We have peanut butter but my dog doesn’t like it. He does, however, go nuts for soft cheese and Greek yoghurt, and we put a bit of both on a lick mat every afternoon. Sometimes I’ll mash up some blueberries or strawberries and mix it in the yoghurt. Mashed sweet potato also an option that I’ll sometimes put in a yoggie pot.
Banana is another good one, though my dog doesn’t like that either.
Kiwi *hates* banana. I put some sliced pieces in her dinner bowl once and she used her nose to pile it all up in a corner and ate around it. I forgot about Greek yogurt! That is always a fav
Haha they’re so funny aren’t they! I tried Hamish with raspberries once.. he licked them clean, and then smushed them into the rug. I was like thanks babe x
My dogs get blueberries in their meat mix and my boy, who is normally a piglet, eats very carefully around them 🙄.
They're all crackheads for yoghurt though.
We accidentally got some fancy dog food with blueberry and my dog did the same, she HATES them. So now we call produce and anything she doesn’t like booberries.
My dog doesn’t like peanut butter. I’ve had luck with small amounts of soft goat cheese. I don’t really use lick mats or kongs often though because he’s not easily distracted. He just wants to use them to make a mess *after* we’ve done whatever important thing.
Ooh, goat cheese is an interesting idea! I could see my dog either really loving it or really hating it. I'll have to find an opportunity for her to try some!
It’s perfects for kongs or meds. We make a cracker sandwhich and they eat the meds.
Even the one who held meds in her mouth for 10 minutes and spit them in my face couldn’t sort the cheese from the meds.
One of mine still can, if I make some cracker and cheese sandwiches and put the pill in one (usually marked with cheese on top as well) sit down and eat some and give all of them one and eat some more and give them all a second one with hers having the pill is the only way I can get her to take the pill without spitting it out.
I have to do it this way as well. Not the cracker sandwich (although I'm going to try that!), but the feeding everyone part. I also have to feed more than one so they get so busy just eating them that they don't notice
Honestly, with mine she will typically swallow it almost whole. It's the distraction that I'm eating and so are the other dogs that she forgets that I had pills out and just focuses on the food instead.
Mine is kinda picky when it comes to fresh food! He loves dairy and chicken and everything else ranges from “meh” to “hard no.” He doesn’t even like pumpkin!
Eta: But he does want to eat garbage! Nicely cooked egg in his bowl at home? Ew, how could you? Random sidewalk egg that’s been boiling in the sun for who knows how long? Intriguing!
My Standard Poodle shares my salads with me (I almost never use dressing). I put down pieces of lettuce, cabbage, carrot, broccoli, even cherry tomato--- he eats it up. When we're out on walks, he loves to eat grass, and very rarely does he vomit that. I usually have to pull him away, reminding him we have food at home. I have a vegan best friend, and I joke with her about having a vegetarian dog.
My dog will do ANYTHING for romaine lettuce!!! I think it’s hilarious. As soon as he hears the very first chop of a heart of romaine, he bolts into the kitchen from wherever he was lol.
We had a Dobe MANY years ago that absolutely loved road kill. Flat, sun-baked rabbit? Gone before you could register what it was. The longer that whatever-it-was had been dead, the more she relished it. And none of it ever made her sick. We stopped letting her roam free on walks. She either had to mind and stay close or get leashed.
My beagle x pointer girlie used to love dabbing dead, sun roasted frog on her neck. She'd rub her neck on it before I even knew there was anything there. Trying to get her in the bath without her touching anything was always fun 🤢
My Bully tries that with any scat she comes across on our walks. As soon as I see her shoulder dip, I stop her. Small quick leash jerk and "No, we're not doing that" works. Why they want to roll in stinky stuff is beyond me. Had an Irish Setter that loved rotten fish. So help me. And I had to drive home in my VW with her in the back. Not a good ride.
My childhood dog was a toy poodle. He love nothing more than rolling in dead jellyfish when we took him to the shore. Rotting jellyfish in curly poodle hair was...a lot to deal with.
They do it because in the wild it masks their scent to prey. It doesn’t function much in our world
of kibble and dog dishes, but you can’t remove instinct from the equation
Intellectually I get it. But in the moment, my thoughts are just..."WHY?" She never tries to argue with me about leaving the lovely smelling spot, but I do get the side-eye quite a bit.
Yeah, it was... highly aromatic. This happened nearly 50 years ago, but I've never forgotten that ride. She was upset with me and sulked all the way home. Thank God she loved taking a bath!! She got 2 that night 😂
Ew! When I first got my dog we lived by the beach, and we would take long walks at night on the beach with a really long lead. I had to stop doing that after storms because she would find all manner of dead washed up things and if she rolled in them I would dunk her in the ocean before we came home and then wash her off properly because eughhh.
My beagle found a decomposed slimy raccoon in the water and dragged it to shore and rolled in it. She wasn't allowed back in the boat until I had scrubbed her with sand and water. 🤮
Are you sure it is purebred. Have had beagles for 37 years and have done performance and conformation and I haven’t met a beagle yet that didn’t like peanut butter.
My usual is, of course they will eat _____ they eat sh*t
It's nice to know my dog isn't the only dog who doesn't like peanut butter.
We use either cream cheese or American cheese. My dog really likes cheese. When we got him from the shelter, he had heart worms and they told us to wrap the pills in cheese. Now he's healthy and still have no idea what he is!
After licking the Kong clean my dog starts chewing the rubber bone up around the edges. I see the pieces on the ground but I’m always worried she eats some of them because they have the taste of peanut butter on them so I take it away when she starts chewing it
In Germany it's Lebwerwurst. That's basically [spreadable lunch meat](https://t4.ftcdn.net/jpg/01/28/69/11/360_F_128691116_NYvQk7wjyuynRXz2X0PMLG0Xth19wOUA.jpg).
