Does your dog hate taking meds? Do they spit out the pill but eat the pill pocket? Do they refuse to eat? Do you find yourself shoving that darn pill in the back of the throat while holding their mouth closed only for them to wrestle free, spit out the pill, and then they smile at you mockingly?
We’ve been there. After working with dogs for quite some time, here is a hack we use. Let us know if it helped you!
We have 2 methods for pills. Our go to method is starting with the hard pill. We don’t want to do extra work if we don’t have to. For the hard pill method, we do this.
- Items needed are; Blueberries, honey, and peanut butter.
- Insert the pill into the blueberry opening area. Use the bigger blueberries for larger pills.
- The pill will be sticking out of the blueberry most of the time. That’s ok.
- Add 2 small drops of honey on the blueberry where the pill is sticking out from. Even small dogs can have 1/4 teaspoon of honey each day. Your dog should be fine unless they are allergic.
- Next take a tablespoon of peanut butter and lather it around the blueberry pill cocktail. If you need more peanut butter, that’s ok.
- If your dog will be taking pills for the next 7 days, you can make these all at once and leave them in your refrigerator. If it will be more than 7 days, make the next set at the start of the new week. This helps keep the ingredients fresh.
What’s great about this specific pill pocket cocktail we created is dog’s love it! The flavoring is a great mixture for them. If your dog isn’t a fan of blueberries, substitute with strawberries or raspberries. We use Blueberries since they are a low cost item.
More importantly, the peanut butter and small drops of honey force dogs to chew the blueberry pill or swallow it. It helps cover up the pill taste. And dogs love the peanut butter fruit mixture.
What happens if your dog still manages to spit out the pill? It’s ok, we have our second method.
Our second method works exactly the same way minus one small detail. We take the pill and insert it between 2 paper plates. We place the paper plates with the pill in between them on a solid concrete surface floor. Outside on the side walk is ideal. Do not do this on your tile or counter top.
Then take your mallet and smash the pill until it becomes a powder dust. Collect your pill dust and mix it with a table spoon of peanut butter. Add 2 drops of honey. And smother it around the blueberry. You don’t need the honey but we’ve seen that the dogs still prefer the hint taste of honey with their peanut butter blueberry cocktail.
That’s our quick hack for getting dogs to eat their pills they don’t like. Please follow us for more tips and sign your dog up with us for training!
