How to Give a Dog a Bad Tasting Pill

 

A time in your life may come when you’ll need to give your dog some bad-tasting, bitter pills. Sure, there are certain medications such as beef flavored heart worm chews that dogs eagerly gulp down like there’s no tomorrow, and then there are those bitter pills that turn Rover into the canine personification of a stubborn mule who won’t budge no matter what, so how to give an obstinate dog a bad tasting pill? Fortunately, there are several tricks of the trade that can turn dogs into collaborative patients. So today we’ll be discovering some of them that will hopefully turn pilling your dog into a breeze.

First Some Acknowledgements 

First and foremost, let’s give our dogs some credit. Dogs have no idea whatsoever that those pills are good for them no matter how much we try to persuade them into thinking that they’ll help them feel better quickly. We also can’t tell dogs to just take the pill and wash it down with a big gulp of water.

Dogs rely on their instincts and Mother Nature has developed their senses so that they could avoid eating things that can be potentially harmful for them. Eating a bitter pill is not only unpleasant, but a dog most likely instinctively “knows” to avoid bad tastes. Bad tasting things raise a red flag about something that can be harmful or even toxic and that therefore should be avoided. What looks like stubborn behavior to us is instead the clever work of nature and adaptive!

Just like us, dogs have several taste buds scattered on their tongues that helps them determine what and what not to eat. A dog’s taste buds are equipped with special receptors that are meant to relay important messages to the dog’s brain. What sort of messages are transmitted? If say, your dog detects something bitter or plain nasty, his brain will make a note of it and quickly evoke your do to spit it out. Bleeeeh!

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Did you know? The function of taste is so important for survival that, in puppies, the sense of taste (along with the sense of smell and touch) is one of the first senses to be present, even though it takes a few weeks to fully sharpen.

“Sensations of pleasure and disgust provided by taste serve a survival function. A reasonable rule of thumb, at least for natural substances, is that bad tastes are a signal that the animal has encountered something that is harmful, indigestible, or poisonous…”~Stanley Coren

A Word of Caution

Hunting your dog down to give him a bad-tasting pill day after day, is not only a daunting and unnerving task, but it can also lead to problems.

All dogs CAN and WILL bite under the right circumstance (yes, even the angelic ones with halos over their heads.) While it’s true that some dogs have a higher bite threshold than others, a time may come when that threshold lowers either because the dog is not feeling well, or  because he’s cornered against a wall and his “please-stop-that” signals given to you to as a plea to not make him bite are being totally ignored.

And if say, you manage to force a pill down his throat one time and he doesn’t put up a struggle, keep in mind that things can change the next day once your dog discovers that you are trying to give him another pill. Of course, not all dogs necessarily think this way, but we can’t say that giving them a pill is something dogs enjoy, so there’s always a risk factor into play when doing things dogs don’t understand or appreciate having done.

Giving your dog bitter, bad -tasting pills can therefore potentially  negatively affect your future interactions with your dog. Next time you come close to him, he may be reluctant to open his mouth (crocodile jaws, anyone?) or he may even turn his head the other way or decide to take flight and hide somewhere. A dog reluctant to having his mouth handled, often translates into difficult future veterinary exams when the mouth needs to be checked.

So what’s left to do? Keeping on trying to get your dog to swallow the bitter pill will only further convince your dog that you’re not trustworthy, making matters only worse next time the infamous pill time is around the corner. Your dog may engage in avoidance or become defensive and even bite. A better approach is therefore to rely on the “catch more flies with honey than vinegar” philosophy.

Six Options for Giving Your Dog Bad-Tasting Pills

The best option in giving your dog a bad tasting pill is to simply camouflage it with food. Your dog’s taste buds should be deceived as your dog wolfs the food down without giving his taste buds enough time to detect the bitter taste. The secret is to getting your dog to gulp the bad-tasting pill down quickly. Stanley Coren says that a dog’s taste buds that sense bitter are located on the rear part of the tongue, therefore, “a fast gulp will not register the bitter taste,” whereas, “prolonged chewing will let the bitter work its way back to where it can be tasted.” So yes, covering the pill in food is the best way to go, but if your dog has allergies, a sensitive stomach or a medical condition, ask your vet first before trying any of these foods.

