Dog Medicine: Tricks To Get Your Dog To Swallow

My dog seems to be allergic to everything, so needless to say, he’s taken many a pill over his 3 and 1/2 years. Successfully giving him his allergy medication has been quite hit or miss, though. After so many failed attempts and wasted pills, I’ve learned to administer his meds based on his mood. Yep. I said it. Now you know that I’m a bit of an indulgent Mom

Here’s a couple of tried and true ways that I’ve found to give my highly intelligent, spoiled pup his dog medicine:

1. If he’s in an easy going kinda’ mood, I go for the “hide it in a piece of cheese” method. For those of you that have tried this, you know that it works best if you give your dog a couple of “starter” pieces first. Never put the pill in the first bite! Dogs are way too smart to take the cheese if your first attempt is unsuccessful.

2. If he’s in begging mode, I trick him every time with this one. Make yourself a snack that contains one of his favorite people foods. My favorite (and his) is peanut butter. I make myself a few homemade peanut butter crackers and then go sit on the couch. By the way, you have to make sure that one of the crackers has a “secret”. Eat a couple of crackers. When he looks like he just can’t stand it any longer and his eyes are pleading and he’s licking his lips, offer him the cracker with the pill inside. He’ll be so excited he won’t even stop to think that he’s been tricked!

3. If he’s starving (or acting like it), then I break up the pill and mix it in with his food. Make sure that the vet says it okay to do it first, though, because some pills are designed to be broken down slowly internally. This is a method that I rarely use, however. The above two usually do the trick.

The above tips are very effective ways of tricking your pup into taking his dog medicine, but please make sure that he’s actually swallowing. Dogs are very good at spitting out or cheeking pills when we’re feeling all proud of ourselves and not looking. True story: I moved a few months ago and was very surprised when I moved the sofa and found 6 allergy pills hiding under the cushions. I don’t know how he did it, but thank goodness I don’t have any human children in the house!

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