Love the goldens at Doggie Doo Run Run. Thanks for the birthday wishes.

The best luck I ever had getting a pill down a dog was with a pill gun.
It looked like a long syringe. You first load it with water, then the pill onto the end.

you poke it in the dogs mouth and squirt, when the dog feels the water they will swallow.

You can find them on Amazon under Pet pill gun.

Never seen that done with water. Isn't it really messy? We bought one and use it as a last resort. How to Give a Pill to a Dog - YouTube

No it's just a little bit of water, just enough to trigger the swallow effect.
My vet told me about it.

I will have to try that. Thanks. We could not get Sport to open his mouth for the pill gun and then the Technician at Buffalo Ridge Animal Hospital showed us her approach which works some of the time. The wet way might work easier.

We always had success giving our dogs pills by using chunky peanut butter. Some dogs are smart if it is smooth peanut butter they will eat the peanut butter and spit out the pill. Get the dog used to chunky peanut butter which has little pieces of nut in it. It has worked 100% of the time at our house.

We have also tried just throwing the pill in with the dog food and that worked with some of our dogs. You have to watch and make sure the dog eats it, though.

Except that Tal said peanut butter gives Sport digestive problems. We had a beagle once that we nursed through a dire illness. My mother took the pills and burried them in little meatballs of raw hamburger. She gently shoved them down his throat, and I think the smoothness of the ground meat made everything go down easily without choking him.

We have to give our girls pills twice a day. Fortunately, they take them very easily. One method we use that I have not seen here is using bananas. We cut about a inch off the banana and split it in half (2 dogs). Then you squish the pills into the banana and feed it to your dog. This works best with very ripe bananas. We have also used small pieces of soft cheese. Years ago with our first dog, we would buy Snausages and break them in half. Then we would shove the pill into the half a Snausage and hold the other one to give him after he ate the first half.

Tal, good luck with getting your dog to take his meds. I know it can be a pain sometimes. I have actually pried their mouths open and shoved the pills down their throats on occasion. Sometimes you gotta take drastic measures.

Happy birthday. Hope it's a greyt one. I did a lot of greyhound rescue and my job was always to meet the greyhounds coming off the track and give them the pill they had to get for worming. I would meet ALL of the strange dogs and shove a pill down their throats before they knew what hit them. I think the trick is not to think about it or you've had it. One good trick I have used on my own dogs is to lube it with a bit of yogurt so it's a bit slippery, open their mouth (not always easy but I loop a finger in their collar) and just slide the pill down their mouth. Works for me best when I talk and distract myself and the dog while thinking about it. I never got bit, but then again I never expected to. I think it's all in expectations or it was my own stupidity. If you EXPECT it to go well, it probably will. What have you got to lose? Good luck and I hope you little guy lives a long, long time.

Sorry about that. I didn't catch the part about peanut butter giving Sport digestive problems.

Squishing American cheese around the pill always works when I pills to our shelties.

Try mashing the pill ( mortar and pestle) or plain old hammer and baggy . Put it on a little bit of wet food( your choice) to be sure it is all eaten. My dog cheeks pill and spits out any other way. My hubby' s way is to hold dog firmly between his knees opens lower jaw shoves pill all the way down throat holding jaws closed and massages throat while talking soothingly . The dog HAS to swallow the pill,it then gets kisses hugs and a treat also Good Boy!

Having tried everything on our one Mini Aussie, but nothing worked, he learned to work around everything and spit the pills out. I finally found that using a bit of a Laughing Cow Cheese wedge did the trick. Takes larger pills that way too without any fuss.

Thanks for that suggestion. The pill gun seems to be the only thing that consistently works and he hates it. You can feel his heart accelerating as well as his pupils getting really big whenever we have to hold him down. It also takes two people to do it most of the time because he moves his head so much when you try to do it alone.

Please keep the advice coming.