The dog it just TOO SNEAKY!!!!

[Bob Weisner]

My GSP started his itching again last night, so I went to give him 2 25 MG Benadril(SP?) pills. Had them wrapped up in a slice of Orange American cheese. I was on a roll , (SO I THOUGHT! ) when I saw him sleeping on the bed. He woke up when I entered the room and had that " what are you up to?" look in his eyes!! I jumped on the bed with the plate (YES , A PLATE!) of cheese in my left hand. Everything was neatly cut up into nice litttle squares and placed just so on the plate. (I could have won an award for the best presentation of American cheese!! )

As soon as I picked up the first piece of cheese, my dog closed his mouth so tight I would have thought it was superglued shut!! Finally , I got the first pill down him.. AH, YES!! I AM ON A ROLL NOW!!!! But, that was not to be!! He stood up and then he wiggled to the left and then he wiggled to the right. He did a 360 and then backed up. He opened his mouth for just a split second and that is when I tossed the cheese wrapped pill in his mouth. YES!!! I DID IT!!! Or, so I thought. My dog made it LOOK like he swallowed the 2nd pill, but he pulled a fast one on me!! When I turned my head, he jumped off the bed faster than a speeding bullet. Instead of swallowing the pill, he held it under his tounge and spit it out when my back was turned!!! OH, HE IS ONE SMART AND VERY SNEAKY DOG!!!!!!!!

[Joe Pelonio]

Sometimes it's amazing how smart and stubborn a dog can be. I've given up on tricking them. My current dogs will eat anything, including pills with no problem. We used to have a Bernese that needed a thyroid pill every day. He hated it, but the vet showed us what to do, which is basically make him sit, pry his mouth open while someone else throws it in, then
hold his mouth closed while rubbing his thoat, which forces them to swallow. Unfortunately it's hard to do by yourself, though I did eventually master it.

May "Woody" rest in peace.

[Kirk (KC) Constable]

Peanut butter. The piill will stick to it, and unless the dog is very, very good they won't even know they've eaten the pill.

[Larry Klaaren]

Here's a couple of tricks. One is to cut a hot dog into pieces about an inch long, then push the pill into the hot dog on one end, so it is covered by quite a bit of meat. Then slice an eighth of an inch (or more) off the end of the hot dog that you pushed the pill through to get rid of some of the smell of the powder.

If you have to force the dog to take the pill, grab the top of the dog's nose and roll his lip between your hand and his teeth, so that if he bites down he will be biting his gum. They won't do that. I've stuck my entire hand into some pretty big dog's mouths that way. You have to get the pill "over the top of the tongue." That means far enough back so they can't work it out with their tongue. Rubbing the front of the bottom of the throat does help make them swallow.

My experience with peanut butter isn't so successful, but maybe it's the technique. The peanut butter sticks to my fingers or whatever I am using to put it into the mouth of dog better than it does to the dog.

There's a great cartoon that shows a vet with a torn up lab coat and scratches all over his face and hands with a cat that looks all worn out and ferocious. Two owners are standing by. The vet is saying "He'll need two of those every eight hours."

Good luck,
Larry

[Al Willits]

Understanding that they are indeed smarter than us helps, upgrading your trickery is a must, I've discovered starving them for 2 or 3 days helps, but I really feel bad doing it, plus our dog will start eating whatevers at hand...socks, magazines, TV remotes, small children, neighbors cat (ok by me) and the tires of my truck....
so I ended up doing the one cracker with peanut butter to get her started, then slide a cracker/peanut butter/pill in while she's not looking, usually about the time she is trying to get the original peanut butter off the roof of her mouth...did I mention you have to feed the cracker with the peanut butter on the top??

Trickery....ya can't outsmart them, ya gotta trick them...

Al ... ..who was kidding about starving puppy...

[Mark Pruitt]

Ditto the peanut butter. When my schnauzer refuses a pill, I crush it into fine particles and mix it in to some peanut butter on the end of a knife, and it's history. Then I look at 'im and say, "gotcha."

[Dave Richards]

We will wrap the pill into a piece of soft bread. Then we make two other pieces of bread about the same size. Feed the dog an empty piece, then the pilled piece and finally another empty. Feed them in like you're feeding sausage into a sausage stuffing machine. Pill goes down before the dog figures it out.

Pilling dogs reminds me of a fellow my father worked with. He had a dog that was on some sort of seizure medication. One evening as he was preparing hors d'ourves for a dinner party, he got the idea that he would stick the pill in a bit of the liver sausage he was using. He set that little ball aside and continued with his work. Later, when the guests arrived, he went into the kitchen to get the tray, saw this extra ball of liver sausage on the counter and popped it into his mouth. Three days later they let him out of the hospital...

[Tom Jones III]

Boy you guys are nicer than I am. We had an old Doberman and when she needed a pill but didn't want it I would pry her mouth open with one hand and reach in with the other. When I started feeling stomach lining I would let go of the pill. Whole thing over in 3 seconds. Of course she was very patient about letting us do things to her. No matter how gentle she was the vet was never excited when he had to work on the pointy end of a Doberman.

[Roger Bell]

We tried a number of food wrap fake-outs with our german shep/blacklab, each losing its appeal after awhile. These included PB, cheese, hot dogs, vienna sausages, liverwurst, chicken, burger, steak. Eventually she got wise to each of these. Perhaps we should have tried cavier. Meanwhile, her dependency on drugs to sustain "quality of life" increased and pill time became ever troublesome.

Then we tried "Pill Pockets". Available from any pet shop or pet supply joint as well as online. Stinky brown flexible material shaped like little booties. Similar to those gooey dog "treats" you use in training. You can stuff more than one good-sized pill in it and squish it up over the pill into a ball. Very easy to use, but they do cost money. The mutt never tired of pill pockets.

[Bruce Volden]

AHHH the subject of pets!! Well fall is moving in fast out here what with all the crops yellowing out for harvest shortly. Seems my 2 Newfs and their friend the mutt (3 dogs) can feel it also. Lately when I come home from work there are 5-10 cornstalks drug onto the front yard with missing ears on them. Not to worry though as the corn always turns up the next day, fully processed via canine!!!!! I don't know where they came up with this idea as it has been ongoing for 3-4 years now. All I can say is golden castles in the grass 8>). I would have trouble pushing a pill into an ear of corn tho'.


Bruce

[Glenn Clabo]

Too funny...I have two labs...and go to work with my fingers smelling like peanut butter!

[Robert Mickley]

I'm lucky, if I toss it to them they just open up and swallow.
Greedy lil labs that they are.

[Jim Bell]

Try wrapping the pill in a cat.
Jim

[Bruce Page]

Bob, our lab isn’t fond of taking medication. I just pop the pill into her mouth, hold it closed and gently rub up & down on her throat. Works every time.

[Greg Ladd]

We are currently medicating our Golden. We put a pill inside a small piece of rope-type red licorice. Cut the licorice slightly longer on each side and the dog will take it and swallow it in one piece.

She is the type others have mentioned and can separate a pill from cheese and bread and spit it out on the floor. I will say we haven't tried peanut butter though.

Good luck,
Greg