Get Rid of Fleas on Dogs in 6 Easy Steps
Getting rid of fleas on your dog isn’t complicated at all, but it will take a little bit of 
your time. If you see even just 1 flea on your dog, you don’t want to ignore the problem. Fleas can multiply very quickly and they could become a health threat to your dog if left untreated.
Not only can the fleas irritate your dogs skin but they carry health risks as well. Fleas are carriers of tapeworm, the tapeworm can be passed from the flea to your dog with just one bite!
When your dog chews their skin, they may ingest the flea. If the flea is a carrier of the tapeworm, it can be passed to your dog. If the fleas are around your dogs face, they can breath the fleas in, again, they are ingested making it possible for your dog to have tapeworm transferred to them.
Fleas can cause your dog to become anemic. This means that they have a low red blood cell count. When a flea feeds off your dog, they are taking blood from their circulating blood supply, depleting their red blood cell count.
Signs of Anemia in Your Dog Are:
Signs of Anemia in Your Dog Are:- Loss of appetite
- Low energy, sleeping a lot, loss of interest in playing
- If your dog is severely anemic, he/she may have rapid breathing with shortness of breath
If your dog does become anemic due to the fleas, they would also show signs of being lethargic. The most common symptoms of lethargic behaviour are:
- Loss of appetite
- Not drinking
- Low energy level
Follow the Steps Below to Get Rid of Fleas on Your Dog:
1. Fill a tub or sink with warm water. You need to be able to have your dog 
immersed in the water as completely as possible. Ideally only having their head out of the water is the best.
You can fill the tub with your dog in it but to kill the most fleas, submerging your dog in the water is best. This causes the fleas to drown.
2. You will need to completely wet your dog, from his/her face all the way to the tail. Take your flea shampoo and starting at the back of the ears squeeze out a thick amount of shampoo in a straight line to the tail.
If your dog has signs of hot spots, you can use an oatmeal based flea shampoo. The oatmeal will help soothe your dog’s skin, while still killing the fleas.
Rub the shampoo into a very thick lather. Be sure to completely cover your dog with the flea shampoo, belly, neck, legs, back and tail. You will need to scrub the shampoo right down to your dogs skin. Massaging the lather into their skin makes the flea killing more effective.
If the water turns red, don’t panic, this is because of the flea “dirt”, or droppings on your dogs skin. When it mixes with water it will turn blood red because it is actually dry blood.
3. Now you need to thoroughly rinse the shampoo off your dog. Be sure that all soap is removed as this could cause the skin to be more irritated if it’s left on.
After your dog is rinsed of the shampoo, you’ll probably see fleas moving around on them.
Now you’ll need to continue rinsing your dog from the face to the tail. If you can get your dog to lay in the water that would be best.
You are drowning the fleas. If you see any fleas by your dog’s nose or eyes, take your wet hand and swipe in right back into the water. Continue wetting your dog for about 10 minutes. When you drain the water from the tub, you’ll be shocked at the amount of dead fleas in the bottom.
4. Next take your dog out of the water and wrap them in a towel, rubbing them to get as much water as possible off of them. If you still see fleas alive on your dog you can re-wash him/her again doing your best to have them as far submerged in the water as possible to drown the live fleas.
5. The next step will be to use a flea comb, or a fine tooth comb and comb your dogs coat. If your going to blow dry your dog, you can use the flea comb while drying them. Otherwise you can do it while their fur is air drying.
Starting at the back of your dogs ears, comb in a full motion from neck to tail. After every comb through you’ll need to rinse the comb in water. You’re getting any left over flea dirt, eggs and larvae off your dog along with any live fleas left behind.
Continue doing this until you have combed your dog’s entire body, back, belly, neck, legs & tail or until you don’t see anymore signs of the fleas on them.
6. Now that your dog is flea free lets keep them that way. You can use a topical monthly flea treatment on your dog. This will kill any fleas that try and get on him/her. I would recommend using this consistently every month as a preventative measure for flea control.
