Re: Give your dog medicine without a fuss

This is my technique for giving my dog his medicine (pills) that truly is without fuss. Nothing wrong with the original, just felt inspired to post mine (and was actually taking a break from using photoshop when I browsed through instructables.com so it was already open.)

Step 1 Get your dog's attention.

What the subject is doing in this step is actually pretending to eat (enjoy) the medication. Just get your dog to become interested in whatever it is that you want him/her to ingest. This could be done at the dinner table even, as you are eating dinner/lunch/breakfast have something that your dog thinks came off of your plate.

Comments

[BintangSam]

 people should know peanutbutter and cheese isnt always good for the dog, our dog has alergies ... (dont know if i spelt that right) she is kind of allergic to most foods. so this would be a nice trick, if she woudnt be so damn smart :\. she just starts gagging when she even smells medication.

[FreshPineSent]

Rated 5/5 for MS Paint.

[toogers]

rated 20/5 if it was gimp.

[InstructorGadget]

This is the part where my dog got smart about it and didn't want his "Treat" anymore. hahahahaha. Had to cover it in peanut butter.

[smokehill]

I doubt that any of my 15 dogs would fall for this. Several of them have daily medication and will only take them if the pills are buried in something they like like peanut butter, cheese, or canned dog food. Even then, some will notice the pills and spit them out as they come to them. I had an old Golden Retriever that could spit out her three pills, looking as clean as if they'd come from the bottle, in a matter of seconds after the gob of peanut butter hit her mouth. Some dogs, also, just won't take peanut butter or canned food once they get the idea that there are pills in there. Those we have to just stick way at the back of their throat and hold their nose in the air until they eventually swallow them. Been doing this for thirty years now, with a 50-dog kennel and now with the rescue dogs we have passing through. Every dog is different, so you have to keep trying different things..Some work on most dogs, but there are always dogs that will just not cooperate. Like anything, though, your method is certainly worth trying.

[elliot81]

15?!

[Ginchi1730]

Mine will sometimes spit a pill out even though it's in Peanut Butter. I start by giving him a small sample, and then the larger glob with the medication in it.

[inquisitive]

Hey, that is false advertising! My dogs would have just spit it out or even better barf it into my shoe. A bit of cheese (slice or cream cheese) always did the trick for me. In desperation with no cheese a tiny smidge of bacon grease would make them want it. I think if your dog is trained with some discipline and lots of love, they might do a little more for you than you would think.

[Badgergirl]

Oh, I just stuff it in a chunk of hot dog. She is a happy dog!!!:D

[Ginchi1730]

Or a glob of Peanut Butter. Even happier.

[wolf555hound]

That's what i do too. either that or a slice if sandwhich meat.

[thedragonmaster]

*puts pill in mouth* Yuuum....Yak! no erase yak it was tasty. *gives to dog* Yuuum.... Yak! *you sigh*

[Yerboogieman]

this technique would never work for my doberman

[FrenchCrawler]

This technique would never work for my Golden Retriever. If I'm eating something that she won't, she won't eat it, even if I throw it in the air and she catches it. As soon as it hits her tongue, she'll spit it out. Such items would be Altoids (yes, people do actually eat these :P ), carrots, Gummy Bears (almost put Gummi), and so on.

[X_D_3_M_1]

u shouldnt feed it altoids or gummys! shame shame!

[moranch]

My dogs LOVE Altoids. They eat them all of the time. I cannot sneak into my tin without them knocking me over to get the one in my mouth. I was really concerned about it at first but since they haven't gotten sick from it yet, I'm guessing it can't be too bad. I mean there are other dog treats and edibles containing peppermint and gelatin. How bad could it be? Right? As for chocolate, I believe that just like people with certain allergies, it can be deadly or have no effect at all.

[FrenchCrawler]

Well, our other dog ate about 7 lbs of chocolate bars before when no one was home (we still don't know ow he knocked them down from the top of the fridge) and he never got sick.

[Spl1nt3rC3ll]

My dog's eaten a ton of chocolates by mistake and hasn't gotten sick. I guess either the myth aint true or larger dogs can take more.

[the dawg]

it just makes there life way shorter

[smokehill]

It is no myth, for sure. Most dogs can tolerate chocolate in small doses just fine, but a friend of ours left a pound of baking chocolate wrapped up under the Christmas tree, and the English Setter who ate most of it wound up in the emergency room and nearly died. That was about a $500 mistake, there .... Some dogs may be able to tolerate chocolate better, but it definitely is a dangerous thing in anything but small amounts.

[Cartuner55]

thats because baking chocolate (unsweetened) is the most dangerous. white chocolate is the least (it has NO chocolate. I wonder why they call it white CHOCOLATE. hmm

[technosapien]

White chocolate doesn't have cocoa solids in it. It's still made from the cacao plant, so technically, still chocolate. (It's essentially cocoa butter.)

[Spl1nt3rC3ll]

I got scared when I found out she had eaten an entire foot tall Easter bunny. She was fine though, not even the least bit sick.

[Spl1nt3rC3ll]

Bernese Mountain dog, by the way.

[toogers]

it was probly hollow. (the bunny, not the dog.)

[techturtle2]

My dog ate a chocolate chip cookie and threw up until there wasnt a square meter of our house that didn't have cookie vomit on it.

[toogers]

wow. must have been a chocolate chip cookie from Costco.

[techturtle2]

No it was from my school caffeteria. also I have a small-ish house

[toogers]

ah, bad cookie-to-house ratio. i see.

[FrenchCrawler]

Or mayhap we bought ourselves mutant dogs :P

[jumboto]

Yea, I guess it won't work for everyone. In my situation I never ever give my dog table food and only give him treats as a reward. Also I try the be the "pack leader" and I don't know, my dog just listens to me. He would probably eat whatever I want him to. Well, I guess he would spit out chili peppers..... That being said, I also have never had to give him (or my previous dog) any multiple or large pills. Just little heartworm type stuff.

[Ginchi1730]

I have heard that dogs should have nothing with onion in it.

[techturtle2]

Avacado is toxic to ALL dogs.

[incorrigible packrat]

The "pill" in the pictures has a certain turd-like aspect to it. Come to think of it, why not encase the pill in a turd? Most dogs, that I've had the misfortune of observing, seem to hold turd in high esteem, and would snap up a turd camouflaged pill right quick. The matter is somewhat of a red herring, however. From watching "Old Yeller" we learn that canine medicinal product should be plumbic, in composition, and delivered in a quicker and slightly more direct form, than in a swallowed pill.

[oinkoinkzoopals]

i always just rap the the pill in cheese and my dog eats it with no fuss

[Spl1nt3rC3ll]

Same.

[X_D_3_M_1]

i just yell TREAT and he bites

[dannydutton]

Ha! your dogs are so picky. my dogs just eats the whole pill. No fuss. we just put it in our hands and she licks it right off our hand and into her mouth. She isn't very picky, she has eaten loads of geese and horse crap.

[pocketwatch]

and you have her lick your hands? I always have trouble with my cat licking her dirty paws and then licking me but yours sounds hard too.

[primalmu]

I always found this to be effective: Take a piece of bread, cheese, or whatever and divide it into 3-4 pieces. Wrap the pill in one of them. Then, give one or two without the pill, give the one with the pill, then give the last one without the pill. As long as you still have another treat to give them, most dogs will probably be too concerned with the remaining treats to take the time to inspect each treat. Of course, your dog would have to be VERY food motivated for this to work.