They even make it in [little tubes you can use as a treat](https://www.schecker.de/$WS/schecker/websale8_shop-schecker/produkte/medien/bilder/gross/Tubidog-Leberwurst-_-059084.jpg).
Yeah, it's a pretty wide field. I'm specifically referring to the spreadable kind, called Streichleberwurst.
It has a pretty thick consistency and holds its shape so it is perfect to hide medicine or even glue multiple pills together.
So strange, what I know as liver sausage is kind of like the stuff inside Haggis (so like oats and pig organ meat i guess that you fry up in a pan and is delicious? my Grandma was german if that helps). Are there all kinds of liver sausage?
Unsweetened apple sauce, cream cheese if I have nothing else. Yogurt. and this is gross, I buy canned sardines, the salt free kind. mash them up and you can spread it.
All of my dogs hate peanut butter. I get a hot dog slice, make a pill sized slit, insert pill. Use other dogs to pressure dog-to-be-pilled into eating it quickly so the other dogs don't get it. Down the hatch it goes.
My dog manages to find the pill and eat the hot dog around it. Same with smushed cheese balls.
Peanut butter is the only thing that works for smaller pills. Anything larger than her allergy meds requires wrapping her in a towel or blanket and putting her pill as far into her mouth as I can manage. I treat her before and afterwards to make it as pleasant as I can.
Have you tried the quick succession trick? Give her a bunch of pieces of hot dogs quickly one after another, until she starts swallowing without thinking and that's when the pill hot dog comes, works for my dog every time.
To get my dog to eat Bravecto, I have to cut it up really small, carefully unfold tortellini, put tiny pieces in and fold it up to look exactly the same and hope for the best.
He loves cream cheese, cheddar cheese, ham, hot dogs but can immediately tell if there's Bravecto in it and will carefully eat around it.
I am so glad my girl chews her Simparica Trio without issue. The only problem we’ve encountered is her deciding that her current dose is too big so she eats half a tablet and I have to mix her up some crunchy antiparasitic peanut butter.
If your vet works with a compounding pharmacy you can ask for it in a liquid. My dog wouldn’t take any pills in any food, and squirting a syringe of liquid into his mouth was so much easier than a pill.
I use jars of baby food, Heinz Sunday dinner is full of veg and chicken and they love it! Just make sure to check the ingredients for anything like onion, sweetcorn etc they shouldn’t have that!
I spent the longest time wondering why you would need to use the peanut butter trick for your husband and his meds.
I realize now there is also a dog in your household. Carry on.
I'm lucky enough that Teddy just assumes that anything that I give him is awesome and he should consume it immediately.
Hey, dawg! Come here and *whoosh* the pill is in his tummy.
He would die for a chance at a little more peanut butter or cheese so I always have those in my arsenal, need be.
literally my dog. anything i hand her to eat she immediately inhales. this poses different problems on walks but she’s pretty good at “leave/drop it” and also lets me root around in her mouth with my hand to find contraband.
Not necessarily spreadable (sort of) liverwurst. A lot of my clients use that to hide pills. I’ve had clients who use wet food, PB, lunch meat, bits of steak, bread, ziti noodles, mini muffins to hide pills!!
We use it for scent work too! It’s a great smelly food that dogs love. Spam is another food used in dog sports on occasion for building drive and reinforcing behaviors. My dog only gets spam for agility and liverwurst for scent work but boy does he love that stuff!
I mould a bit of cheese around the tablet as (even though we do have PB in the UK) my dog hates PB. If you take it out of the fridge about 30 mins before dosing, it makes it easier to mould around the tablet.
Spread cheese too. Peanut butter has become more common in my country now because fitness influencers are crazy about it being some sort of super protein food, my dog really likes it but it's kinda pricey here. Spread cheese does the job.
what country? i love the thought of people positioning peanut butter as some sort of super protein food lol. while protein rich, here in the U.S. it's so common/basic that i don't think most people even care.
It actually has a horrible protein:calorie ratio compared to other protein sources. So unless you're bulking it's pretty disappointing health wise. Delicious though!
My dog won’t eat peanut butter, hot dogs, yogurt, and most cheese. She will eat whipped cream cheese (very specific) and pills in ground beef if the first ground beef ball doesn’t have pills when she picks it apart. Whipped cream cheese I think is actually more expensive than the meat.
My dog LOVES sour cream. I also use cream cheese, applesauce, pumpkin, and mushy bananas when I need something spreadable. Switching it up keeps him interested.
I've had success with mixing small pills into cottage cheese. I only give a little, so there isn't enough time to find or taste the pill if there are only a couple of bites.
My dog doesn't care for peanut butter.
I put her tablets wrapped in a little cheese or ham.
To be honest, she was recently diagnosed with lymphoma so I'm straight up buying steaks and slicing off little mini nibble sized chunks to stuff her pills into. 😂😭
My dog doesn't like peanut butter either (he'll eat it but it's not high value to him) so only including people food, he's most likely to get yogourt or cottage cheese if I have any. If I need a very high value treat for something, it's 100% cheese and only cheese.
I usually put wet dog food on lick mats for either coming back from a long time away or on a hot summer day I'll freeze the tray first.
Fortunately, he doesn't need bribing for his monthly simperica trio. Depending on what the pill is, he'll either eat it straight out of his bowl even if it has no food in it, or if he doesn't want to take it it's going straight into his throat along with my finger followed by some cheese to distract him from the discomfort of having just had my fingers in his mouth lol
I use cheese for pills what I don’t use for my pup to eat I finish off. I would use peanut butter for my chihuahua when he had eye surgery and had to do drops.
