How do you pill the hard to pill dogs?

[king2005]

With my old dog he would clamp him mouth shut. Ever tried to open a Lab/rottie/pitties mouth before? HA not gonna happen

SO I got sneaky ina couple ways.. I'd have a bunch of cheese rolled up.. I'd get him doing all sorts of tricks & tossing the treat into the air.. he'd get them quickly & knowing there was more, he'd swallow fast to get the rest I was tossing into the air. With his larger pills I crushed them.. I'd put them in a baggie & smash it with a happer, till it was powder.. then I'd mix it up with Jam & plop it onto his food.

For Bear, I use pill poppers, but shes easy to pill. If I'm in a hurry & don't have time to get the pill poppers, I'll get her to sit, open her mouth pointing to the sky, push her tongue down with my thumb & drop the pill in.. it insures the pill goes back far enough so she cannot spit it out...

Hope that helps some

[CathyBogart]

If you are doing the "Back of the throat" method, it's important to squirt some water in there after the pill. First, it makes them have to swallow more quickly. Second, it prevents them from damaging their throat by swallowing it dry.

With hard to pill dogs I usually have one person restrain the dog and pry their mouth open. Then, fast as I can, I shove the pill over the back of their tongue and squirt water into their mouth with a syringe. Clamp shut, and wait for the swallow.

[pitc9]

Buddy takes his pills in cheese. He never chews when it's Yummy Cheese!!
However... the Princess Sierra she knows I (try to) hide pills in cheese, hot dogs... etc. If she hears a pill bottle, she won't eat ANYTHING I give her!
So with her I use the method Karen posted, or as I call it, the P.T.C.P.
Pry, Throw, Close and Pray!
Oh and how Sierra HATES it!

[Canis-Lupess]

I don't bother messing about putting pills in food anymore. I just pop them straight down the dogs throats.

I used my fingers and thumb and push inwards just behind the canines to open the mouth then I place my thumb on the roof of the mouth about an inch behind the front incisors and fingers on the top of the muzzle (Same hand). They won't close their mouth whilst you have them like this and you don't need to hold them hard. In fact, if you use your other hand to gently push the lower jaw down way from the top jaw whilst you are holding them like this, they leave it lowered and don't try to close their mouth again. Just practise doing this a few times a day without popping a pill and end with a treat and praise so they get used to you doing it.

When popping the pill, I just push it as far back as I can get it on the tongue with the free hand then quickly take the free hand and my thumb of the other hand out of the mouth and close the muzzle. I'm careful to put the dogs head back in it's normal position at this point and just stroke the throat. Don't keep the head tilted up. Reason being, if you look upwards towards the ceiling yourself and then try to swallow, you'll find you can't. Same with dogs. They need their head in it's normal position, just use your hands to keep their mouth closed. You'll feel them swallow and if you pushed the pill far enough back, they have no choice but the swallow it anyway. Give plenty of praise afterwards. I often give them pills before being fed so they have their food to look forward to and see the pill taking as a prelude to that.