Dog Grooming Blog

How to Effectively Remove and Control Fleas and Ticks on Your Dog

This question is a very common yet important one. There is a very simple answer to this – you must kill the breeding cycle of the fleas – not your dog.

Take all care to rid your dog and home and grounds once and for all.

If you follow these procedures carefully you won’t have reoccurring problems – then you follow prevention treatment after 10 to 12 weeks allowing you to give your dog a weekly swim or bath.

1. Collect all dog bedding and favorite mats. Wash in hot water with Detol (disinfectant) added repeat this a couple of times weekly.
2. Remove all beds outside and spray with a good high performance spray like Mortein in a can. This will kill all eggs if possible leave in sunshine all day.
3. Regardless if your dog lays on any ground – garden or under your home or inside your home – spray all areas with a bulk spray purchased from your vet or call your pest man to spray all these areas – it’s that easy.
4. Vacuum floors and on the carpet use the nozzle of the hose to vacuum deep into the carpet to remove fleas and eggs (empty your vacuum into a garbage bin so as not to keep the fleas breeding in the vacuum bag).  Now, with your high performance spray give your carpet a generous going over, pay particular attention to their favorite spots. All this is done while your dog or other animals are safe and not exposed to these sprays etc.
5. Now finally to treat your dog not kill them with poison.  I must stress that anything you use of your dog is a poison – not a treatment.  Never overdose or overuse the product.   Strictly adhere to the manufactures instructions. Please read all instructions very thoroughly applying about 3 days after you have washed and groomed your dog.  This is recommended to adhere to any oily dirty skin better than a just washed skin.  A product that I have used extensively on my own dogs and on customers dogs with 100% satisfaction I can recommend is Frontline Spray purchased from your vet.  The dosage is clearly marked on the label for both fleas and ticks.  For fleas – 2 to 4 sprays per kilo dog body weight on my silver toy poodle “Moet” who weighs 3 kilo I would use 6 sprays for prevention or 12 sprays to eradicate fleas. This treatment lasts for 10 to 12 weeks with a weekly wash or swim allowed.
6. Now the important part is how to do this spraying procedure correctly. Wearing rubber gloves place your dog on the table/grooming bench. According to their body weight work out the number of sprays first. A 10 kilo dog will require 20 sprays for prevention or 30 sprays to eradicate the fleas. The sprays have to cover down their back-tail-legs-under body-head-ears. But not face and eyes. Start with the first spray behind their neck and gently massage the liquid into the skin well. Continue this procedure all over your dog and keep wiping your damp glove around the face as you go – do not spray into eyes or mouth. When you have finished this procedure destroy gloves and wash your hands thoroughly. Precaution: Don’t let small children handle the dog for at least 3 days. Everyone must wash hands after handling the dog – bearing in mind they have had a Poison Treatment

Research has just released data proving that our dogs are dying younger because they are being overdoes with poisons to eradicate fleas.

If the instructions say 10-12 weeks before next treatment, that does not mean every 6 weeks. Also, do not add extra treatment on top of the treatment you have just given them for example flea powder. Please be cautious and read instructions very carefully.

Conclusion: Now that you have completed these steps correctly I know how happy you will be to see your dog happy again and not turning themselves inside out scratching. Did you know that one flea bite can cause your dog to scratch for up to 3 days.

You may be interested to continue with a prevention treatment which I have used for many years.

Every 6 months I treat my grooming room and 2 storey home using Mortein spray bombs – or such like products available at your supermarket. All you are required to do is remove all food items outside your cupboards – living plants – fish – birds and your dog. Shut your building up – release the bombs and vacate for about 3 hours. Good chance to walk yourself and dog and perhaps enjoy a nice coffee/tea at a local café or a picnic in the park.