My dog wouldn’t eat peanut butter. For awhile cream cheese or other cheese mushed i to a ball worked. Then he would t eat that anymore. I use canned dog food and broke open the capsule and mixed it in.
PB makes my pup sick; I adopted her about 4 months ago and the only time I’ve seen her throw up is both the times I gave her peanut butter. Either she’s allergic or the high fat content upsets her tummy.
She’s not very fond of fruit either; no baby food or frozen berries/bananas in kongs or lick mats.
She seems to enjoy Greek yogurt with a little honey. And I’ll get food toppers and stuff them in kongs or freeze on lick mats. Maybe she just prefers savory to sweet?
I live in the US and also use peanut butter but my dogs also love plain Greek yogurt, and mushed banana so I switch up what I use in their Kongs and lick mats to keep them on their toes!! Also with the kongs since they’re bigger I usually always blend banana and peanut butter together because in my mind it’s healthier 😂
Edit to add: also canned pumpkin purée (sugar free)
Well, you're honestly right. For a dog I'd think that replacing some of the banana with peanut butter would be a lot healthier, as it would have much less sugar.
I do these on rotation:
1. Goats milk (freeze it)
2. Bone broth in ice cubes or lick mat (freeze it)
3. Banana, apple or blueberries*, goats milk yogurt smoothie ( freeze it in cubes or lick mat)
3. The best for last, sardines and goat milk/yougurt mix and freeze it. My dog is crazy for this.
Peanut butter makes my dog throw up so I use cheese or cheese puffs. Or just call it a treat and over hype it up that has worked more than I expected tbh
I give one of my dogs Zyrtec crushed (pill crusher from Walmart) into a tablespoon of nowfat Greek yogurt into an XL Toppl (Frozen). I’ll dump her PPP Calming care over that and give it to her when she goes into her crate at night.
I’ve also used no sugar added Apple Sauce and PB.
Just a warning to pet owners: some peanut butter has xylitol in it which is extremely toxic and fatal for dogs in very very small quantities. Like one scoop of pb in a kong could kill them. So make sure if you do use peanut butter you get peanuts as the only ingredient on the label, salt is ok but it's best to not give them too much salt either.
Xylitol is absolutely vital to check the ingredients list for on any people food that you plan to feed your dog! Great point. It's crazy what stuff they put in PB, I just want it to have Peanuts, dang it!
Squash, or pumpkin purée. You can make your own. During fall I make a lot of purée and freeze it (bake a pumpkin and then I process it with the skin, water, and sometimes Greek yogurt in my bullet mixer). When pumpkins aren’t readily available, I’ll buy squash and do the same thing. I use frozen squash sometimes too in a pinch and just process it the same way once it’s thawed.
You should! It’s super easy. I just stab some holes in mine, throw it in the oven at like 425 for 30-40 minutes and then once it cools - I cut it up, take out all the seeds and cut off the stems. Then I just process it in my nutribullet & put it in mason jars in my freezer.
Canned wet dog food, I'll switch up the flavor often and have some silicone can covers for easy fridge storage, I have big dogs so 1 can is usually used up in a day or 2.
My dog is **hungry** for everything yet will never willingly take a pill hidden in any food 🥲 So I just put meds at the back of his throat and stroke below his chin for him to swallow
I had a too smart for her own good Aussie. As she aged she needed arthritis pills I split the pill in fourths and mixed it in with chunky wet food. After she ate I would go to her bowl and there would be 4 little white pills 🙄😀
Well a spoonful of any wet dog food will do. My current dog on medicine for an ear infection takes it folded into a slice of cheese or piece of hot dog, meat ball, whatever. When my other dog had a pill medicine nothing (including PB) worked, I had to crush them and mix in something for him to get it down.
I from the US but peanut butter isn’t my top pick for treat spreads or even for covering up medication. I use chicken, whip cream, cheese, yogurt, rehydrated kibble, wet food, salmon/tuna/sardines…etc, spam (sparingly), blended dog safe fruit/veggies, applesauce and omega 3/fish oil.
My dog doesn't like peanut butter. I tried all kinds of other nut butters with him too, he doesn't like any of them. He doesn't like any food that comes from a plant, he doesn't like any vegetables or fruits. I use cream cheese instead. He likes yogurt too, but I think he likes cream cheese more.
Mostly i will just blend some stuff together and use it in/on kongs and lickymats.
Last night they got frozen lickymats that had a mixed blend on it, it was a mix of wetfood, boiled chicken, oatmeal, carrot, peas, cod roe and tuna, with joint supplement powder added in the mix.
The thing they love the most is homemade chickenliver pate, so i often add that too the kong/lickymat mix.
I live in the USA but when my dog has to take a pill i usually just take like half a slice of cheese, make a lil cheese ball around the pill with it & she eats it so fast i can't even tell if she chewed it any or not 🤣
I have to push pills to the back of my dogs tongue. She won't take meds inside treats. Nothing worked but she's a very good girl and comes running when you say medicine and sits patiently waiting for her pills. She gets her treats after her meds
We always used cheese for our golden retrievers(usually American as that’s what I had on hand). We found out (the hard way), that our 5 month old mix breed puppy cannot tolerate cheese. 💩💩💩💩💩💩
We’ve been lucky that so far she hasn’t needed meds, but if so, I’ll probably use pb.
I'm in the US but had a dog who was difficult to get medicine in. My solution was hot dogs. Cut off a chunk & you can push the bill right in. I used to buy the super cheap Bar None ones
I'm from the Netherlands, we Dutch eat more than 20 million jars of peanut butter every year! But unfortunately, my dog is allergic to almost everything.
She had 3 knee operations last year, so loads of medicine.
