Flea And Tick Prevention For Dogs (Complete Guide)

It’s spring, glorious spring and the dirty little bloodsuckers are out in force. Ticks and fleas are breaking free from their winter doldrums and brashly reclaiming their turf. If you want to know the best flea and tick prevention for dogs, read on.

Ticks & Fleas: Not All Bloodsuckers Are Created Equal

Although they both live on blood (ew!), ticks and fleas are very different creatures. Like spiders and scorpions, ticks are arachnids, while fleas are small flightless insects that form their own order called Siphonaptera.

Today, there are around 900 species of ticks and more than 2000 species and subspecies of fleas worldwide. So, it’s no wonder that, when the snowmen start to melt, these pesky creatures seem to be everywhere.

Knowing how to protect your dog from ticks and fleas can be tricky because they are so different. Some preventions will work for both ticks and fleas, while some are only useful for one or the other.

As a result, there is an arsenal of solutions to suit your specific needs. Your tactics may include addressing the animals themselves and or the environment. Don’t forget to protect yourself. You are just as vulnerable and can be a carrier too.

How Ticks and Fleas Find You and Your Dog

No one element draws these efficient exsanguinators to a live target. Instead, there is a symphony of attractors. It’s knowing what turns them on maybe a great help in keeping them off.

Air

One fundamental way that ticks and fleas know you’re a tasty treat is carbon dioxide. Yes, you breathe; they bite. When CO2 increases, these freeloaders are drawn to you or your pup like kids to ice cream.

Light

When put in a dark place, 93% of fleas will move to a lighted area in 40 minutes. (This plays well with the vacuuming suggestion below since most hard-to-reach places are dark.) Also, fleas are drawn to certain colors of light. Green-yellow light draws twice as many fleas as full-spectrum light.

Movement

Fleas aren’t interested in inanimate objects. But move, and there’s a feast waiting to happen.

Warmth

While warmth isn’t enough to make a flea jump, combine that with other vital stimuli, and they’ll try out for the Olympics. Fleas are most attracted to creatures with a temperature of 104oF (40oC), but they’ll still nibble on hosts as hot as 122oF (50oC) and a chilly as 80.6oF (27oC). For reference, a healthy dog’s temp averages around 101oF (38.3oC) to 102.5oF (39.2oC).

Time of Day

Contrary to what you might expect from the notes above about light, fleas are most active a few hours before sunset. They stay active through the night. It’s speculated that the reason is that it correlates with the resting times of domestic pets.

Host Color

Yep, you read right. Ticks and fleas are not color blind. But, when you think about it, it makes sense that critters that are attracted to blood are also most attracted to red and blue.

Host Size

Fleas want to settle in on a host that will provide an excellent long meal. So you are much more likely to see fleas on German Shepherds than field mice.

Ticks, on the other hand, are less discriminating. They’ll attach themselves to a smorgasbord of other living delights, including mice, chipmunks, and other rodents.

Moisture

Unlike fleas, ticks need lots of humidity to survive. That’s why you hear about sand fleas but never sand ticks.

Flea and Tick Prevention For Dogs

Get Bug-Eating Bugs

Yes, you read right. One way to fight fleas is with other insects. Just like everything else in nature, fleas have predators. Ladybugs can eat up to 50 insects a day, and they look cute too. Not quite as charming, beneficial nematodes, small worms, feed off flea larvae and are highly effective.

They’ve been shown to have a noticeable improvement in just a couple of days. But don’t be confused. “Beneficial” nematodes are different from the type that can cause heart-worms. You can buy both ladybugs and beneficial nematodes t at garden stores.

Mow, Mow, Mow

Mowing the lawn is such a pain that it’s easy to put it off “one more week.” Then, one day you wake up and think that maybe you see Shaquille O’Neal out there. But you’re not sure because you can’t quite see his face. If you call out, the ticks and fleas can let you know. Because, if he’s there, they’re totally partying all over him.

Ticks and fleas just love tall grass! By keeping your grass short, those creatures (ticks and fleas, not Shaq) have fewer places to frolic.

Lawn Treatments

Defensive Gardening

Flea & Tick Eradication

Tick Removal

While most ticks don’t carry diseases and most tick bites don’t cause serious health issues, some do. Effectively removing ticks can help you avoid such severe disorders as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

Luckily, tick removal is simple:

Rinse, Repeat

Neither fleas nor ticks can swim. So, rinsing or washing your pup and yourself off after outings is smart, easy prevention. Hoses, showers, and tubs can be your pup’s best buddy—even though she may not agree at the time.

Video: How to Properly Remove a Tick

A Word (or Two) on Shampoos

Do NOT use human shampoo on dogs. Humans and dogs have different pH levels. Human skin is more acidic, while that of our fur friend is more alkaline. Using human shampoo on dogs disrupts the acid balance on their skin and leaves it open to bacteria, parasites, and viruses. It also makes it more challenging for the pup’s protective layer of oils to replenish itself and cause dry, flaky, irritated, peeling skin.

This will, in turn, make them scratch and may lead to more severe problems, like infections. Plus, if your little one’s skin is out of balance, she will actually end up smelling worse due to the increased bacteria levels.

