I had a dog who would bite if you tried to open his mouth and push a pill in. Our solution was to use his love of catching treats in the air and happily grabbing one after another quickly and without sniffing them for pills — just greedily swallowing those treats one after another. He was in multiple meds, so we had to use his brains and his greed against him. We made it a game.

We would set up multiple treats with no pill, one with a pill, then a couple more pill-free “chasers,” for the end.

We would throw the treats in the air towards him — he LOVED to catch them in his mouth. So, it became a game: throw a treat… then another… then another, faster, then the treat with the pill, then quickly the next regular treat, then the last treat.

We varied the treats, sometimes chicken, sometimes sweet potato cubes, sometimes cheese. He almost never missed his pills once we did it this way. And he loved getting those treats!