I am having trouble with my DD pawing the water bowl and then will not drink because there is dirt in it. For now his run has a dirt floor( i plan to concrete it some time soon). Although the run is shaded very well I think he is trying to splash the water in the dirt to cool off. I tried watering down the run but he still ruins the water in the bowl by pawing at it. Has anyone used the Lixit auto watering system that Gundog supply sells? If so how did you like it?

I haven't tried one of those but have seen them, the problem I have is unless the hose is laying in the shade, the sun is going to heat the water up. Another problem would be if the hose got a hole in it or busted & you weren't there to turn it off, you are gonna have one heck of a water bill. Try getting one of the buckets with hooks on it that you can hang higher on the fence & tie it to the fence with some wire. Worked for Daisy when she was younger. I have a young dog now that if the bucket isn't tied, he will knock it over & not have water till we get back & fill it up (luckily my wife is home at lunch). His has to be tied to the fence, too hot to be without water.

yes, we put them in a 15 run kennel a few years ago (like 5 yrs) and they work very well. We used an overhead PVC line and drops (keeping all the PVC outside of the kennels to prevent chewing) and brought the lick valve in just far enough so the dogs can use it. this also keeps the PVC shaded. As far as i know, none have had to be replaced. To get the dogs used to them, smear peanut butter on them and they will get it figured out pretty quick.

Thanks for the replies. The hose in the sun and hot water is a good tip. I think i will try to elevate the bowl first and see if that works. If not I may just need to bite the bullet and start ditch digging and get water to the run. Ugh

If you weren't so far I would let you use the hanging stainless steel bucket I have, to try it out, I just switched over to white 2 gallon plastic buckets about a year ago & have been very pleased with them.

Since cooling off seems to be his desire you might try what I have: I bought a plastic feed trough from Tractor Supply. It's about 36" x 24" x 10 deep. I fill it up about twice a week. Both my dogs help themselves to a cool dip whenever it pleases them. They also drink from it, though I keep water in another location too. The trough was fairly cheap, like $15 and the dogs love it. Be sure it's in a shady area.

x2 on the trough. Exactly what I do as well as keep a seperate water bucket.

I check ts tomorrow for one of those troughs Thanks

Brilliance! Simplicity often is....

Another good point. I, too, keep the other water in a 5 gal. bucket. They can't "splash" the water out of it.

What timing on a post. Just yesterday I ran PVC to our kennel and installed this.

http://www.nelsonmfg.com/dog-equipment/dog-waterer/

I to had knuckle head dogs flipping and getting their water filthy. Even had it hanging.

I have been looking at that one too. Wouldn't be that hard to pipe over to my kennels & install those.

I didn't feel like digging so I tried tying a 5 gal bucket to the fence and filled it. We will see if that does the trick.

Will it freeze up in cold weather?

I imagine so. I have insulated what little bit of pipe that is exposed. Don't freeze that often or if it does it don't last long.

I used to have several hounds and partitioned dog runs. I plumbed each with a riser and lixit or a similar product that was available at the time for water. At least two of my hounds damaged their front teeth from it, but realize this was from years of use. Those particular hounds drank from it a certain way that it caused a wear spot on their teeth over time. Other than that they worked well. I had a valve I could turn the entire system off during freezing weather. Birds eventually figured it out too and would stand on it with one foot on the neck and one on the nipple to get a drink.

I went with pea gravel rather than concrete btw. I felt it much easier to keep the poop cleaned up and better on the dog's feet.

Guess I should have added that I did install a cutoff. I will be able to drain it if it does freeze. So far its working and the dogs have water which is a good thing!