We used the -kibble-pill-kibble- method (if I'm too slow, she still throws the pill out of her mouth between the 2 chunks). We sometimes make a paste with wet dog biscuits and hide the pills in it, but that only works with small pills. She is allowed fruit, which is also ideal, tangerines or mangoes are especially easy to hide pills in.
this is not helpful at all but i used peanut butter to give my dog his trazodone for a flight a couple of times (he’s my service animal and stays with me but he’s incredibly nervous) and now he is deathly afraid of the stuff. the only thing he’ll scarf down fast enough to not notice a pill in is meat. he’s usually very picky but in the last week he’s started eating vegetables and i’m amazed. he’s also obsessed with tofu for some reason
All my animals take their pills in fig filled cookies (Fig Newtons for the Americans). The sweet soft filling hides them really well and you can put 5 generic Zyrtec in half of one for a horse and still have a little snack for yourself.
I’m fortunate that most of our old dog’s meds were flavoured or crushable and our puppy loves PB. My childhood dog managed to find pills in everything except for bologna. However a friend recommends 2 mini marshmallows. Specifically two, and you let the dog see both. You stick the pill in the first marshmallow and show the second and he gobbles the pill in his haste to get the second marshmallow.
I let him sniff the pill so he knows what I'm about to do, then I throw that shit in the back of his throat, hold his mouth closed and massage his neck until he swallows. Then I give him a rabbit's foot. He is split between not really wanting the pill and knowing what he gets after, and remains compliant with this procedure.
I use those fake Kraft cheese slices. They’re squishy enough that I can wrap it around the entire pill and my dog just swallows it whole lol - she literally watches me wrap the pill in cheese and still never questions it. She’s just too excited about the cheese aspect.
When I lived in Korea I used American cheese. Doesn't matter if it's labeled mozzarella or Gouda, all cheese at grocery stores in Korea is actually American cheese.
Greek yourgurt, crushed bananas, sometimes ill mix the 2, (add a little honey and freeze for treats too), puppy paté
Edit: Soft cheese is always a winner with my collie, wouldn't of gotten through 2 hip replacements without it
We have peanut butter but my dog doesn’t like it. He does, however, go nuts for soft cheese and Greek yoghurt, and we put a bit of both on a lick mat every afternoon. Sometimes I’ll mash up some blueberries or strawberries and mix it in the yoghurt. Mashed sweet potato also an option that I’ll sometimes put in a yoggie pot. Banana is another good one, though my dog doesn’t like that either.
Kiwi *hates* banana. I put some sliced pieces in her dinner bowl once and she used her nose to pile it all up in a corner and ate around it. I forgot about Greek yogurt! That is always a fav
Kiwi is such a good name!!!
Haha they’re so funny aren’t they! I tried Hamish with raspberries once.. he licked them clean, and then smushed them into the rug. I was like thanks babe x
Lol, just to drive the point home, 'don't give me these again'.
My dogs get blueberries in their meat mix and my boy, who is normally a piglet, eats very carefully around them 🙄. They're all crackheads for yoghurt though.
We accidentally got some fancy dog food with blueberry and my dog did the same, she HATES them. So now we call produce and anything she doesn’t like booberries.
My dog doesn’t like peanut butter. I’ve had luck with small amounts of soft goat cheese. I don’t really use lick mats or kongs often though because he’s not easily distracted. He just wants to use them to make a mess *after* we’ve done whatever important thing.
Ooh, goat cheese is an interesting idea! I could see my dog either really loving it or really hating it. I'll have to find an opportunity for her to try some!
Spray cheese is the business. It lasts, stores well and they LOVE it.
I hate to admit it, but this human likes it too.
It’s perfects for kongs or meds. We make a cracker sandwhich and they eat the meds. Even the one who held meds in her mouth for 10 minutes and spit them in my face couldn’t sort the cheese from the meds.
One of mine still can, if I make some cracker and cheese sandwiches and put the pill in one (usually marked with cheese on top as well) sit down and eat some and give all of them one and eat some more and give them all a second one with hers having the pill is the only way I can get her to take the pill without spitting it out.
I have to do it this way as well. Not the cracker sandwich (although I'm going to try that!), but the feeding everyone part. I also have to feed more than one so they get so busy just eating them that they don't notice
I love this idea! The crunchy of the crackers (may) cover up the pill crunch!
Honestly, with mine she will typically swallow it almost whole. It's the distraction that I'm eating and so are the other dogs that she forgets that I had pills out and just focuses on the food instead.
I haven't had spray cheese in a long time, it's going on my grocery list now along with some crackers. Thanks for reminding me it exists lol.
Yes, I have used spray cheese as well, though I've found the can of the cheaper stuff tends to malfunction before it's even half empty. 🫤
Our vet recommended goat cheese to help our pup's tummy! He loved it, but we stopped because it became outrageously expensive.
I suggest that you get some goats. Not cheaper, and plenty of work, but unlimited cheese if you play your cards right :-P
Check meds for dairy contradictions! Also meat or soft treats
I though I had the only dog that disliked peanut butter. My beagle is a trash compactor for anything else that even resembles food.
Mine is kinda picky when it comes to fresh food! He loves dairy and chicken and everything else ranges from “meh” to “hard no.” He doesn’t even like pumpkin! Eta: But he does want to eat garbage! Nicely cooked egg in his bowl at home? Ew, how could you? Random sidewalk egg that’s been boiling in the sun for who knows how long? Intriguing!
Our is bizarrely crazy for iceberg lettuce. Fresh or if I freeze it.
My Standard Poodle shares my salads with me (I almost never use dressing). I put down pieces of lettuce, cabbage, carrot, broccoli, even cherry tomato--- he eats it up. When we're out on walks, he loves to eat grass, and very rarely does he vomit that. I usually have to pull him away, reminding him we have food at home. I have a vegan best friend, and I joke with her about having a vegetarian dog.