Shampoo manufacturers offer a massive spectrum of options. Your choice may be based on scent, texture, ingredients, price, or any number of other factors. Since my sweet thing is extra sensitive, I prefer shampoos that are unscented and have no artificial ingredients with mild moisturizing properties. Vitamin E, aloe vera, avocado, and honey are a few moisturizers I watch for on the label.

If you’re into fragrance, you may want to add a drop or two of essential oil to an unscented shampoo. Use it sparingly. Dogs have up to 300 million olfactory receptors, while humans only have about six million. Along with that, the part of a dog’s brain dedicated to smelling is, proportionally, about 40 times bigger than ours. So, your Snifferton’s sense of smell is Everest while ours is a garden gnome.

That said, natural fragrances such as chamomile, lavender, eucalyptus, and citrus scents can serve as pleasant insect repellents—double-check before using essential oils on your cat. Kitties can have bad reactions due to grooming.

Tick and Flea Control Shampoos

You can find both natural and engineered shampoos for tick and flea control. As of this writing, the top sellers of flea and tick shampoo on Amazon include, in order:

Medicated Shampoos

You may want to use a medicated shampoo for skin conditions left in the wake of a flea infestation. Be sure to follow the directions. Using these shampoos incorrectly or too often can irritate your pup’s skin and be counter-productive.

Medicated shampoos with top Amazon customer ratings for flea and tick prevention for dogs include:

There are a number of shampoos and fragrances that will defend or rid your whiskered wonder of fleas, ticks, and other parasites. Most work to some extent. But if your fur foot is the outdoorsy type, they may not be a good overall solution. For that, you may want an ongoing, usually monthly, regimen. (More on that later.)

The Laundry is Your Friend

To keep from bringing fleas and their friends indoors when you come from an infested area, put your clothes in a plastic bag before entering the house. Take them off first. A garage would be handy for this step.

Launder what you can in hot water on the longest wash cycle. Laundry detergent might be a nice touch too. But remember that your dog’s snout can smell way more than yours, so she’d probably appreciate natural unscented detergents.

After the wash, dry the items on the hottest setting. For delicate items that you can’t launder, like plush toys, pillows, or couch cushions, put them in the dryer in the hottest setting for 30 minutes. The high-heat will kill mites, fleas, ticks, and a host of other nefarious beings. As a bonus, it will fluff out dust too.

Suck It Up–Vacuum Defense

Another weapon in the war against creepies is your vacuum cleaner. Fighting one sucker with another will help keep your home flea-free. In a study conducted by Ohio State University, vacuuming not only collected the pests but actually killed an average of 96% of the adult fleas.

If you are tempted to end the other four percent by tucking a flea collar into your vacuum cleaner bag, as some suggest, think again. While it sounds clever, the collars can give off harmful fumes.

Topical, External or Ingestible Tick and Flea Prevention Products

Deciding how to protect your dog from ticks and fleas on an ongoing basis is a challenging process. There are scores of commercial and natural products, each with merits and shortcomings.

Mainstream options generally fall into one of three categories: topical, external, and ingestible. There is no one perfect solution.

Topical Solutions–Spot-On Treatments

How Spot-On Products Work

As the name suggests, spot-on products are used by dabbing a spot of product onto your dog somewhere that he can’t reach with his mouth. The key active ingredients in most canine flea and tick medications are insect neurotoxins. The neurotoxin poisons the flea or tick by attacking its central nervous system. These products are designed to kill the insect slowly so that it has time to return home and share with its relatives. After the neurotoxin kills the adults, Juvenile Hormone Analogs, also known as Insect Growth Regulators (IGRs), swoops in to prevent larvae from making it to adulthood and reproducing.

Use Topical Solutions with Caution

External Products–Flea and Tick Collars

How Flea and Tick Collars Work

Flea and tick collars perform two basic functions. One form repels pests by emitting a gas. The insecticide in this type of collar is only effective after the parasite has bitten the dog.

The second option has medication that seeps into the fat layer on the dog’s skin or has active ingredients that spread using the dog’s natural skin oils. This collar emits active ingredients that kill fleas and ticks on contact before they bite.

Since flea and tick collars are worn around the neck, they are most effective in that area. They become decreasingly effective as the pests attack closer to the tail.

Flea and Tick Collar Cautions

External Products–Flea and Tick Sprays

As with spot-on treatments, flea and tick sprays interrupt the insect’s nervous system to kill the adults, while growth inhibitors prevent the young from maturing to the age of fertility.

Sprays should always be applied outside and with great caution to prevent the chances that you, your pet, or your children will inhale or ingest the poison.

Ingestible Tick and Flea Prevention–Oral Tablets and Chews

Although they can be expensive, many people prefer oral medication over other options for a number of reasons. If stored safely, the danger of exposing children to the poison is eliminated. Swimming is not an issue. (Though some dogs may claim that baths still are.)

Your pup doesn’t smell like insecticide or have the opportunity to spread chemicals around the house. Another benefit is that oral medication can provide almost immediate results. The downside is that currently, there are no oral medications that treat ticks.

How Oral Medications Work

The three most common active ingredients in oral flea and tick protection are:

Final Thoughts

Resources: