The Good Old DOG FLEA
Dog Flea Treatment

Experts who are well paid say that the common hungry dog flea might gnaw up your family pet more than 350 times a day. One wonders how they know this. If Towser has 44 fleas, that adds up to 15,400 bites per day. It's a wonder that he doesn't get really ticked at flea bites and rip out somebody's throat to express his displeasure! It's no wonder that if these stats are anywhere near true, it's more imperative than ever to get rid of the dog flea pests!

So, is Barky the dog looking a little bare of hair lately? It's a common condition in dogs who are dog flea obsessed. They rip out their fur in in search of hungry dog fleas. How would you feel if you had no fur? (You can't make the same case with Barky. He doesn't care if he has any fur or not. He only cares that he does not have dog fleas.)

Checking your dog for dog fleas is fairly straight forward. Roll him over and scope out his tickle belly. If you haven't established a program of dog flea treatment, chances are good that you'll see lots of little moving black speckles. You're seeing the dog flea (which actually may be the cat flea, but that's another story.) That you are seeing the dog flea on Barky means that the are well fed and happy, else you would be seeing them on you.

Fleas are billions of years old...possibly older than the earth. They will suck the blood out of most anything, but they they didn't wait for all those billions of years for the rise of the house dog or yard dog for nothing. All that waiting made them hungry and they are feeding on Barky.

Dog Flea Treatment Methods

• Dog flea Collar. This method is also billions of years old. It has evolved over the years, but does have its drawbacks. Namely, they don't work terribly well, and secondly, they contain some pretty potent poison. If you use a dog collar, keep and eye on Spot to make sure they are able to tolerate it. If Spot gets sick, take it off immediately.
• Doggie Flea Drops. Spot doesn't care much for this method. See Spot jump when you apply these half dozen drops behind his head on his shoulder (where he can't get at it with his tongue). Why exactly this happens is a mystery, since Spot loves to run around in the rain. The top choices for doggie drops are Frontline and Advantage. One will work better than the other on your dog pet. Experimentation will say which.
• Oral Dog Flea Treatment. Spot gobbles down a tasty chew pill that you give him, never knowing that he has just ingested a powerful drug that stops dog fleas from making more dog fleas. Sort of like dog flea birth control. It's a dirty trick, but neither Spot or the dog fleas ever realize what just happened.
• Flea Powder. Talking about old. The prehistoric Spot used to do his own flea powder by rolling around in a dusty spot on the ground. Modern Spot will do the same thing too, much to the horror of his human owner who thinks he's human.
  Dog flea powder has been around a long time. When it was all there was, it was better than yard dirt, but it never worked all that well. You can still get a box of flea dust, but it's really old technology. Worse, while Spot LOVES yard dirt, he doesn't care much for flea powder. It can dry his skin or worse. If you persist in flea powder, you must keep a careful eye to Spot's condition.
• Dog flea control shampoo. Washing the dog helps. But, as soon as the bath is over, Fluffy will start acquiring new dog fleas. Yes, to your household herd of dog fleas, bath time is like nuclear war, but it doesn't do diddle for those fleas and egss than didn't make the trip. More, you don't need to wash Fluffy frequently. Fluffy would just as soon be dirty and stinky anyway. Washing your dog isn't terribly good for the skin, so don't do it more than once a week...or preferably a couple of times a month.
• Flea Comb. Snake oil. Thinking positive thoughts while being stranded in the desert without any water.
• Flea Sprays for dog flea treatment. Flea sprays mostly kill adult fleas. Does nothing for the flea egg babies.
• Flea sprays for carpet treatment. This is some GOOD stuff, if you get a good brand and develop a spraying program. You have to follow up to kill the newly hatching crops. The bottle says "residual," but you need to transmorgify this into spray again in a week.
• Dog flea treatment yard sprays. Yes, you can treat your whole yard for fleas. If you have only a 4X4 yard, it helps a lot. If you have a large yard, you are whistling in a hurricane. Save your money for more advantageous treatments.
• Home remedies. Diligent research will yield home remedies like borax and diatomaceous earth.

It's a no brainer that the quickest down and dirty way to address any dog flea treatment regimen to get rid of fleas is with toxic chemicals made especially for the purpose. However, for some dogs...and humans, the treatment might be worse than the cure. Flea bites on dogs isn't the worst thing that can happen.
Or, you might be a tree hugger, friend of the earth, who doesn't believe God (or the great mother earth spirit) would ever condone man made chemicals to kill fleas. Obviously, you have never been flea bitten, but that's your bag... To the rescue, enter a handful of products worth consideration.

We're talking borax, and diatomaceous earth. Borax is a natural substance that is mined and shipped in on 20 Mule Trains. Supposedly when the dog fleas land on it they lop up a little bit off their dog flea feet. This dries them out. Likewise, the diatomaceous earth may serve to dry them out, but more probably, it lodges in teensy places in their diamond hard exoskeleton and really drives them batty, until it kills them. On the dog flea scale, diatomaceous earth is just a weensy bit harder than diamonds. It's nasty stuff to dog fleas, but no big deal in the human universe. Borax, by the way, is also death to roach bugs. I suppose, to a flea, a roach bug looks like the biggest tank on 8 legs.

Then, finally, there is brewer's yeast and garlic tablets. This is said to make Spot less itchy. Worth a try.

Suppose after all of this you really don't have fleas on your dog? Flea control for dogs only works is there actually is...fleas.
So, your next stop is to check for dry skin and doggie allergies, which leads to a whole other treatment regimen. Having pets is fun, and part of it is taking care of them. When they get old, crippled, or smelly, you still have to take care of them. Or you should! Sometimes the best dog flea treatment and the best dog flea medicine is love. Once you have that, the rest takes care of itself.