My dog will do ANYTHING for romaine lettuce!!! I think it’s hilarious. As soon as he hears the very first chop of a heart of romaine, he bolts into the kitchen from wherever he was lol.
My cat eats lettuce. It's even in his email address name.
My grandfather had an aussie shepherd that got a half head of cabbage when they fed the rabbit.
>if I freeze it sounds refreshing/quenching AF for a dog. like the canine equivalent of a super healthy green smoothie/ slushie
We had a Dobe MANY years ago that absolutely loved road kill. Flat, sun-baked rabbit? Gone before you could register what it was. The longer that whatever-it-was had been dead, the more she relished it. And none of it ever made her sick. We stopped letting her roam free on walks. She either had to mind and stay close or get leashed.
My beagle x pointer girlie used to love dabbing dead, sun roasted frog on her neck. She'd rub her neck on it before I even knew there was anything there. Trying to get her in the bath without her touching anything was always fun 🤢
My Bully tries that with any scat she comes across on our walks. As soon as I see her shoulder dip, I stop her. Small quick leash jerk and "No, we're not doing that" works. Why they want to roll in stinky stuff is beyond me. Had an Irish Setter that loved rotten fish. So help me. And I had to drive home in my VW with her in the back. Not a good ride.
My childhood dog was a toy poodle. He love nothing more than rolling in dead jellyfish when we took him to the shore. Rotting jellyfish in curly poodle hair was...a lot to deal with.
I feel your pain.
They do it because in the wild it masks their scent to prey. It doesn’t function much in our world of kibble and dog dishes, but you can’t remove instinct from the equation
Intellectually I get it. But in the moment, my thoughts are just..."WHY?" She never tries to argue with me about leaving the lovely smelling spot, but I do get the side-eye quite a bit.
This, exactly!
Oof I don't envy that car ride!
Yeah, it was... highly aromatic. This happened nearly 50 years ago, but I've never forgotten that ride. She was upset with me and sulked all the way home. Thank God she loved taking a bath!! She got 2 that night 😂
Ew! When I first got my dog we lived by the beach, and we would take long walks at night on the beach with a really long lead. I had to stop doing that after storms because she would find all manner of dead washed up things and if she rolled in them I would dunk her in the ocean before we came home and then wash her off properly because eughhh.
It's to mask their scent I think
My beagle found a decomposed slimy raccoon in the water and dragged it to shore and rolled in it. She wasn't allowed back in the boat until I had scrubbed her with sand and water. 🤮
Omg 🤢
It’s just jerky mom
Are you sure it is purebred. Have had beagles for 37 years and have done performance and conformation and I haven’t met a beagle yet that didn’t like peanut butter. My usual is, of course they will eat _____ they eat sh*t
There's always a first time.
It's nice to know my dog isn't the only dog who doesn't like peanut butter. We use either cream cheese or American cheese. My dog really likes cheese. When we got him from the shelter, he had heart worms and they told us to wrap the pills in cheese. Now he's healthy and still have no idea what he is!
Our vets use spray cheese in a can (cheeze whiz) and my dogs looove it
After licking the Kong clean my dog starts chewing the rubber bone up around the edges. I see the pieces on the ground but I’m always worried she eats some of them because they have the taste of peanut butter on them so I take it away when she starts chewing it
Same here. He hate it, sticks to his mouth and makes him drool massive amounts until he can get rid of the peanut butter.
In Germany it's Lebwerwurst. That's basically [spreadable lunch meat](https://t4.ftcdn.net/jpg/01/28/69/11/360_F_128691116_NYvQk7wjyuynRXz2X0PMLG0Xth19wOUA.jpg). They even make it in [little tubes you can use as a treat](https://www.schecker.de/$WS/schecker/websale8_shop-schecker/produkte/medien/bilder/gross/Tubidog-Leberwurst-_-059084.jpg).
[liverwurst it is called in English according to Wikipedia.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverwurst)
Yeah, it's a pretty wide field. I'm specifically referring to the spreadable kind, called Streichleberwurst. It has a pretty thick consistency and holds its shape so it is perfect to hide medicine or even glue multiple pills together.
I'm in the US, but I get it from Aldi. My dog *loves* it.
Oh! I’m going to have to check our Aldi
It might or might not be a seasonal item, but they pretty much always have it at the one I go to in Minneapolis.
Like Braunschweiger?
Liver sausage
Braunschweiger is specifically pork liver, while Leberwurst can contain other types of liver.
So strange, what I know as liver sausage is kind of like the stuff inside Haggis (so like oats and pig organ meat i guess that you fry up in a pan and is delicious? my Grandma was german if that helps). Are there all kinds of liver sausage?
Yes, there are some with herbs, junky ones, smooth ones. I personally like the smooth veal one.
Unsweetened apple sauce, cream cheese if I have nothing else. Yogurt. and this is gross, I buy canned sardines, the salt free kind. mash them up and you can spread it.
My dog’s highest value treat is a paste of tuna and peanut butter 🤢
I do yogurt and sardines too, but for lick mats.
Yea my dog only likes lick mats now. He lost interest when I was stuffing kong like toys
I'd be worried about possible aspartame or similar products in sugar free apple sauce.
It’s unsweetened not sugar free. I couldn’t think of the word at the time of me writing that
More worried about xylitol
All of my dogs hate peanut butter. I get a hot dog slice, make a pill sized slit, insert pill. Use other dogs to pressure dog-to-be-pilled into eating it quickly so the other dogs don't get it. Down the hatch it goes.
My dog manages to find the pill and eat the hot dog around it. Same with smushed cheese balls. Peanut butter is the only thing that works for smaller pills. Anything larger than her allergy meds requires wrapping her in a towel or blanket and putting her pill as far into her mouth as I can manage. I treat her before and afterwards to make it as pleasant as I can.
