REVIEW: HydroPet Watering Bowl -and a little surprise ending for my Chicken Peeps

It's been a while since I've done a product review, but it's also been a while since I was offered a product that I felt I could actually use.  I was asked by HydroPet if I would give their product a try and share my honest opinions of their product with my readers.  I'm so glad I did because I really like this product.

The product is called HydroPet, its an automatic pet water bowl that refills with fresh clean water.  In addition to being a chicken keeper I run a dog boarding facility -I know you are probably thinking that the two go together like oil and water.  Actually, most of the dog guests find the chickens to be quite entertaining and will spend as much time as they can watching every movement of my hens through the fence.  We keep our dogs and chickens each physically separated behind a sequence of sturdy fences.

In our dog areas I keep several buckets and large bowls of water for the dogs to always have access to fresh water while they play...or study chicken behavior.  This requires that I hook up the hose several times a day to empty, rinse and refill the buckets and bowls.  It's amazing how much 'stuff' manages to get in the water dishes from the dogs drinking out of them.  For this reason, when HydroPet contacted me about testing their product I jumped at the chance.

The HydroPet bowl holds as much water as my buckets, but it does the rinsing and refilling job for me, leaving me more time to play with the dogs.  Unlike auto fill floats that sit in a bucket and keep the water at a certain level (I have used them before) with the HydroPet the water level goes down because the dogs drink the water, and the automatic timer (set to how ever often I may need the bowl refilled) will come on, spray water from three points inside the bowl that rinses out the inside and flushes the debris as it refills the bowl with fresh cool water.

There is no complicated installation.  I was able to have it up and running in less then 30 minutes, even with 4 curious dogs trying to help me.  There are three methods of installation depending on your particular application.  They are the 'hose bib connection', the 'sprinkler system connection' or the 'drip system connection' methods. Here is a short video from HydroPet that goes over the three installation methods.

I used the 'hose bib connection' method, it was super easy, but I do have a few tips no matter which method you use. First, have someone else occupy your helpful pets, my four dogs were so curious about what I was working on that it made it a bit of a challenge to do the installation, especially when one of them carried off the little bag of parts.  I spent about 10 minutes looking for the parts before I realized that my big girl had stashed them under the patio chair.  Another tip is to flush your hose out with water before you install the bowl.  My hose apparently had some debris in it, which quickly blocked the tiny wire mesh filter in the adapter and caused the water flow to slow to a trickle.

At first I thought, "Wow, this thing really sucks, there is no way its going to flush out floating debris in the bowl if it only trickles out."  I disconnected the hose adapter and cleaned off the filter screen (see pic above), ran water through my hose a moment then hooked it back up and Bang! Nice spraying flow of water that definitely had enough force (even with our low pressure water lines) to thoroughly clean out the junk my dogs deposited into the bowl.

Below is a video I made showing how quickly it refills.  Note that our water pressure is not real high but there is still plenty of spraying power to clean out the bowl.  Also note that I did not have the bowl sitting on level ground so as the water level filled, two of the jets were underwater.  They were still spraying, you just cannot see it.  The bowl has an overflow area where water is suppose to flow out when the bowl fills up.  This helps to wash out debris and if the bowl is placed in the flower bed the overflowing water will water your plants.  The amount of water that flows out will depend on how long you set the timer to run.  I sat mine for 3 minutes.  As you can see in this video, the bowl was full at about 2-1/2 minutes so the remaining 30 seconds cleans out the bowl and would water the flower bed, but not so much that it creates a soggy mess around the bowl.

You can purchase the HydroPet bowl by visiting their website HERE.  As you will see there are a few different package bundles.  Mine was the HydroPet Deluxe Bundle w/Timer.  It sells for $67.50. You can get it without the automatic timer for just $34.95 and fill it yourself manually, or if installing it with an existing drip or sprinkler system. This is what came in my package:

Now, my fellow chicken-peeps are probably thinking, "Anna, why are you doing a review for a dog product?"  Well I will let you in on a little secret...HydroPet has a new addition to this product coming out this summer and it is specifically for us Chicken People!

