Hi again, I have a strange, rather obscure disciplining question. My son, who is 12 months now, has always (since he could crawl)wanted to play in the dog's water bowl. We've told him no and removed him from the bowl each time. We pretty much only use a firm "No" for the dog bowls, electrical outlets and the fireplace. Dangerous things. The water bowl, however, is the one thing that he will NOT obey! He's gotten very good at listening the other times, but he will just run right back to the bowl. So this has me wondering if this is a difficult concept to understand for him, since he can play and splash in the bathtub or a wading pool, the ocean, etc. I'd hate for our discipline to affect him in the tub and think playing in the tub water is bad?
So my question is...is this a difficult concept for him to understand...so it's not so much that he's been stubborn - he just doesn't get it? And I'm sure there are several folks who have pets and kids and maybe have had a similar problem - how did you deal with it?
At that age I nicknamed my daughter "Princess Dog Water." To keep with tradition we're now calling my 15-month-old son "Lord of the Bowl." Kids love dog bowls: splashing in the water, putting dog food in the water, dipping bananas in the water, etc, etc. The only thing that works is a baby gate. He'll grow out of it...eventually.
My 1 year old does the exact same thing. Every chance he gets he will race to the dog bowls to either splash the water.. or play with the food! Watch out because if he discovers water in the toilet it could be next! :)
Mine will not listen when it comes to the dog bowl either.
He throws a fit when I take him away from it. It is just fun, and he doesn't have the capacity to stop himself when he really wants something.
First of all, please do not use physical punishment over a water bowl as was suggested by another poster. It may seem harmless enough, but hitting him, even just a "pop" on the hand, is giving him a message you just don't want to give to your child. Your hands should never be used to hit your child, but only for loving on him. Other than that, he probably does understand when you tell him no, etc., but water is just way too much fun to splash around with and at his age, he probably feels the risk of being in trouble is worth the fun he has with the water. Distracting him when he gets into it (and he will) or restricting his access to it are the two best solutions. I went through this with all my children and now my grandchildren. He will eventually outgrow the desire to play in the water bowl, so hang in there!
He understands perfectly well that you don't want him to play in the water bowl. But water and getting a rise out of mom is big time fun for a 1yr old!! We have cats so I had to go with hand popping with both my kids. The only place I could put the bowls out of their reach was the counter or table and I wasn't about to teach my cats a bad habit!! 1st time is a warning and you remove the child from the room. Second time is a pop on the hand. Doesn't havt to be hard at all but enough to get their attention that you mean business.
Good luck!
S.
Hi, M.,
Both of my children have had this fascination. My daughter is now 16 months and is finally starting to lose interest. I don't have great advice other than to consistently remove your son from the water bowl. My daughter also likes to eat dog food (gross, I know), so I'll say, "Yucky!" and pick her up and move her away. Now that she's a little older, I put her in a very brief timeout. She knows what it is b/c she's seen her brother there plenty of times, and sometimes she even cries for having to sit there. So...I guess through my rambling I'm trying to say be firm and consistent, but I think sometimes little ones just go through phases which will eventually end!
We had the same problem with our now 1-year-old son. He would bee line it to the water bowl whenever we forgot to pick it up. He loved splashing in it just like in the tub. Our pediatrician said he just knows that it's water and he likes playing in the water. Eventually what we had to do was move it behind one of the gated areas in our home so our dogs still had access but the baby didn't. I know you'd probably rather teach him to simply not play in it, but we tried for months and never made any progress. Now it's out of sight, out of mind.
Beth is right. My daughter did the same thing. She would even sit in the water bowl!
For awhile I just picked the bowls up and put them out of reach to help divert her attention. Then, I could go back and put them back down once she wasn't paying attention. Eventually, she started leaving them alone.
She is 3 now and doesn't play in the bowls, but loves to help me feed them. Good luck and be thankful it is the dog water bowl and not the toilet!
I had the same problem with our baby (13 mo now) since he was about 8 mo old. We finally just moved it where he couldn't get to it (dog bowl outside, cat bowl in baby gated room). It was better than struggling over it all the time. I picked my battles to be outlets, hitting the animals, etc Instead. I did get him a water play table for outside when it warms up to satisfy his curiosity in an appropriate place.
Hi M.,
I've had the same problem with both my boys (my oldest is 4 years and my second is 9 months.) Both went for the dog bowls as soon as they could crawl. My advice is to say a firm no and move him away from the bowl. I must do this a thousand times a day and he thinks it's just hilarious! I know from my oldest that while it gets tiresome fast, it eventually works and they move on to something else. We leave our senior dog's food out all the time so this isn't just a case of dirty water for us. The food is a choking hazard that I have to keep a sharp eye on. As long as you make other times with water fun, he should come to learn the difference. Good luck!
