Your doggie is your best friend, your companion and the one soul who loves you unconditionally.
You notice Fido scratching one day and on closer inspection - HORRORS! You find a flea! So now what? There are many options to control fleas.
You want the safest, most effective, and quickest control option available for many reasons.
You want a safe solution because you love your dog.
You want effective to get rid of these suckers once and for all.
And you really need a quick solution because of this sobering fact - one live flea represents up to as many as 100 in egg and larval stages ready to invade your world.
First off - Fleas 101.
They do not continuously live on animals.
These jumping teeth temporarily land onto animals for the express purpose of getting a meal so that they have the necessary blood protein in order to reproduce.
Fleas like to lay their eggs in soft, protected areas such as where Fido likes to sleep - pet bedding, in the shady spots of the lawn, in the carpeted areas of your home, etc.
With that in mind, if your doggie has in and out free reign of a fenced in yard, the order of importance of areas to treat would be: 1.
Outside sleeping areas - in the shady lawn, under the deck, in the dog house, etc.
2.
Inside sleeping areas - doggie beds, on the carpet in your bedroom, wherever Fido likes to sleep.
3.
Fido.
Most people start with the dog and hope it works and it won't.
Spot drop treatments that you put on the back of the neck are Numero-Uno-Avoid-At-All-Costs because they are not safe, only somewhat effective and very slow acting.
They operate by infiltrating Fido's blood supply with poisons that are supposedly at a level high enough to kill biting fleas but low enough not to harm Fido.
But define a 'safe' level of poison in the blood...
So that is not safe, it only kills fleas that actually bite and it takes a very long time to eradicate all the eggs and larva anxiously awaiting Fido's presence.
Treating just the indoors of the house won't cut it if Fido regularly goes in and out.
But a light spray of the sleeping areas inside and out every other day for a week should take care of that in a jiffy.
Lastly, you want Fido to repel these monsters so they won't jump on in the first place so treat Fido with a light spray of a repellent until the risk of fleas has passed.
Choose the safest, least toxic option for flea control available and follow the Outdoors, then Indoors, then Fido treatment plan and fleas will no longer be an issue.