@Carsandsarcasm , Voat was inaccessible to some for a good part of the 9th of January(not sure for certain others). I have discovered an alternative called Poal.co, where apparently one of its founders and moderators is called AOU, and he/she owns that sub's version of fatpeoplehate(sparsely updated). Do you think that might be a haven for everyone to move to in case Voat really gets shut down for good? I know that fatpeoplehate's standalone website didn't work out so well.

I have some exercise equipment that I don't use anymore and I figured that the new year would be the ideal time to capitalise on getting rid of it. There are thousands of fat idiots with good intentions just waiting to be parted from their money, but this has been a double-edged sword. On one hand, I was dead right because I posted the ad in early December and heard nothing until the last few days during which I have had several emails. On the other hand, people who want exercise equipment, fats, are nothing but time wasters and whingers. One guy tried to offer me half price and wouldn't budge and another guy asked a question and then didn't respond when I answered it. Today, I thought I finally had The One and he was ready to pick it up tomorrow so I spent 20 minutes doing several trips carrying everything down the stairs in preparation only for him to opt-out at the last minute. Now it's all locked in my car downstairs because I don't trust my neighbours and I will have to carry it all back up the stairs unless I want to drive around with 120kg of shit in it. Then of course I will need to carry it all down again. This is the most exercise that exercise equipment has given me in a long time.

I only came to voat for FPH the rest of the site is mainly cancer. But the exodus was needed when we left.

No one can eclipse you, my friend. ;-)

Looking for advice, if anyone can help:

Some (most?) of you know that I am the proud owner of a gorgeous now-nineteen-month-old male German Shepherd (often referred to here as "The World's Greatest Dog," or "Mr. Wonderful/Amazing," or similar), who is a delightful little spoiled brat but a Very Good Boy in general. Very affectionate and loving, very gentle with us, basically lets us do whatever we want to him (take toys/food right out of his mouth, play with his ears, etc.).

The problem is that he is also a Very Smart Boy, and does not like taking his heartworm/flea/tick prevention pills, which are HUGE. In the last few months, he has figured out that I hide them/pieces of them in raw hamburger (I used to hide them in turkey slices, but he figured that out, too), and has also figured out how to eat the hamburger and spit out the pills/pill pieces. This culminated in myself, Mr. Mantooth, and our younger daughter on New Year's Day all basically holding him in place while Mr. Mantooth literally shoved pieces of the pill down his throat--and even then he managed to eject one piece back to the floor without swallowing it. (Anybody ever seen the movie "Baby Mama," with Amy Poehler? Remember the scene where she can't swallow her prenatal vitamin? It was a lot like that, lol. We'd think he'd taken it, and then he'd spit it out.)

Anyway. I've tried leaving the pill out for hours to lose some of the strong smell; doesn't help. I tried reducing it to powder and mixing the powder with ground beef; didn't work (I ended up with blobs of meat all over my kitchen floor). I've tried, as I said, cutting it into small pieces and hiding them in ground beef; that didn't work. Neither did shoving it into the back of his throat (though we have not yet tried holding his mouth shut and stroking his throat, which I guess we'll try next). Last night I made tacos for dinner, and, as usual, gave him wads of raw meat from the package; he sniffed each wad suspiciously before accepting it, and chewed the meat a bit to make sure there was nothing in it.

We'd really like to avoid having to pay for the very expensive injections if possible; the pills are covered by our Pet Plan at his vet, but the injections aren't. Plus we'd have to take him in every three months for those, which is just kind of a pain--right now he's okay at the vet, but our lab literally turns and tries to run every time we take her, and we'd like to avoid having that happen with Mr. Delightful because he is a lot stronger and a LOT more willful than our sweet elderly lab.

Does anyone have any other advice/suggestions for getting these pills into him? I really hate to turn it into a situation where we have to hold him down and shove them down his throat every time; him swallowing obviously necessitates him closing his mouth, and he has a lot of very sharp GSD teeth (he won't and never has bit down on our hands, but it's not like he wants to hold his mouth open for that process, so it's easy to get scraped). I've considered mixing pill pieces with a cooked food he likes--like beef stew with rice or something--but I'm pretty sure I'll just end up with a licked-clean bowl with a couple of pill pieces sitting all alone in the center of it.

He spends a lot of time in our big backyard while I sit on the porch, and we walk and play in the park behind the house at least once a day (usually twice); he's a very big boy with a lot of energy (and a lot of thick fur, of course), so he really needs flea/tick/heartworm prevention!

I'd really appreciate any thoughts or suggestions anyone might have. I know there probably isn't much we haven't tried, but I'm hardly an expert on pilling dogs, so I'm hoping some of you might have some ideas for us.

Thanks so much!