How to get your dog to eat supplements

For some dog owners, getting their furry friend to eat supplements is no trouble at all. Others find themselves less lucky.

If your dog is one of those that puts up a fight, or sneakily spits their pills out when your back is turned, then you’re probably looking for some ideas on how to get them to eat their supplements without a struggle. There are several effective techniques. It’s just a matter of finding one that best suits your pup and sticking with it. Here are a few proven ideas to help.

Hide the pill in your dog’s food

One of the most common and successful techniques is hiding the supplements in your dog’s usual food. This works especially well with dry food if you have a picky pooch, as they’ll be less likely to notice the supplement and probably wolf down everything at once.

Try a Pill Pocket

If that fails, and your dog leaves the tablet behind when everything else has been eaten, you can try and hide it in a treat, making a ‘pill pocket’. A pill pocket is just a dog treat that has a hole you can insert and hide the supplement in. There are a variety of pre-made doggy pill pockets on the market. Alternatively, you can make your own. They can be as simple as pushing a supplement into the flesh of a chunk of cucumber, or wrapping the pill in ham. This is an easy and stress-free way to trick your best friend into taking their vitamins. Peanut butter is also a very popular one with most dogs!

Positive reinforcement

Whichever technique you use, if you’re successful, make sure to treat your dog. This can be in the form of actual treats, but just giving your pooch lots of attention and cuddles is often the best reward. This will give them positive associations and they’ll remember that eating a supplement is followed by extra play and affection. This way, they’ll eventually learn to think of the supplement as part of a treat.

Use the vets’ technique

If you’ve tried the above techniques and are still struggling to get your pup to eat the supplements, you can give the vets’ method a try. It may seem daunting at first but, if done properly, it’s perfectly comfortable for your dog and works every time:

• Gently but firmly restrain your pet. You may need someone who the dog knows well to help you.
• Take your dog’s upper jaw in your hands and gently tilt their head upwards.
• Once your dog's facing directly up you should notice that their lower jaw is open a crack. With the pill in hand, pop your fingers in this crack and gently ease it open until you can fit your fingers holding the supplement all the way in.
• The important thing is to get the supplement over the highest point of the tongue at the very back of your dog’s mouth.
• Once there, with the head still pointing upwards, rub their throat up and down. This will stimulate your dog’s natural swallow reflex.

Pick a tasty supplement

The best and easiest way you can get your dog to eat supplements, however, is to give them pills that are so delicious they want to eat them. Your pooch is much more likely to eat their supplements if they have a flavor they enjoy. If the supplement itself tastes delicious then your pup will probably just think they’re a treat and gobble them up. Luckily, all Puppz specially formulated dog supplements come in a delicious maple bacon flavor which most dogs can’t resist.

You can buy Puppz delicious supplements here.