Giving Your Dog Medicine - 5 Tips For Making Your Dog Think Medicine Time is Fun

If you have a dog that needs medication weekly, monthly, or even daily for acute health issues, it can often be an anxiety producing time for both you and your dog. Part of reducing the anxiety for both of you is to develop a routine for giving medicine. Here are 5 tips for making your dog think medicine time is fun.

Put on a coat of delicious.-If your dog has a chronic condition that needs you to give medicine frequently this is the best situation for setting a routine and sticking to it so your dog knows exactly what to expect. Get out the pills and coat them with a small bit of something delicious-peanut butter, butter, macaroni and cheese or whatever dog safe people food you have on hand. Place the pills in the middle of whatever you've chosen for the day and serve on a small cracker. Pretty soon your dog will remind you when it's time for pills.

Where did it go? If your dog is good about not separating the pills out of food, dried or can food makes a perfect hiding place for the pills. You might want to add a little bit of a crunchy food such as broccoli florets or fresh chopped organic green beans to add texture so the pills are not as easily distinguished (and spit out).

Please may I have some? If your dog has taken a lot of pills during the course of his life (with disdain), he may have become fairly savvy at recognizing pills regardless of where you put them. Try fixing yourself a snack of peanut butter and crackers on a plate. Put the pills on the cracker of your choice. If you don't feed your dog from the table, pick another spot to have your snack. Your dog will probably come and stand beside you as a gentle request to be fed some. Enjoy a couple of crackers first, and then finally decide to give him one-the one with the pills. He'll be so glad you remembered him; the medicine will generally go down in the blink of an eye.

It's treat time.-Cheese also makes a great treat. You can go as fancy or as simple as you like. It's probably easier on you to have the organic cheese slices on hand all the time, but you can also use cheese that you are having for meals on the day that the pills need to be given. Cheese is great because it can be easily molded around the pill, and most dogs love cheese. Cheese cubes are also great for hiding pills because they are bite size and yet soft enough to accept a pill.

Take your best shot.-- My Golden Retriever requires allergy shots once a week. This was daunting at first for someone who runs from needles and couldn't imagine having to give a shot to my beloved pooch once each week. But when your dog is depending on you, you step up to the plate and get it done.

A steroid in pill form has to be given one hour before the shot, so the oven timer is set. When I do that he knows immediately that it's shot day. When the timer goes off, if I don't come immediately, he comes for me. While I'm getting the shot ready he goes to a down stay on his own (honest). I walk over give him the shot. And since he loves pig ears, he gets a big juicy one for his treat each week after his shot. He's happy and I'm grateful. This is the third year for this routine and it has gone without a hitch every time.

Hopefully that story will serve as an example of how your approach to giving your dog medicine can actually make it a fun time for you and your dog. And knowing that the medicine you give has the potential of increasing your dog's quality of life and life span makes the extra efforts well worth it.