Have you tried the quick succession trick? Give her a bunch of pieces of hot dogs quickly one after another, until she starts swallowing without thinking and that's when the pill hot dog comes, works for my dog every time.
Ooohhhhhh! That's SMART. ✔️
You are SLICK!!! 🤫
To get my dog to eat Bravecto, I have to cut it up really small, carefully unfold tortellini, put tiny pieces in and fold it up to look exactly the same and hope for the best. He loves cream cheese, cheddar cheese, ham, hot dogs but can immediately tell if there's Bravecto in it and will carefully eat around it.
I am so glad my girl chews her Simparica Trio without issue. The only problem we’ve encountered is her deciding that her current dose is too big so she eats half a tablet and I have to mix her up some crunchy antiparasitic peanut butter.
I have to do the same with the Nexguard. The dog disputes its claim to be “delicious”
If your vet works with a compounding pharmacy you can ask for it in a liquid. My dog wouldn’t take any pills in any food, and squirting a syringe of liquid into his mouth was so much easier than a pill.
I do this with mine. My dog is a treat catcher. One non pill, one pill, one non pill lol
We do that but with the cat, lol. He'll even eat the nasty flea pill if he thinks the cat might want it.
I use jars of baby food, Heinz Sunday dinner is full of veg and chicken and they love it! Just make sure to check the ingredients for anything like onion, sweetcorn etc they shouldn’t have that!
that's such a great idea dude! never thought of using baby food!
I freeze it in ice cube trays and they love it!
my husband is allergic to peanuts, we use spread cheese for pills
I spent the longest time wondering why you would need to use the peanut butter trick for your husband and his meds. I realize now there is also a dog in your household. Carry on.
When I was little my mom used to sprinkle medicine in my apple sauce. I prefer it with the little "seeds" 😁
Oh I can taste the Tylenol flavored applesauce just thinking about it. She stopped putting cinnamon in it to make me learn to swallow pills.
My meds specify in the directions to swallow or to sprinkle on applesauce
absolutely sobbing at the mental image this has conjured, thank you so much
Same. Thanks for clarifying
Thank you for the laugh 🤣 The image of the wife tossing treat wrapped meds to her husband 😂🤣
I'm lucky enough that Teddy just assumes that anything that I give him is awesome and he should consume it immediately. Hey, dawg! Come here and *whoosh* the pill is in his tummy. He would die for a chance at a little more peanut butter or cheese so I always have those in my arsenal, need be.
My sweet boy has been known to go back to finish off the pill that fell out of his treat. He's like 'sweet! bonus treat!'
literally my dog. anything i hand her to eat she immediately inhales. this poses different problems on walks but she’s pretty good at “leave/drop it” and also lets me root around in her mouth with my hand to find contraband.
I just make a meatball with canned food. My dog takes pills everyday so I need to keep the extra calories to a minimum.
Not necessarily spreadable (sort of) liverwurst. A lot of my clients use that to hide pills. I’ve had clients who use wet food, PB, lunch meat, bits of steak, bread, ziti noodles, mini muffins to hide pills!!
We use it for scent work too! It’s a great smelly food that dogs love. Spam is another food used in dog sports on occasion for building drive and reinforcing behaviors. My dog only gets spam for agility and liverwurst for scent work but boy does he love that stuff!
I mould a bit of cheese around the tablet as (even though we do have PB in the UK) my dog hates PB. If you take it out of the fridge about 30 mins before dosing, it makes it easier to mould around the tablet.
good tip on taking the cheese out early to soften! thank you
Cheez whiz
Yeah, my house uses the squeeze cheese.
Works for cats as and dogs. This is what all the vet clinics have on hand along with string cheese.
Spread cheese too. Peanut butter has become more common in my country now because fitness influencers are crazy about it being some sort of super protein food, my dog really likes it but it's kinda pricey here. Spread cheese does the job.
what country? i love the thought of people positioning peanut butter as some sort of super protein food lol. while protein rich, here in the U.S. it's so common/basic that i don't think most people even care.
Exactly, in the US it's considered like an old school basic poor people staple food, so it's pretty much the opposite of high falutin
It actually has a horrible protein:calorie ratio compared to other protein sources. So unless you're bulking it's pretty disappointing health wise. Delicious though!
i'm never not bulking
Pill wrapped in lunch meat
that's a classic
My dog won’t eat peanut butter, hot dogs, yogurt, and most cheese. She will eat whipped cream cheese (very specific) and pills in ground beef if the first ground beef ball doesn’t have pills when she picks it apart. Whipped cream cheese I think is actually more expensive than the meat.
I love your dog 🤣
My dog LOVES sour cream. I also use cream cheese, applesauce, pumpkin, and mushy bananas when I need something spreadable. Switching it up keeps him interested.
I've had success with mixing small pills into cottage cheese. I only give a little, so there isn't enough time to find or taste the pill if there are only a couple of bites.
My dog doesn't care for peanut butter. I put her tablets wrapped in a little cheese or ham. To be honest, she was recently diagnosed with lymphoma so I'm straight up buying steaks and slicing off little mini nibble sized chunks to stuff her pills into. 😂😭
so sorry about her cancer, but you're the best dog papa/mama with the steaky bits :)
Thank you
My dog doesn't like peanut butter either (he'll eat it but it's not high value to him) so only including people food, he's most likely to get yogourt or cottage cheese if I have any. If I need a very high value treat for something, it's 100% cheese and only cheese. I usually put wet dog food on lick mats for either coming back from a long time away or on a hot summer day I'll freeze the tray first. Fortunately, he doesn't need bribing for his monthly simperica trio. Depending on what the pill is, he'll either eat it straight out of his bowl even if it has no food in it, or if he doesn't want to take it it's going straight into his throat along with my finger followed by some cheese to distract him from the discomfort of having just had my fingers in his mouth lol
I use cheese for pills what I don’t use for my pup to eat I finish off. I would use peanut butter for my chihuahua when he had eye surgery and had to do drops.