It's the Chicken Hood...

I hope to be able to bring you an updated review this summer, I know I really want one for my chicks!  HydroPet said the Chicken Hood will be priced at about $24-26 each and of course will be available in a bundle with the HydroPet Bowl as well.  Here is a video about this exciting addition to the HydroPet bowl.

As if you needed any additional reason to love the HydroPet, here are a couple more...the bowl is BPA Free and Made In America!


Disclosure:  First, I want to thank HydroPet for allowing me to try your awesome product, my dogs love it, and I hope to try your Chicken Hood later this summer.  If you read through my previous reviews you will see that I give honest reviews -even at the detriment of the company that sends me a product that is not good.  I received a product for free for testing but I was not paid for my opinion, nor was I told what I should say to my readers.  The opinions expressed here are 100% mine.

Miss Hollywood Graduated Puppy Obedience Training Class! Yay!

Yes! My baby has graduated from Puppy Basic Home Manners Obedience Class!  And she was even voted 'the most improved'...you automatically win that honor when the first class goes something like this:

Dog is over stressed walking through the downtown city area, because she lives in a very rural community and see's maybe 3 cars a week, and never saw a bicyclist before in her life -until one sped past her just as she is entering the first class.

Dog is so distracted by all these new dogs and their people that she has never seen before.

Dog gets so excited about said people that she pee's all over the floor -that mommy has to clean up.

Dog (repeatedly) tears down the barrier that the instructor puts up to hopefully block out said distractions.

Dog mommy gets upset that dog is acting like she was rescued from a cave the day before.

Dog gets so upset because mommy is upset that she develops the screaming diarrhea -that again mommy has to clean up.

Dog has to be removed out the back door to finish 'squirting'.

Dog comes back in 20 minutes later, still stressed, but calmer -or at least with an empty bowel.  Mommy is now so upset she is crying.  Dog and mommy sit out the last 15 minutes of the class because..."whats the use?"

So, after a one-on-one with the instructor before class number 2, dog and mommy are ready to start again.

Hollywood did very well with her lessons after that first horrific class, and went on to graduate from the class by performing a few tasks combined into real life activities...and doing them well.

I was so proud of her!

And I'm so thankful for the Awesome instructor Kathy -for her patients, understanding, and guidance.

Me & Hollywood (left), Kathy (center), my daughter & Bear (right)

Yay Miss Hollywood!  We will take a few months break for the holiday months, while honing our skills, then I think we may just take some additional classes to build on what she has learned so far.

Keeper of 1 husband, 3 dogs, 
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

Dog 'Training Classes' or Dog 'Torture'...My Dog Might Say the Later.

Yesterday wast the first day of my puppy, Miss Hollywood's, Basic Training Dog Obedience Class.  We (well, I) was really excited about attending the class.  Hollywood is half Rottweiler, and 1/4 each Shar-Pei & Boxer, and at just 5 months old she already weighs over 40 pounds and is pretty good sized.  I know that when she is full grown I will need to be in control of her or she will take over. 

Miss Hollywood at 5 months (7/20/14) Looks like a High School Graduation Photo, lol

In preparation for the class I attended the 2 hour human class, which was an orientation for the class and to train us humans how to train our dogs.  After the orientation I was feeling pretty confident with my home training so far.  She learned 'sit', 'laydown', and 'wait' for her food until I said to eat, both with verbal and hand signal commands.  She also learned 'leave-it' (good for on a walk passing an irresistible cat poop) and 'drop-it' (for when she has my shoe or is sneaking out of my room with my underwear in her mouth).  So I thought we were ready.

Arrival at Class

We had to drive over an hour away to the class.  The class is downtown with lots of city traffic that Hollywood is not use to.  She was very nervous when I got her out of the car a few blocks away.  I thought we could take the walk to the class to relieve herself but the traffic and people proved to be too distracting so she didn't stop to pee.  When we arrived, we were the last of 6 people, so the only place left was next to my daughter and her dog Bear.  Hollywood and Bear recognized each other and while Bear was behaving, Hollywood was being obnoxious wanting to play with him and the other dogs in the room.  I tried to keep her near me while the instructor spoke buy Hollywood kept acting up and pulling at the end of her leash tethered to the wall in our area.

