How to Get Your Dog to Take a Pill

Wondering how to get your dog to take medication in pill form? Put down the pill shooter and don’t worry about wrestling with your pet or trying to pry open his jaws! Instead, use food to give medication to your dog, for an easy, precise dosing.

The best substances for giving pills to a dog: peanut butter and cream cheese. These substances are ideal for several reasons:

  • The dog doesn’t eat these foods on a regular basis, so they’re not apt to recognize the smell of the medication.
  • The dog is apt to enjoy these foods, making medication time a pleasurable event.
  • Cream cheese and peanut butter are sticky, so it’s difficult for the dog to separate the pill and spit it out.

If your dog is resistant, it’s easy to embed the pill in the sticky peanut butter or cream cheese, which can then be wiped onto the roof of the dog’s mouth, right behind his front teeth. This makes it extremely difficult for the dog to spit out the pill; he’s apt to eat it as he licks the substance off the roof of his mouth.

A spoonful of peanut butter or cream cheese is suitable for a large dog, whereas 1/2 a spoonful is a good amount for smaller dogs.

Why You Should Avoid Giving Pills in Your Pet’s Food

Never attempt to give your dog a pill by hiding it in his food! Dogs have an extremely powerful sense of smell and they’re apt to be extremely familiar with the smell of their food. In short, if you place a pill in the pet’s food, he’s apt to smell it from a mile away!

What’s more, attempting to give a pet medication by putting it in his food puts your dog at risk of developing an aversion. The dog may come to associate the medication with his food, making him refuse the food in the future.

In my experience, medications in pill form are preferable over liquid medications, which are more difficult to administer. What’s more, liquid medication can be imprecise in terms of dosing, as the dog may spit out a portion of the liquid, but since it’s nearly impossible to determine how much was lost, you won’t know how much additional medication to give him. This increases the risk of inefficacy or overdose.

For more pet care tips and tricks, visit the PetLvr archives!

Photo Source: Nicolas Raymond on Sxc.hu

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Follow Mia Carter:
Mia Carter is a professional journalist and animal lover. Her furry family members include 6 dogs and 12 cats. She is also a feral cat colony caretaker. Carter specializes in pet training and special needs pet care. All of her animals have special needs such as paralysis, blindness, deafness and FIV, just to name a few. She also serves as a pet foster parent and she actively rehabilitates and rescues local strays and feral kittens.

  1. HART (aka PetLvr Admin)
    | Reply

    We have two Papillons, and one have to give Metacam drops every day. I just drop about 3 per little piece of bread (3 of ’em) and top with peanut butter. I say “take your medicine” and he will eat it. Then, afterwards I give extra piece of bread to both dogs with peanut butter without medicine.

    It’s definitely true about their smell – he can smell that a mile coming and knows it’s medicine.

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