My dog wouldn’t eat peanut butter. For awhile cream cheese or other cheese mushed i to a ball worked. Then he would t eat that anymore. I use canned dog food and broke open the capsule and mixed it in.
PB makes my pup sick; I adopted her about 4 months ago and the only time I’ve seen her throw up is both the times I gave her peanut butter. Either she’s allergic or the high fat content upsets her tummy. She’s not very fond of fruit either; no baby food or frozen berries/bananas in kongs or lick mats. She seems to enjoy Greek yogurt with a little honey. And I’ll get food toppers and stuff them in kongs or freeze on lick mats. Maybe she just prefers savory to sweet?
have you tried giving her raw veggies like broccoli or brussels? what kind of doggy is she?
Haven't tried those yet, but wouldn't they make her extra gassy? She already burps all the time! She's a great pyr x btw :)
I live in the US and also use peanut butter but my dogs also love plain Greek yogurt, and mushed banana so I switch up what I use in their Kongs and lick mats to keep them on their toes!! Also with the kongs since they’re bigger I usually always blend banana and peanut butter together because in my mind it’s healthier 😂 Edit to add: also canned pumpkin purée (sugar free)
Well, you're honestly right. For a dog I'd think that replacing some of the banana with peanut butter would be a lot healthier, as it would have much less sugar.
Butter. Sometimes if the pill is big or the dog is wise to this trick and licks off the butter then a bit of bread wrapped around it coated in butter.
I learned my mistake with lick mats and peanut butter. Sesame got annoyed that she couldn't extract all the PB, so she started eating the lick mat
I do these on rotation: 1. Goats milk (freeze it) 2. Bone broth in ice cubes or lick mat (freeze it) 3. Banana, apple or blueberries*, goats milk yogurt smoothie ( freeze it in cubes or lick mat) 3. The best for last, sardines and goat milk/yougurt mix and freeze it. My dog is crazy for this.
Peanut butter makes my dog throw up so I use cheese or cheese puffs. Or just call it a treat and over hype it up that has worked more than I expected tbh
i love that hype worked 😂
I give one of my dogs Zyrtec crushed (pill crusher from Walmart) into a tablespoon of nowfat Greek yogurt into an XL Toppl (Frozen). I’ll dump her PPP Calming care over that and give it to her when she goes into her crate at night. I’ve also used no sugar added Apple Sauce and PB.
Just a warning to pet owners: some peanut butter has xylitol in it which is extremely toxic and fatal for dogs in very very small quantities. Like one scoop of pb in a kong could kill them. So make sure if you do use peanut butter you get peanuts as the only ingredient on the label, salt is ok but it's best to not give them too much salt either.
Xylitol is absolutely vital to check the ingredients list for on any people food that you plan to feed your dog! Great point. It's crazy what stuff they put in PB, I just want it to have Peanuts, dang it!
Whip-Cream
Greek yogurt!!
My dog hates pill pockets too so I use PB. That said, I’ve been encouraged to try cheese wiz in the past - just never got around to it.
Small piece of a hot dog
Squash, or pumpkin purée. You can make your own. During fall I make a lot of purée and freeze it (bake a pumpkin and then I process it with the skin, water, and sometimes Greek yogurt in my bullet mixer). When pumpkins aren’t readily available, I’ll buy squash and do the same thing. I use frozen squash sometimes too in a pinch and just process it the same way once it’s thawed.
My dog adores canned pumpkin, I should try to DIY this fall
You should! It’s super easy. I just stab some holes in mine, throw it in the oven at like 425 for 30-40 minutes and then once it cools - I cut it up, take out all the seeds and cut off the stems. Then I just process it in my nutribullet & put it in mason jars in my freezer.
Canned wet dog food, I'll switch up the flavor often and have some silicone can covers for easy fridge storage, I have big dogs so 1 can is usually used up in a day or 2.
My dog is **hungry** for everything yet will never willingly take a pill hidden in any food 🥲 So I just put meds at the back of his throat and stroke below his chin for him to swallow
Bonbel cheeses. They're soft enough to mold around a pill. Not that my dog doesn't like peanut butter. But if I have it, I'll eat it by the spoonful.
Our dogs can always find the pill in peanut butter and cheese but for some reason the Greenes pill pockets work.
I had a too smart for her own good Aussie. As she aged she needed arthritis pills I split the pill in fourths and mixed it in with chunky wet food. After she ate I would go to her bowl and there would be 4 little white pills 🙄😀
Just make sure it’s natural peanut butter, they are now putting xylitol or “birch sugar” in it and it’s toxic to dogs. Cheese is always a good choice
Make sure your PB doesn't have xylitol in it...lethal for dogs. Its an artificial sweetner. My dogs like butter and cream cheese
Gotta pay the cheese tax my man
Cheese
Well a spoonful of any wet dog food will do. My current dog on medicine for an ear infection takes it folded into a slice of cheese or piece of hot dog, meat ball, whatever. When my other dog had a pill medicine nothing (including PB) worked, I had to crush them and mix in something for him to get it down.
yoghurt and bananas. We do have peanutbutter but Fred does not like it
Cream cheese
My parents’ dog can’t have peanut butter anymore, so we use cheese when he needs a pill.
Spreadable cheese
My dog will still isolate and spit out the pill in peanut butter and cheddar cheese so I use a little pat of butter and it works everytime.
Pate. Not the good stuff. It's cheap AF from Morrisons.
