How I Get My Picky Dog to Take A Pill

Belle has always been a picky eater. If you put a pill in something, she will find it, eat the food, then spit the pill out. As she’s gotten older, it has only gotten worse. You name it, I’ve tried it! Peanut butter, hot dogs, cheese, turkey, crushed up in yogurt, pill pockets – nothing works anymore! A couple of those items worked once or twice, but she quickly caught on. I was at my wits end!

I was recently discussing this with a friend who also has an older, picky dog. She recommended that I try crushing the pill up and putting it in cat food pate. She said that was the only way she could get her dog to take a pill willingly. She thought that the strong odor of the cat food pate helped to cover up the scent of the medicine.  So, I went to the store, bought the stinkiest cat food pate there is and gave it a try. FAIL!

I don’t know if she could still smell the medicine, or if she just was too picky to eat cat food pate, but it just didn’t work. Back to the drawing board.

What Works For Me

I know Belle loves turkey and chicken, so I got this brilliant idea to crush the pill first, mix it in a tiny bit of cat food pate to cover up the smell, then smear that mixture onto some turkey slices, chop up the turkey slices and then give it to her like it was a treat. Can you believe, that worked??

This is the only thing that I have found that will get my dog to willingly take her medicine. I even bought this pill crusher to make it easier to chop up her pills.  You can see the steps I take in the photos below to prepare Belle’s daily medicine.

Step 1: Crush pill into a powder

Step 2: Mix the pill into cat food pate and smear it on top of a slice of turkey

Step 3: Roll up the turkey slice then chop it up into small pieces that can be fed to your dog as a treat!