4 Tips To Easily Give Your Dog Medicine

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. Create Your Own Pill Pockets

Dogs are food driven creatures and will typically scarf down a treat without realizing (or caring) there’s medicine hiding inside. 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 gluten, corn syrup, preservatives, and other red-flag ingredients.

Check out these quick, easy, and healthy recipes by Dr. Karen Becker:

2. Try Hiding Pills In Stinky Food

Is your pup turning his nose up at the pill pockets? Try hiding it in something stinkier. Not only can a serving of plain wild-caught canned salmon in water do the trick, it’s also incredibly healthy for your dog. Afterall, salmon is rich in Omega-3s!

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 pouch 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.