dog hydration

The holiday season finds many of us indulging in good cheer. And for many that means excess alcohol.

Why we do it is another question considering all the negatives that go with it, but how it makes us feel is undoubtedly something most would like to do without.

This holiday plan to drink like a dog, which means indulge yourself in a whole lot more consumption of water!

Our bodies are made up of 70% water. The body of an adult dog contains about 60% water. Water is the principal chemical component for both dogs and people. Every system in your body depends on water. For example, water flushes toxins out of vital organs, carries nutrients to your cells and provides a moist environment for ear, nose and throat tissues.

Drink Like a Dog

Granted, dogs don’t get much choice in the matter, but you’ll find that when they are thirsty, when they are excited, when they’ve just done something really fun, or they’ve just eaten their dinner, they run for the water bowl and gulp it down like it’s the best thing ever. It could be part of the reason they wake up every single morning ready to go, wagging tail, smile on the face and happy about the day ahead.

People on the other hand, especially during the holidays with parties and gatherings tend to wake with a hazy feeling. Actual headache upon waking. Grouchy. Don’t really want to go after anything with any vim and vigor attached to it. Feeling down and depressed. Read What Drinking Does To Your Body and it may really give you reason to choose an alternative at your next holiday party.

Women and men alike are bummed when the clothes are getting tighter and tighter to get in. We wonder why, never considering the amount of sugar and what we are doing to our metabolism when the amount of holiday drinks containing alcohol is on the upward scale of intake for the year. Depending on your age, even with regular exercise alcohol intake can negate maintaining your body weight during the holidays.

Quite frankly the euphoria that alcohol brings is such a big huge game changer in the end. The let down and disenchanted feeling afterwards never pays off. We can end up being quite ugly to those closest to us and they should be the people we at our best charm for during these days of celebration.

Yet, we continue to pour another glass of wine at the company party, friends homes and out at restaurants.

Tips to Drinking Like a Dog

Ok, so I’m not saying never drink again. Or become a teetotaler through and through (though I contemplating it!), just seriously limit your drinking throughout the rest of the holidays.

For instance have one glass of wine or cocktail instead of two or three and drink mineral water or just plain water with a lemon or lime in it after that.

When out at a restaurant or catered party it’s easy to dress up the non alcoholic drink. It looks pretty in the glass with the bubbly water and a lime and ice cubes.

When you are at home, use one of your fancy glasses to create your own drink that looks like a cocktail or a glass of wine. Check out these mocktail recipes and try one that appeals to you. Take the ingredients to a party with you. Make your own drink and I bet you’ll get some takers to join you.

Easiest Drink Recipe – Using a Wine Glass or Cocktail Glass

Personally I try to pick something with as little sugar a possible. My favorite is super easy and appears to be a vodka soda with a lime!

Fancy glass
Perrier
A splash of cranberry juice
A lime slice

That’s it! You’ll feel great the next morning with the added hydration as a big bonus and the health benefits are well worth it.

Drink like a dog this holiday season! Ideas for your dog to up the healthy drinking habit too can be found at Hydration How Much Should Your Active Dog Drink

Do you feel like you drink more alcohol than you’d really like to or intend to? Do you feel like you keep gaining that extra couple of pounds each year? I’d love to hear your challenges.

Thanks for reading. My hope is to give you inspiration and thought provoking ideas to take your very next step in creating your own paradise from where you are now! Please subscribe to Big Island Dog and follow me on Twitter. Retweets are cool too.

As a 9 time Ironman finisher, change maker and author and creator of 5K Training Guide | Running with Dogs and K9 Cross Fitness Classes in Kailua Kona Hawaii I encourage you to make that change you want so badly today!

How much water do you need to stay hydrated? The blanket answer is 8 glasses. That’s for us humans. What about our dogs? How much water do they need to stay hydrated and what if your dog is overly active?

How Much Water Should My Dog Drink?

Make it simple and it helps to do the right thing. Find out what your dog weighs and figure 1/2-1 oz of water per pound. My Weimaraner is 65 pounds. That means she should have 36-65 oz of water per day.

This is the simple formula. Of course activity and weather can make a difference so common sense needs to be taken into account. In other words, the low end of 36 oz is not sufficient if you have taken your dog out on an hour plus trail hike in warm weather conditions in the 65 lb. example. Make sure to go to the 65 oz end of the formula, especially if your dog has had an all out session, like my Weimaraner tends to do!

Checking for Proper Dog Hydration

Dogs are not able to say they are thirsty and the situation can be easily overlooked by an owner not realizing you have to not only lead your dog to water, but in many cases you need to show your dog to drink it as well.

You can check for proper hydration in your dog by:

Check for a Dry Nose

If your dog’s nose is dry it’s past the time that water should have been consumed. Time to lead your dog to water, and encourage the action of drinking it.

A dry nose is not the only sign of a dehydrated dog. Keep in mind your dog can have a wet nose and still be dehydrated or on the verge of really needing to drink.

Elastic Skin

Skin loses elasticity as it loses moisture. There’s a good reason to stay hydrated yourself as well. Skin without moisture will remain wrinkled. Ewww… maybe a little water drinking could save a whole lot of dog owner botox treatments!

Check the back of your dog’s neck by pinching the skin between two fingers. When you let it go if the skin goes back to laying flat your dog is hydrated. If the skin remains squished or wrinkled your dog needs to get some water intake going as soon as possible.

Checking the Gum Tissue

One can get technical about this or one can think about it in easy terms. When you run your finger over your dog’s gums, if it feels a bit slimy, you have a hydrated dog. If the gum tissue isn’t slimy, your dog needs to drink and is on the dehydrated side of life.

The technical way is by using a method to check for capillary refill time. To do this when your dog is hydrated pull the lip up and press your finger firmly against the gums until the tissue appears white-ish in color. See how long it takes for the gum tissue to fill to pink again.

Now you have a baseline to see if your dog is dehydrated in times of activity. If when you remove your finger the tissue looks gray in color or takes a long time to refill to pink, your dog is dehydrated.

So there you go, you can choose to use the slimy method or the capillary refilling method. Either will help you determine how much water your dog needs.

How To Get Your Dog To Drink

It is true that sometimes you can lead a dog to water and yet they won’t drink it even if they need it. You can make this a habit by enticing your dog to do it, which is a fun way to say: train your dog to drink.

Tricks are the best way to train dogs and ourselves to do anything. After all, if it’s fun you’ll do it, and so will your dog.

Use a treat to entice your dog’s nose to the water bowl, drop the treat in the bowl and as your dog takes a little water in while going for the treat, put the word “drink” to it.

If your dog likes ice cubes you can do the same trick. Drop the cubes in the bowl requiring your dog to drink to nab the “treat”. I use ice cubes as a full on treat and my dogs love it. A very sly way to encourage your dog to drink more water.

Done enough times it will become a habit and you can fade the treat by offering it sometimes and not having it others. With repetition your dog will automatically start to drink. When you say the word at the moment your dog is drinking you are pairing the action with the word repetitiously. You’ll begin to illicit the automatic reaction to drink when you say the word and your dog is in proximity of the water bowl.

Another quick fix for some dogs is to add a little beef bouillon to the water mixture. Lab type dogs can’t help themselves. They’ll drink in the hopes of food appearing!

Thanks for reading. If you liked this post, please subscribe to Big Island Dog and follow me on twitter, Facebook and Google+

As author and creator of 5K Training Guide | Running with Dogs, Treading for Dogs and K9 Cross Fitness Classes in Kailua Kona Hawaii I encourage you to make that change you want so badly today! Get out and get fit with your dog!

Drink Like a Dog This Holiday