sergheyev" wrote in message news:90sqe.9804$ [e-mail]...

[twfsa]

It would be easier to just get off your ass and check and fill the water bowl, if you can't do that you don't deserve a dog!

Tom

[Lee]

Hey Tom

Maybe he has a bunch of dogs or is a breedeer?

Lee

[ds549]

neet idea. heres another idea,,,, for my pets outside i have my air conditioner drain running into a 5 gallon bucket that sits in a 2 inch deep trough. it fills 5 gallons about every 24 hours,and runs over into the trough , so it keeps a good water supply for them when the ac is on. i pour the water on flowers to. lucas

[HorneTD]

I like the second version a lot. I wonder if it would work if it were installed in the wall of one of those square sided buckets. If it would you could just add a garden house female adapter with swivel to its threads and supply it from a garden house.

Warning Notice Danger. Toddlers can drown in the larger buckets because their heads weigh so much more in proportion to their entire body weight than older children. If you are making one of these use the smallest bucket that will work for your animals and keep it inaccessible to toddlers.

[Doug Miller]

I believe I said very clearly that it is not auto-filling.

True enough - but in such situations, the dog will soon run out of food as well. An automatically replenished water source will only prolong the inevitable.

[Nehmo Sergheyev]

- Nehmo ?

Doug Miller

- Nehmo ? Yes, you did. But if you?re serious about that suggestion, there are other problems with it. The toilet bowl doesn?t get manually refilled if the humans are gone; and the water isn?t exactly clean. Even though dogs are immune to many pathogens that attack people, dogs lick people and are in close contact in other ways.

- Nehmo ?

accident,

- Doug Miller -

- Nehmo ? A mammal can survive a long time with water but without food, and maybe before death form starvation someone would come to the rescue. So it's much more likely Fluffy would survive if his water supply were more certain.

But philologically, *every* effort for survival merely postpones the inevitable.

[Philip Lewis]

There are far too many things which are dangerous to toddlers in ways that we cannot even imagine. It is unreasonable for the world to be "proofed" against people who are not at a mental or physical competence for avoiding that danger.

If you are responcible for the well being of another-- be it toddler, child, or teen-- keep an eye on them... that way your not facing tragedy or disappointment when some simply avoided harm comes to them.

As Mad-Eye Moody would say: "Constant Vigilance!"

[Nehmo Sergheyev]

- HorneTD -

- Nehmo - The one with the pressure-activated valve does look neater, I suppose. The other kind, with the float-activated valve has the advantage of being completely removable. You can't make the pressure-activated kind removable because that kind of valve can't be completely submerged. The bottom has to be exposed to the air.

Either valve has the odd toilet supply connection on the bottom, and the only reasonably priced part that mates with it is a toilet supply line. So if you want to connect to another line, you have to find some arrangement that connects with the end of a toilet supply line.

Toilet supply lines either end with a 3/8? pressure fitting (to fit a regular toilet supply valve) or end with just the un-fitted tube. The tube is 3/8" PEX, some other plastic flexible material, or copper. You can get a fitting that connects a 3/8" tube to a water hose connection.

But don't use a regular garden hose to supply the water. Water tastes terrible after sitting in a regular garden hose for a while. Use a drinkable water (potable water) hose.

And yeah, I wanted to use a rectangular bucket, but I didn't have one around.

[Nehmo Sergheyev]

- Lee -

- Nehmo - We take in abandoned house pets, and we find them new homes or we try. Right now we have seven dogs. If any reader is in Kansas City and can care for a dog, let me know.

I used to have a business in which I went form mobile home to mobile home. In the summer, I would find numerous dogs without water. Many were tied up too. I thought publicizing my method of keeping our dogs in water may make it easier for others to do the same for their dogs.

[Dr. Hardcrab]

wrote

That's where Legionaire's disease comes from......

[Pop]

Yeah, OR, I might love my pets and prefer a method which assures that they have fresh, cool water all the time, not stagnant, hours old, probaby days old in your case, water at the ready constantly. I can tell from your comment that if anyone doesn't "deserve a dog", it's going to be you. I grabbed out some pieces yesterday and plan to have one in the yard by end of next weekend. I'm going to use a shallower pan by cutting down the now sterilized plastic buckets to something easier to hold a little less water, and put them on a tilt mechanism to make them easy to refill. One dog's already started using it, even though it's just hte prototype in the garage. If you dont' like a challenge, and making things easier on yoursef, OR if you have too much time on your hands, go fin dsomething you do like to do.

[nanook]

there used to be a set up to refill livestock troughs automatically. it would turn on only when the horses nose would hit it when it would bow it's head to get a drink of water.

if I remember correctly, it was a cast iron bowl that would hold maybe a gallon of water (like a large salad serving bowl) and it had a black plastic spring loaded flap in it. when the horse would "nose" it fresh water came out, as long as it was lapping and drinking, the water would run. I saw this used mostly in FFA shows where space was at a premium and not too much room for a trough. each stall had one of these connected to the water supply or a water hose. some horses were smart enough to let the water run until it was cool.

this is kind of what I am talking about...but not exactly, same premise though.

[Pop]

Actually, that's exactly the concept that's needed. That's a standard way to provide water to cows when they're confined to the barn. And they definitely do know to let it run until it gets cold, but it's not often necessary; cows drink a LOT of water. But, that exact product requires too hard a "push" to get water but it's still the basic concept. The "lever" they push on to get water is actually a sort of steel grate covering the whole "bowl". It keeps them from getting their tongues into the mechanism and to a degree keeps them from sucking up debris in the bottom of the bowl. Plus, of course, there's only water there on-demand, so it'd take training the dogs to use it since the water left after a drink quickly evaporates until the cow presses on the grate again.

Regards,

Pop (aka old farmer)

Pop