How to Warm Your Dog's Water Bucket

It's extremely important for your dog to have fresh water to prevent dehydration. In the middle of winter, your dog's water bucket can often freeze. The best solution to preventing this is to have an electrically heated water bucket that keeps the water above freezing even on the coldest days. This can be done either with an electric water bucket made for dogs or horses or a water dish that uses solar energy to heat the water. However, if you cannot get these things or have trouble getting electricity to where your dog is, you may have to thaw out your dog's bucket.

Things You'll Need

  • Dog bucket
  • Extra dog bucket
  • Heated indoor room
  • Hot water
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Instructions

    • 1

      Bring the dog bucket indoors to warm and replace it with another bucket full of clean, warm water for the dog to drink. Buckets will usually take the night to thaw.

    • 2

      If you can't wait for the ice to melt indoors or do not have a second suitable bucket, consider thawing the bucket by pouring hot water over the ice.

    • 3

      Let the hot water work on the ice.

    • 4

      Tip the bucket over and tap on the bucket with your hand to free the ice.

    • 5

      Refill the bucket with warm water and check it frequently. If it starts to ice over, add hot water to melt it and warm the bucket.

    • 6

      The best way to warm a bucket is to use a bucket with an electric heating element -- plug-in or solar-powered element. There are electric bucket warmers available that you stick in the water and plug in, but your bucket must be made of metal for them to work properly.