Category: Common Problems ¤
  Author: Phyllis Dorrough ¤
   Title: Dispensing Medication ¤

>>   Anybody have another way to do this?  The discussion of stuffing 
>> pills down dog throats came up on another list, and the only 
>> solutions mentioned involved lying to the dog, hiding the treat in
>> peanut butter (mine would lick off the PB and leave the pill behind. 
>>   Been there, done that).  I feel I'm the only one who trains this ...

I teach my guys to take pills.  Without fuss.

When they're pups, I take a pill-sized piece of food (meaty,
preferably).  I say "Pill" and hand it to them.   Then I wait for them
to open up for me.  Then I "poke" the treat down occasionally.
T-O is 12 1/2, unfortunately dying of heart failure. He's already
survived months longer than his vet expected.  He gets pills twice a
day, number depends on the day.  He dislikes the Potassium capsule, so
it gets poked down, followed by his heart medications.  When he sees me
pick up the little pile of pills, he relaxes his jaw and reaches for the
pills, I drop them in the back of this throat and he swallows.  If it's
time for an "oil capsule"  (Vit A, E, Flax Seed Oil, Fish Oil), these
follow the heart meds.  All the dogs love oil capsules!

So simple, but it wouldn't work nearly as well if I hadn't done the
preliminary teaching of the word Pill.
And I never lie to my dogs about what they're getting (except when I
call a treat a pill), when my Sarah gets her shot, now that she can't
hear me much, I show her the syringe and let her sniff it before I reach
for her rear end.  She relaxes so that the shot doesn't hurt as much.
She figured this one out on her own!!!

-- 
Phyllis Dorrough