Every walk now includes 4 stops at 4 puddles. Gutter water, a pothole, the tray under next door's plant pots, and whatever is standing on the path.
You have started pulling your dog past them, which turns each puddle into an argument and does nothing about the next one.
The health question comes first
Standing water can carry things that make a dog unwell, and which things depend entirely on where you walk. Your veterinary practice knows the local picture and we do not.
Ask them 3 things: whether puddle and standing water drinking is a concern where you live, whether your dog's vaccinations cover what is relevant locally, and what signs should make you phone.
Safety note
Call your veterinary practice today if your dog develops vomiting, diarrhoea, a reduced appetite, lethargy or a fever after drinking standing water. Ask them as well about standing water risks and vaccination in your area, and avoid water that is stagnant, scummy, near farm runoff or near where machinery has been. Sudden behaviour change warrants a veterinary examination. A sudden increase in how much your dog drinks is its own reason to phone, rather than a habit to train away.
Why adolescent dogs do this
Puddle water is interesting. It smells of everything that has passed through it, it is at nose height, and drinking it has never once been interrupted in a way that mattered.
Adolescence makes the outside world louder and more interesting at the same time as responsiveness to your cues drops. So a habit like this often appears around 8 to 14 months in a dog who ignored puddles as a puppy.
Manage the walk this week
Take water with you. A collapsible bowl and a bottle removes the strongest reason to drink from the ground.
Offer a drink before you leave the house, and again at the halfway point of the walk, rather than waiting to be asked.
Change the route for a fortnight if one stretch is all gutter and standing water. You cannot train past a puddle you walk into.
Walk on the side of the path away from the kerb, and keep the lead short and loose past known spots.
Take note of anything worse than a puddle: a stagnant pond, a scummy edge, a stream below a field. Those get avoided rather than managed.
Teach one paid alternative
Pulling your dog away teaches them to drink faster. Paying them for coming away teaches them that leaving a puddle is worth something.
Start at home with a shallow tray of water on the floor. Say your dog's name, and pay 3 pieces of food when they look up.
Move it to the garden. Same word, same payment, new place. A cue learned indoors is not automatically learned outdoors.
On a walk, work at a distance from a puddle where your dog can still hear you. If they cannot, you are too close.
Say the word once as you approach, and pay at your knee as you walk past. Never repeat it louder.
Offer the bowl from your bag right after. The alternative needs to be water, not only food.
Working below the level at which your dog stops responding is the condition for learning near a trigger. A puddle 6 feet away is a training opportunity, and one underfoot is not.
Reward-based methods are what the veterinary behaviour guidance recommends, and punishment-based approaches are associated with fear, avoidance and defensive aggression. So no lead corrections and no shouting at the kerb.
Behaviour change is built from management plus reinforcement together. The management is the water bottle and the changed route, and the reinforcement is what you pay for walking past.
What to expect
Owners usually describe fewer stops within 2 to 3 weeks of carrying water and paying the walk-past, and a much easier dog by the end of adolescence. Expect to keep avoiding the worst water permanently, because that is management rather than a gap in training.
If the walk itself is the harder problem rather than the puddles, the Assessment will sort which part to work on first. It is free and takes about 3 minutes.
Today's version, in one line: put water in your bag before the next walk, and pay 3 pieces for the first puddle you pass.