hello Holly!
I own a kennel/boarding facility and if she were my employee she would be instructed to dump the excess water and get a new clean bucket daily. We change out food and water dishes for everyone every day, and anytime it is dirty. This includes cleaning, scrubbing, disinfecting and drying. Every pet every day.
There is a lot of information on this on multiple sites;
heres a good overview to use as a basic guideline. https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_welfare/downloads/breeders/dogs/9-Housing-Part-2-3-2016-SpeakerNotes.pdf
please remember that these are minimum acceptable standards.. they aren’t even close to adequate for my kennel.
If you own a pet facility your primary obligation is to provide a safe, disease free place for peoples family members. I don’t know where you are but yours sounds like it needs some oversight, supervision, and better leadership to establish safer working protocols for the health of everyone.. you and your pets included.
Your local health department, animal control, State veterinarian can all provide assistance. I recommend having your boss seek their input ASAP, before a contagious disease shuts them down, ot sickens your dogs.
Hello,
I firmly believe that every dog barks for a very good reason. The challenge is spending enough time and effort to figure out what they are trying to tell you.
Start at the vets office with an examination and diagnostics. Look for any signs of pain, infection, allergy, inflammation, discomfort, etc. I always (ALWAYS!) also do a rectal exam to check anal sacs. Then we talk about the home life environment. How much exercise and attention is your dog getting? Has anything changed in the household? A recent arrival or departure? Anything?
If the barking is becoming obsessive and troublesome talk about seeing a behaviorist and starting anxiety medication. Medication should only be used after everything else is ruled out and a behavior modification plan is underway.
please keep us posted on your progress.. good luck! I hope that everything works out ok