Should I add water to my senior dog's dry food?

Dogs with worn or missing teeth often find softened kibble noticeably easier and less painful to chew. Dogs that are naturally light drinkers also get a small hydration boost this way, since the extra moisture gets consumed along with the meal rather than relying on the water bowl alone, which some senior dogs visit less often than they should.

Use warm, not hot, water, roughly body temperature, and let the kibble sit for 5 to 10 minutes to soften properly rather than serving it immediately. Start with a smaller amount of water and increase it gradually, since some dogs are put off by food that becomes too mushy too fast, especially if they were never used to wet food before.

Softened food should be eaten within about 30 minutes and any leftovers discarded rather than left out, since moist food spoils faster than dry kibble left in a bowl. If you feed multiple meals a day, prepare each one fresh rather than softening a whole day's food at once.

This is also a gentle way to check hydration generally. A senior dog that suddenly eats softened food eagerly but shows little interest in its separate water bowl over several days is worth mentioning to your vet, since it can be a subtle early clue worth investigating.