M.
(stay-at-home mom of 2 boys)
M.,
This is just an idea, but explain to your son that that water bowl belongs to the dog and he needs to have fresh clean water to drink. Then, give your son his own bowl of water to play in. Tell him that he can ask for it whenever he wants to. He will probably make a mess, but then he will probably like cleaning up the water after he is done! After a few sessions with his own bowl, he will probably move on to other distractions.
This is an easy one to turn around!
I agree that it's just too intriguing for that age and that "popping" on the hand is ultimately counter-productive. Much MUCH better to catch him and redirect him to his own water activity. But, unless you can move it to an area where he can't see it or reach it (easier to do that for cats than dogs), accept that sometimes he will get to it before you notice, so keep a stack of dish towels nearby and show him how you use the towel to clean up and put it in the laundry room. Encourage him (SWEETLY, not chastising) to help. And keep less water in the bowls so there's less of a mess.
If you see your son going for it, redirect him towards his *own* water games. Toddlers are fascinated, even entranced by water, and running their hands under the faucet or pouring from cup to cup is a very soothing activity for them. Find a way he can play with it that won't make too mcuh mess. Give him a couple of cups with a little bit of water in them and let him pour them back and forth. (You may have to steady him if he's doing this over the sink.) Get a low children's table, and put a tray on it and allow him to pour water between cups over the tray. Or put slightly soapy water in a bowl, give him a small sponge, and let him scrub his plastic dinosaurs. I've seen a group of 10 toddlers gathered around a table happily cleaning toys for 20 minutes.
Having a waterproof smock is good, too.
I had one of those "Learning Towers" in the kitchen so he could stand on that and play with water in the kitchen sink, pouring water in between 2 plastic cups. He LOVED it.
Montessori schools encourage children to do all kinds of experimenting with water - they even have very low sinks so even the smallest kids can walk right up and work the faucets themselves. And they show the toddlers how to use a turkey baster to move colored water from one bowl to another, and they gradually make the droppers smaller and smaller until the kids can do it using a little eye dropper. (Gradually going from gross motor skills to find motor skills.)
I think your son pretty much just has the attention span of a one year old and the water is too much to resist! My suggestion would be to save yourself the trouble and put the bowl up except maybe when your son is in his high chair and try to let him see the "doggie eat" when he eats. You can continue the "No No" battle with him, and I think he will eventually learn, but I am a huge fan of the "pick your battles" concept. This would not be where I was using that much mental energy. The dog will learn to eat and drink at those regular intervals, and the baby will not have access to the bowl if it is put up. Everyone wins.
By the way, my first son was into absolutely everything when he was that age! I had the entire house childproofed and he still found stuff to mess with (he once ate the silica beads from a shoe box), so I have been there. I focused my mental and physical energy on the things I couldn't move away from him (he used to pull the curtains off the walls), or things that were unsafe (he tried to stick a wire hanger tip into an outlet). I had to have my eyes on him 24/7 in order just to keep him safe and my house in one piece!
Good Luck!
I would have to say after 3 children (my first would have been like your son--and I would have fought this battle every hour of every day) to put the water bowl somewhere that the dog can get it but your son can't. You have better things to do!
He'll stop eventually. But you may want to give him bowls to play with in the bathtub!
S.
I agree with those who said to move the bowl. You have to fight the fights that are worth fighting, and this one isn't. I have four kids, with the oldest only 6. I homeschool, and I work part time from home. No way I can watch my 12 month old every minute. Our water bowl for our cats is in a room he doesn't have access to. Whenever he gets in there he wants to play in it. I don't discipline him for it, I just pick him up and take him out. Kids just like to play in water. At that age, I totally wouldn't fight with him over it. I'd look at it the same as putting child locks on my cabinets and such. Part of babyproofing my house is making sure such things are where he can't get them.
we had to put up a babygate for the cat bowl. we were able to put it about 1 foot off the floor so the cat can fit under but my son can't. don't know how big your dog is but it's the only thing that worked for us!
We use "not yours" for the dog bowl, cell phone, remote, eye glasses, etc. It has worked marvelously! We've used it since she was tiny and now we can apply it to anything we don't want her to touch that isn't dangerous. We also reserve "no" for that. Good luck!
It's water , water is fun to play in.
keep the water bowl where he can't see it all the time, ie out of his play area and direct line of sight. When he starts to go for it intercept him and get him interested in something else. or you can gate the room that baby is in off from where the bowl is.