1) Wrap ‘Em In Cheese

Does your dog adore cheese? If so, he’ll love these cheese balls! Before trying this option though, make sure that your dog is not prone to getting digestive problems from eating cheese or milk products and that the pills are OK to take with dairy products. This latter piece of info should be found on the medication bottle’s or the accompanying medical leaflet that comes with the medication. When in doubt, ask your vet.

Simply get a slice of cheese and wrap it around the pill, closing it tightly so it doesn’t unroll in your dog’s mouth. Even better, here’s something I came up with when I was boarding a dog whose owner provided me with cheese slices to roll up to hide her dog’s pills.

Basically, I had this slice of cheese in my hand ready to give it to the dog, when this dogs ran to the door to tell me he had to go potty. So I went out with him with the cheese in my hand and being that it was about 90 degrees outside and the dog took his sweet time to potty, the cheese started softening up to the consistency of play dough. So now, I was able to make cheese balls! I placed the pill in the middle and made a tight ball.

You can mimic my 90-degree adventure by leaving a slice of cheese out of the fridge for a bit and then warming up the sealed slice between your hands. This should the do the trick in turning the cheese into play dough consistency. Don’t feel like handling cheese? Look up “Flavordoh” for dogs.

2) Hide ‘Em in Hot Dogs

Many dogs won’t turn down hot dogs when offered and hot dog chunks are often big enough to hide the biggest capsules.

If you are concerned about sodium, look for the low-sodium variety or some of the healthier varieties.

Just as with cheese balls, it’s important to hide them well as all it takes is for the dog to detect the pill to start losing “trust” and even developing taste aversion which can lead to a dog refusing hot dogs even if he loved them all his life!

So make sure the pill doesn’t stick out of the chunk of hot dog and that the hot dog doesn’t break apart. If your dog ever happens to taste the hidden pill and all his alarm bells go off, scroll below for a few more tips on how to remedy this.

3) Hide ‘Em in Meatballs

If you’re not to eager about cheese ball or hot dogs, why not try meatballs? The best part is that you make them with different ingredients.

For instance, you can soak your dog’s kibble in water and then make a ball to hide the pill inside. You can use dog canned food as well. Dog having digestive problems? You can ask your vet about using something bland such as meat-based baby food with no onion or garlic mixed with some rice to make meatball to hide the pill.

What if you feed your dog raw food? If you feed your dog raw, you can easily make a meatball with ground meat or you can just tuck a pill into a chicken heart. For a gourmet version, you can coat the meat ball with a touch of grated cheese.

4) Go With Creamy Textures

Some creamy foods come extra handy in hiding pills as they stick well to the pill and the dog will hardly detect it, plus it’ s hard for the dog to separate the pill from these foods. And pitting the pill out is difficult when the creamy food sticks to a dog’s mouth!

What creamy foods are we talking about? Peanut butter is an option, but make sure it’s not one of these varieties which contain xylitol, which is toxic to dogs. Cream cheese is another option and for dogs who love pumpkin or dogs who are constipated, plain pumpkin (not the pie variety with all the added spices) can also come handy.

Veterinarian Karen Becker also suggests using coconut oil to hide pills.

5) Make Savory Toppings

For this option, make sure you carefully read your dog’s medication label and enclosed instructions carefully as not all tablets should be crushed or capsules opened. If you’re not sure, it’s always best to consult with your vet.

If that’s fine, then you can simply sprinkle the ground tablet or content of a capsule onto your dog’s food in hopes that he’ll eat the whole concoction. This method may work with some dogs, mostly those dogs who gulp down food with no questions asked, but be aware that some finicky fellows may nit pick and separate the topping from the food, and even if you mix them throughout, you risk your dog refusing the whole meal.

Some dogs though will have no problems eating if the powder is well mixed within some tasty dog canned food. Also, it’s close to impossible separating the two once mixed!

 

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