I have a big black rubber tub for water for Scooby in the summer. I keep 2 gallons of water before him all the time, so that he will never say that I let him run out of water! In the winter I have a heated dish that I got over twenty years ago, and I am surprised that it is still working, but it is. It only holds one gallon of water, but in the winter he doesn't drink as much, so one gallon is fine, and his water is right at our back door, so as long as we are home it is easy. We usually take the smaller dog, Rand, everywhere we go, so we are taking care of him, but our granddaughter takes care of Scooby while we are gone, and she is very good not to let him run too low on water. He misses me so much that when I am gone he, and it drives our daughter crazy, so our granddaughter has to sleep in my chair by the sliding glass door, so that she can tell him to stop barking. If you tell him to stop barking, he will. He is very good that way. Carol goes out the sliding door at night, holds his face, and chews him out for barking, telling him, "Scooby, you stop your barking now!" He thinks she is giving him special attention, and he loves it. He has no idea that he is getting chewed out!!!!