Drug Detection Dog

I have never read about an English Springer Spaniel being a drug detection dog - but Miss Maddie has the skills. To bad she wasn't trained for that in her prime.

We have been tucking her pain pills into some canned dog food when we feed her each day. Now people typically feel bad for dogs because they lack that opposable thumb. We forget they do have a tongue and how versatile it can be. Twice during her dinner today she sorted her pill out of the food. Out of the soft dog food. First time I saw it on the floor and thought I hadn't done my part of camouflaging it well enough with food. So back to the drawing board. I made a nice little meat ball of canned food and put it in her mouth. Again, she sorts through it and spits out the pill.

Well. Humph. I'm not about to be outwitted by this little bit of fluff with a cone head. I retrieve the pill and stick it into a soft pupperoni dog treat. She nibbles that into pieces and again leaves the pill behind. Right now, the pill is on the counter and I am letting her think she has won the game. Not so my little pretty. Not so.

This is the same girl whom I lovingly trimmed the fur on her back paw/pads, and bathed it today because the three-legged squat is not an efficient means of piddling for her. This is the thanks I get.

Obviously it's time for the big guns to come out. I think peanut butter, liverwurst, or velveeta will smother what's left of that well sorted pill and give her the relief she needs. She'll thank me for it later.