To give pills, I used the cheese trick. Since they don't chew cheese anyway, I would wrap a piece of cheese tightly around a pill, then give a couple of pieces of just cheese first. Then I would give her the cheese with the pill inside. Most of the time it would go straight down, but they are smart little darlings and do catch on quickly!
Other times, if it didn't hurt to crush the pill, I would do that and mix it in a tiny bit of broth and give it in a dropper. This always worked great. I just always asked the vet if I could crush certain pills that were prescribed.