To eliminate fleas completely, you’ll need to follow the steps to get rid of fleas in your house. This will walk you through cleaning your dog’s things, including their bedding and killing the fleas in all of its life stages from your home.
If you have any questions or comments you’d like to share, please leave it below. I’d love to hear how your experience was with your dog during this process! 🙂
16 thoughts on “Get Rid Of Fleas On Dogs”
Not just my dog has fleas. They are all over my house. My husband and I have gone through several cans of flea spray. My son got an infection because he was bit so bad on his back. I’ve never dealt with this before and it’s so bad. I have a 2 year old and a 1 month old. I need help getting these fleas out of my home. They are eating us up!
Hello Brittany,
You’re not the only one who has gone through this!! Unfortunately fleas are extremely resilient!! Through their stages they always seem to prevail… Don’t panic… Have you sprayed your home with anything? With your children this young you do need to have something all natural..honestly I use Wondercide This seems a little expensive but to be honest it works better than anything!!! It’s all natural…if your 1 year old gets it in their mouth it’s not going to physically hurt them..it will kill all the fleas and their life stages…spray your dogs every couple of days…brush it right down to the skin..spray all of your furniture and carpets…If you can put your dogs into one area that you can continually treat…you don’t want to have to spray everything everyday..if you can gate your dog into the kitchen or another area where you have a hardwood or tile floor..fleas will die quicker…
You can knock the fleas our of your home..it does take some patience and persistence…If you go with the Wondercide or another all natural product it will be safe for you children…I wouldn’t use a flea bomb or flea powders with children that young..the Wondercide will kill the fleas..and all of it’s stages..and it wont hurt your children!!! It seems a little expensive but honestly a little goes such a long way!! and it works!!
Please let me know how everything works for you, your pets and your family…:) I wish you the best of luck..it’s very difficult to go through this with young children…
Best of luck… Kimberly 🙂
I had a severe flea problem even without any animals, I had sand fleas, I have also had them bad with my little house dog. Both times the only way I could control them was to trim my blank walnut tree and spread the small twigs with lots of leaves on my carpets and furniture when I went to bed and removed them and vacuumed the next morning. I did this 3 or 4 nights and noticed I had no more flea problem. I had tried sprays and bombs and nothing else worked so I was amazed how effective something as simple as black walnut leaves/twigs. I try to keep a few black walnuts (that still have the thick casing on it) around where my dog sleeps. Hope this helps……….
Thank you Sue!!! I’ve never heard of something like that to be used for killing fleas and preventing them. That is a fantastic all natural measure for flea control!! Thank you very much for sharing with everyone.
Take Care 🙂
Kimberly
Are fleas attracted to the black walnut or repel them.
Hi John… I had no idea about this lol.. so I looked it up and this is what I found, black walnut trees have a natural insecticide in them that apparently repels insects including fleas, you can read what I found here:
https://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/109417/alternative_medicine/black_walnut_trees_produce_a_natural_insecticide.html
I hope this helps answer your question!
Merry Christmas,
Kimberly
hi my whole house is infested an we have no idea what to do we have three cats an two dogs one of our cats tubby has started to lose fur we are miserable an they are everywhere we are truly lost and we really need help.
Hello Megan, OK, you are gonna have a bit of work ahead of you but you can get rid of the fleas and keep them away. First off though, I just want to say that you need to keep a very close eye on your cats, the fleas can and will kill them if you don’t get this under control. Watch and make sure that they are eating and drinking!! They can become lethargic extremely quickly from the fleas. If you notice a significant difference in their eating or drinking or see a huge drop in weight, you’ll need to get them to the vet ASAP to have them re hydrated and to allow them a chance to make sure there aren’t any other problems going on with them due to the fleas!
OK, the first thing you’ll need to do is treat your pets for fleas. I would give them all baths, I know cats aren’t big on the water but if you can get them submerged in water with just their heads above water, you can kill a large amount of the fleas that are on them giving them a bit of relief. Follow the steps on Cat Fleas to help your cats. Follow the steps for Dog fleas and in place of topical medications for both your cats and dogs I highly recommend the Wondercide. It’s all natural and works immediately to kill the fleas on your pets. All you’ll need to do is spray this directly on them and comb or rub down to the skin the fleas will die immediately and it will protect them from others that will jump on them.
