down the hatch

so it turns out that Kaiser, though he's a fantastic guard dog and gives the best non-droolcovered kisses, is not so fantastic at swallowing pills on command. we've tried a few tricks in the past when he had to take the pain medication tramadol for tendinitis, but that was only a few pills a day. we had to come up with a better plan when we were faced with this line-up twice a day:

peanutbutter worked sporadically, but the problem was he'd somehow manage to lick all the peanutbutter off the pill and just when we thought he'd swallowed the medicine, it would drop on the floor with an impertinent plunk. he likes honey, but it was the same story. he'd ferret out a pill in his kibble or cottage cheese. then one glorious day, Nick in his infinite wisdom decided to try with pepperoni. 

so now the ritual goes something like this. 

"Kaiser! want some pepperoni?" 

cue 85-pound German shepherd barreling into the kitchen and immediately sitting in front of us.

"okay, here it comes ..."

"Kaiser, platz." (oh yes, he's trained in German. 

then his "release" word: "Okay!!!"

yep. it works. so well that after all five pills are down the hatch, i usually give him a few extra pieces of pepperoni because, how could you resist this face?