BASSET MADDNESS

I am SO ready to kill this basset! I guess he's still holding a grudge toward me after being left out of the family camping trip but STILL! He's been worse than ever with taking his anxiety medication and I am at my witt's end! I think he got off his schedule a little bit between the summer craziness and my frustration with him spitting them out on the floor all the time. I admit, I have been slacking off on the regimen because it's so much work. He takes 2 St. John's Wort in the morning and 2 at night and then a Melatonin just before bedtime! He has been so good when the meds are consistent but now due to the past several SLEEPLESS nights, I'm realizing what damage my slacking off has done. Mr. LEO has been waking up again randomly at 2am having panic attacks. I have been rudely awakened in the middle of a dead sleep with a drooling shaking basset hound on top of my HEAD! He doesn't just snuggle up beside me drooling and shaking, he feels the need to stand on top of my head. He will do this all night long and no matter how many times I push him off the bed, he is back up on top of my head. Eventually as terrible as it is, I have no other choice but to put him in the bathroom with a giant towel on the floor to sop up the drool puddles. This recent suffering has been a good lesson for me to get back on track with his meds. The only problem is that whatever new and creative way I think I've come up with to get those pills into his system, does not work. He has become a master at faking a swallow and storing the pills under his jowels for up to 15 minutes only to spit them out in a different room. He has chewed half of the pill at times and spit the rest out so that the powder in the capsule is all over my floor as the kitty is trying to lap it up. I have rolled the pills in meat, he has eaten the meat, extracted the pill and spit it right out on the floor. I have rolled it into cheese, he has done the same thing. I have opened the capsule, taken out the powder and dumped it into the inside of some deli meat or cheese and he spits it right out and licks all around the powder. I have shoved the pill all the way down to his tonsils, held his nose shut and rubbed his throat. This is when he fakes another swallow and sneakily slides the pill back up and somehow hides it under his gum or tongue? Last night I became so desperate that I opened his mouth WIDE and opened up a capsule inside of his mouth and dumped the powder down his throat! Boy did he HATE that. I have tried giving him his favorite treats right afterward, even sometimes before and during the pill nightmare, NOTHING has worked! My friend suggested peanut butter, she was so sure that would work wonders, well he HATES peanut butter! This has become my dreaded daily task. Given the fact that he has two pills in the morning and two at night, in addition to the quick dissolve melatonin, this is 5 times a day, I am going through this maddness. I guess when they say Basset Hounds are notorious for their stubborness, that may be the greatest understatement there is! OH LEO!!!!