When I was growing up, we were taught that you pry the dogs mouth open and then shove the medicine down their throat, says veterinarian Stephanie Borns-Weil, DVM. What Ive been thinking about for a long time now is how you can get canine patients to participate in their own care rather than making it seem like an adversarial relationship. And what Ive found is that you can actually train animals to play a willing role. You can make it a positive thing, says the doctor, who heads up the Tufts Animal Behavior Clinic.