If you’ve ever had to give your dog medicine then you know it can be a difficult task. For some pups, just the sight of a pill bottle or medicine-filled syringe is enough to send them running to the other room. But here’s the good news: Medicine time doesn’t have to be stressful for you or your pooch. Read on for four tips!
1. Hide It In Your Pup’s Meal
Dogs are food-driven creatures and will typically scarf down a meal without realizing (or caring) there’s medicine hiding inside. If you feed fresh food meals to your dog then it’s pretty easy to disguise a small pill by hiding it in a piece of meat.
2. Create Your Own Pill Pockets
If you try to drop the pill in your dog’s meal and you find them just eating around it (been there), here’s another solution!
While you can find commercial pill pockets at your local pet store, I prefer to make my own. Because, seriously, have you ever read through the ingredient label of the store-bought options? It’s common to find corn syrup, preservatives, and other red-flag ingredients.
This pill pocket dog treat recipe calls for only 3 ingredients, is easy to make, and dogs love them! Just watch:
You can also push the pill into a small cube of cheese, piece of boiled chicken, bite-sized chunk of sardine, or another plain & drool-worthy food.
3. Create Competition
Do you have multiple dogs in your household? If so, you may be able to use it to your advantage because, generally speaking, canines eat quicker when in front of other dogs. They want to gobble it down before the “competition” can get it.
With my two dogs, I typically hold a pill-stuffed treat in one hand and a plain treat in the other. Then, I offer the snacks to my dogs at the same time.
4. Don’t Let Your Pooch See You Prepare The Medicine-Filled Treat
Just like some little kids will refuse to drink a drooly smoothly because they know it has a little spinach in it, some dogs will give you that “heck no” look if they know a pill is tucked inside their food. This happens with my little Diego all the time. If he watches me prepare his medicine-filled snack, he will either eat around the pill or just sniff it and walk away. My solution? Prepare the pill pockets or medicine-filled food while your precious pooch is in the other room.
