How to give eye drops to a resisting dog

J.R. is away in the woods. His school sucks because it makes him to stay away from me. We get to see each other on the weekends, but this painful thing is going to last for six whole weeks. At least he has some serious studying to do. Me, on the other hand, I have nothing to do. In two days I have already spent more time in the dog park than we usually do in a week. I'm not even sure if Papu enjoys it anymore.

So, meanwhile in my small little doxie universe... Papu got some kind of an eye issue when we were in Viiala. According to the vet there might be some foreign allergens there that irritate Papu's eyes. Last time the vet gave us regular antibiotic eyedrops, but this time we got cortisone eyedrops. Three drops a day for 10 days. It sounds so innocent, right?

Papu hates when we give her eyedrops. I don't wonder, though. They are freezing cold and she doesn't know why we are forcing her to get them. It usually takes both of us to hold her before we manage to put the drops in her eyes. And suddenly I was supposed to do that all by myself. So not awesome.

There are different kind of tricks of how to give eyedrops to a resisting dog. Here's my take on it:

First I put Papu between my legs. I try lure her there instead of just calling her to come. I don't want her to associate her name with bad things.


Then I wrap a blanket gently around her tiny head.


I pull the blanket tight (it's very stretchy, so it doesn't strangle her) and hold it still with my knees.


I hold the rest of the body still with my legs.


And now I'm ready to give her the drops! I can use my both hands so it's pretty easy to hold her head still.


Oddly, Papu isn't so resistant with the eyedrops anymore. She still doesn't like them, but I can give them to her without any special tricks. It seems that she has just accepted it. Or maybe she thinks it's better to just let me give them than to go through the blanket torture...