Next you’ll need to treat your home for the fleas. Again using the Wondercide is what I’d highly recommend for treating your home as well. You can spray this directly on your furniture, carpets, bedding and mop your floors with it! It will kill the fleas and all of it’s stages immediately. Vacuuming is going to be next, you’ll need to vacuum all of your furniture, carpets even your mattresses would be a very good idea. If your pets have special beds, spray the Wondercide directly on them after washing them in hot water and drying them on the hottest setting you can.
You should wash all bedding, blankets and anything else in your home in hot water and again drying on the hottest setting your dryer has. You can follow the steps for Home Flea Removal just use the Wondercide in the steps for flea foggers.
After you’ve done all of this it’s really just keeping an eye out for more of the fleas, since they can hide extremely well. Vacuum regularly and check your pets every day for signs of fleas. If you see anymore fleas in your home, just spray the area with the Wondercide. For your pets, if you see fleas on them, spray the Wondercide on them again as well. When you notice the fleas have subsided you can use the Wondercide as a monthly maintenance on your pets to protect them against fleas and ticks without having to use the harsher chemicals.
Best of luck to you and please let me know if I can help you any further 🙂
Kimberly
We have been trying to get rid of fleas for more than 2 months now. Our 2 cats and 2 dogs are all infested with fleas and have given them flea baths multiple times each, along with getting very expensive flea medication from the veterinarian. We have also used different sprays and powders around the house while vaccuming every day. They just aren’t going away!
Hello Julian, if you haven’t tried Wondercide yet, then I highly recommend that you do. You can buy it here at Amazon and have it within 2 days or less: Wondercide @ Amazon. You can use this on both your cats and dogs at any age along with your home. Spray it directly on your pets and comb it right down to the skin with all of your pets. For their faces just spray it on your hands and rub it right to the skin avoiding the eyes but get it in their ears, necks and heads. Then wash all of their bedding and yours with the hottest temperature and dry on high heat as well. When you take it out spray them with the Wondercide as well. I would recommend spraying all of your furniture, curtains and carpets with it and if you have hardwoods or hard flooring mop it with the Wondercide!
The Wondercide is safe to use on your pets even with the use of topical flea meds because it is an all natural product! You can continue to use this on your pets whenever you see any signs of fleas on them. If you see signs of fleas in different areas of your home, just spray that area with the Wondercide.
You should start to see a huge improvement within the first day of applying this to your pets, actually you should see the fleas coming right to the surface of their coats as soon as you spray it on. There will appear to be a greasy residue on your pets fur when you spray it on initially but after 24 hours it’s gone and their coats will be shiny and soft.
Best of luck and please let me know if I can help you any further 🙂
Kimberly
How do we keep the fleas from going in their ears when bathing?
Hello Mary, when you’re giving your dog a bath just keep rinsing the ears with water and if you’re using a flea shampoo just put it right on the ears both inside and outside. Don’t put it right in the ear canal but if the shampoo is covering the ears the fleas should want to stay away from the area. Remember the fleas are drowning in the water so continually pouring water during the bath or spraying all areas keeping your dog soaking wet while washing is an excellent way to kill them!
Let me know if I can help you any further 🙂
Kimberly
What can i use on large yard and 4 dogs that is cost effective. Can I make my own mixture? If so what do you suggest.
Lakeisha
Hello Lakeisha, I would recommend using EcoTreat by Wondercide, this is an all natural product that is safe to use both indoors and outdoors and will cover 10,400 square feet of your outdoor yard or inside your home.
For the Permethrin SFR I would assume that you can use it before the rain as with any outdoor product but will need to be reapplied if it rains immediately after applying it.
If you are looking for something cost effective, I would recommend using the EcoTreat, it can be used both indoors and outdoors along with being safe for your pets.
Please let me know if I can help you any further 🙂
Kimberly
How often should we spray yards and dogs with natural solutions?
Can I use Permethrin SFR before rain?