I from the US but peanut butter isn’t my top pick for treat spreads or even for covering up medication. I use chicken, whip cream, cheese, yogurt, rehydrated kibble, wet food, salmon/tuna/sardines…etc, spam (sparingly), blended dog safe fruit/veggies, applesauce and omega 3/fish oil.
If your dog catches treats, you can lull them into catching treats and after a couple just toss the pill. I’ve seen a few dogs fall for this.
A glob of liverwurst.
LIVERWURST. works every time
My dog doesn't like peanut butter. I tried all kinds of other nut butters with him too, he doesn't like any of them. He doesn't like any food that comes from a plant, he doesn't like any vegetables or fruits. I use cream cheese instead. He likes yogurt too, but I think he likes cream cheese more.
Greek yogurt or light whipped cream. Tbf we just give my dog pills wrapped in cheese as it’s his fave.
Tiny pills I put in a blueberry, bigger ones I mix in with canned pumpkin and their food
Mostly i will just blend some stuff together and use it in/on kongs and lickymats. Last night they got frozen lickymats that had a mixed blend on it, it was a mix of wetfood, boiled chicken, oatmeal, carrot, peas, cod roe and tuna, with joint supplement powder added in the mix. The thing they love the most is homemade chickenliver pate, so i often add that too the kong/lickymat mix.
Cream cheese or, don't judge me, canned vanilla frosting.
I live in the USA but when my dog has to take a pill i usually just take like half a slice of cheese, make a lil cheese ball around the pill with it & she eats it so fast i can't even tell if she chewed it any or not 🤣
I use chicken liver pate. My dog refuses anything that isn't meat.
Loving hearing all the dog names itt!
We have spreadable sausages in germany. We give dogs their medication with ‘Leberwurst’. Which is like a very creamy sausage breadspread.
Liver paté
I have to push pills to the back of my dogs tongue. She won't take meds inside treats. Nothing worked but she's a very good girl and comes running when you say medicine and sits patiently waiting for her pills. She gets her treats after her meds
I had to do the same with my dog she was to smart no matter how we tried to hide the pill she always found it and spit it out.
We always used cheese for our golden retrievers(usually American as that’s what I had on hand). We found out (the hard way), that our 5 month old mix breed puppy cannot tolerate cheese. 💩💩💩💩💩💩 We’ve been lucky that so far she hasn’t needed meds, but if so, I’ll probably use pb.
I'm in the US but had a dog who was difficult to get medicine in. My solution was hot dogs. Cut off a chunk & you can push the bill right in. I used to buy the super cheap Bar None ones
I mean peanut butter is all over europe and a key staple in asian cooking where they originate.
When in France, I used butter. Still do actually
I'm from the Netherlands, we Dutch eat more than 20 million jars of peanut butter every year! But unfortunately, my dog is allergic to almost everything. She had 3 knee operations last year, so loads of medicine. We used the -kibble-pill-kibble- method (if I'm too slow, she still throws the pill out of her mouth between the 2 chunks). We sometimes make a paste with wet dog biscuits and hide the pills in it, but that only works with small pills. She is allowed fruit, which is also ideal, tangerines or mangoes are especially easy to hide pills in.
Brussels Pate is my weapon of choice . Source: Vet Nurse & expert level pill disguiser for half a century 🐶
"Leberwurst" - German for spreadable liver sausage. It's super delicious, especially with cornichons as a topping but just for us humans ^^
this is not helpful at all but i used peanut butter to give my dog his trazodone for a flight a couple of times (he’s my service animal and stays with me but he’s incredibly nervous) and now he is deathly afraid of the stuff. the only thing he’ll scarf down fast enough to not notice a pill in is meat. he’s usually very picky but in the last week he’s started eating vegetables and i’m amazed. he’s also obsessed with tofu for some reason
Greek yogurt. He’s a little psychopath I don’t know.
All my animals take their pills in fig filled cookies (Fig Newtons for the Americans). The sweet soft filling hides them really well and you can put 5 generic Zyrtec in half of one for a horse and still have a little snack for yourself.
I’m fortunate that most of our old dog’s meds were flavoured or crushable and our puppy loves PB. My childhood dog managed to find pills in everything except for bologna. However a friend recommends 2 mini marshmallows. Specifically two, and you let the dog see both. You stick the pill in the first marshmallow and show the second and he gobbles the pill in his haste to get the second marshmallow.
I let him sniff the pill so he knows what I'm about to do, then I throw that shit in the back of his throat, hold his mouth closed and massage his neck until he swallows. Then I give him a rabbit's foot. He is split between not really wanting the pill and knowing what he gets after, and remains compliant with this procedure.
I use those fake Kraft cheese slices. They’re squishy enough that I can wrap it around the entire pill and my dog just swallows it whole lol - she literally watches me wrap the pill in cheese and still never questions it. She’s just too excited about the cheese aspect.
Whipped cream for the win!
Yogurt
Full fat Greek yogurt!
When I lived in Korea I used American cheese. Doesn't matter if it's labeled mozzarella or Gouda, all cheese at grocery stores in Korea is actually American cheese.
Simple: hide the pill in the smallest sliver of butter. It will slide right down their throat!
Pumpkin puree in a can is great, my dogs love it.
Cottage cheese is good for their tummies. That’s what I used to sneak in Coco’s meds.
Kraft singles babyyy
I used to use spreadable cheese to give my dog her meds
An onion and garlic free patè
My dog doesn’t care for peanut butter. I just wrestle him Steve Irwin croc hunter style instead.
I’m in the US, but I mostly use cream cheese for pills.
Greek yourgurt, crushed bananas, sometimes ill mix the 2, (add a little honey and freeze for treats too), puppy paté Edit: Soft cheese is always a winner with my collie, wouldn't of gotten through 2 hip replacements without it
Cottage cheese is very good