The First Lesson

When it was time to do our first lesson I could not get Hollywood's attention. She was too busy watching the other dogs and their owners and trying to get to them to play.  The teacher approached us and Hollywood pee'd all over.  I had to stop trying to get her attention and clean up the pee.  The teacher put up a barrier around Hollywood and I, so she wouldn't be distracted by everyone else.  That didn't work as planned, Hollywood started jumping up and pulling the barrier down.  So we missed the first and second lesson while I was busy trying to get her to stop pulling down the barrier and focus on me so I could instruct her.  It was a losing battle.  The teacher came over again and tried moving the barrier further away so Hollywood could not reach it and told me to just ignore her and keep trying to work the lesson with Hollywood.  By this time I was so frustrated because she never acted this way at home.  Yes, it was her first time in a crowd like this, but my goodness had she checked her brains at the door?

Then Shit Hit the Fan...Literally

My frustration was apparently transferred to her through the lease and she became extremely stressed.  Not only was she not focusing on me, not following commands, still trying to knock the barrier down, but now she developed the screaming shits!  I wanted to just crawl behind the barrier myself and hide.  My daughters boyfriend took over their dog and my daughter took Hollywood out the back door to a vacant parking lot to let her de-stress a moment and finish pooping, while I got down on my knees in front of everyone else and cleaned up a huge mess of dog diarrhea in my area. 

I was embarrassed by her behavior, upset with myself for getting so frustrated, and felt so guilty for causing her so much stress that she got the screaming shits.  My own stomach was churning because of this situation and I began to cry.  Boy, did we make a good first impression on this class. 

I went outside to try to calm myself down and relieve my daughter of taking care of my dog so she could go back inside to work with hers.  By the time we were both sort of in control and went back inside we had missed over half of the class.  I just sat in the chair in my area with Hollywood at my side.  I told the instructor we would just observe quietly for the rest of the class.  We were able to join in on the final lesson and Hollywood did perform it okay.  I think she was just so drained by that time that she didn't care about anyone else there.

"Please Stay After Class"

After class ended the teacher and I talked about what happened.  She said that because we live in a very rural area we just weren't able to exposed Hollywood to enough other people or dogs, like in this setting.  Combine that with the fact that she already has self-confidence issues from being taken away from her mother so early (we got her at 4 weeks old), and its actually not too abnormal for this to have happened.  She said she wanted me to bring her to a structured puppy play class on Friday (before her next training class on Sunday) so this place wont be a scary setting for her. 

When I left, my eyes were still swollen and red from crying.  I stopped at Starbucks for a frappuchino (trying to pep myself up).  I know the poor young man behind the counter wanted to come around and hug me.  (They are so sweet there.)  I continued to cry about halfway home, feeling like the worst doggy-mom in the world for upsetting my baby to the point she got the screaming shits. 

After the Tears Dried

When I finally stopped crying, I came up with a plan and made a vow to correct this so she would never feel that way again. My plan is to work with her more at home to help build her confidence and try to expose her to more people and different places this week.  Then on Friday, before the puppy play class I will spend about half an hour at the public park throwing the ball for her while she is on her 50' leash.  This will let her have lots fun with other people and dogs around, but not right next to us, so she will maybe wear herself out, allowing her to be more calm in class.  (And hopefully empty her bladder and bowls thoroughly before class.)  I will do this before each training class as well.

I need to have her be an obedient and well-behaved dog since she is going to be so big, but I never want to cause her so much physical and emotional discomfort again.

I will let you know how it goes...

Keeper of 1 husband, 2 grandkids, 3 dogs,
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

 

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Did this post stir something inside of you? If so, Please leave me a comment, I would love to know what you're thinking!!!