Is a great walk worth it??

[Lynda Kamrath]

I took my boys for a walk in a new area yesterday.  It is on Ft. Ord and in a horse access area from the road.  There is a large meadow and we walked behind and around the meadow and started back on another access road.  The boys loved it and were off leash most of the time and we did not run into another person or animal on our walk.  HOWEVER, when I got home I found 12 ticks on the dogs and two on me.  The dogs take Frontline this time of the year but I do not.  One of the dogs had ticks attached and the other had dead ticks.  This morning my ALD is obviously sick.  Maybe from eating poop on the trail?  Sometimes I have had them wear muzzles to keep them from eating stuff on the trail, but they were not using them yesterday.  Gads, I hate to stay home all the time, and I also hate giving the dogs insecticide, but I want them to be healthy.

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

So true, we have hiked all over the country and a tick-check was done on the dog AND us after each hike.

[Adina P]

Once again I need to farm my kids off to all you outdoorsy folks!  My mom was NOT outdoorsy and I never gained the love of REAL outdoorsy adventures.  Even now Mom looks at pics of her granddaughter playing near a man-made pond in one of those cookie-cutter-with association-fees neighborhoods my friend lives in and can hardly believe it!  Haha! 

[Adina P]

Depends on where you live.  I've never had a tick on me or on my dogs (knock on wood...I'll probably be picking ticks of everyone all summer for that statement) my whole life.  But I also am not outdoorsy and don't go hiking except once in a great while.

[F, Calla & Luca]

My dogs' ticks, the great majority of the time, come from my fenced in, no deer allowed, yard : (

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

I think the bear would scare me a whole lot more than the ticks. Yicks!

[Ginny Nightingale]

I like Advantix better than Frontline--lots of ticks and fleas with Frontline and nothing with Advantix. I agree that it is a problem to take them on an "adventure" if it is a threat to their health--what a shame, though. They obviously love it--I guess to THEM it is worth it!

[Katie, John & Parker pup]

ugh yah I am sick of the ticks this year! When we came home from getting our Xmas tree, Parker had like 6 ticks on him and he got very itchy!  I am actually glad for the cold weather just because I am hoping it will slow down these tick issues! Parker is being eaten alive!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Those of us who live in a more tick-free environment can be freaked out by ticks.  We hadn't ever had fleas or ticks in our yard area until our son brought a stray home for a night.  We had ticks for about two years. We sprayed (sorry folks who don't like chemicals) but finally eradicated them.  

[Barbara B., Sasha & Oliver]

That is a hard call to make Lynda !!!  You don't want your dogs getting ticks but then you want them to enjoy life.  Your walk sounded great and everyone had a great time BUT...... the result was ticks.  I would compromise... maybe take them someplace else that is less tick infested???   I am sooooo thankful that I have never seen a tick on any of my dogs ever !!!  I live in a heavly populated area but down the block is huge fields where power lines run thru where I am sure all kinds of critters and buggs are but I am afraid to take them there because of this.  Maybe you should switch to Advantix II, both my dogs were on Frontline with no problem but a friend said she had her doodles on Advantix II and liked that better, I decided to switch because it covered more and never had a problem with fleas, ticks, etc etc. 

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Last Spring when the ticks got really bad, we stopped taking our boys to the Park where they could run free.  It's a shame because it's acres and acres of woods and meadows, and a perfect place for dogs.  It's so huge that it was rare to even run into another dog...perfect for Murph.  But after our experience with the Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, I wasn't willing to take this chance.  We have now trained Guinness to walk right with us off leash, so he gets to go on our "bike path walks" without his leash, and he loves it.  No ticks so far there, because it is a paved path that runs for miles.  Murph is still "in training" so he has to stay on leash...my dream is that he too would be able to go on our hikes without being leashed.  Once the snow flies, we'll take them back to the Park....hopefully the ticks will be "sleeping, or better yet frozen".

[Amy Lounsbury]

We have lots of trouble with ticks where we live.  Our vet told us that Frontline isn't very effective with ticks, and recommended using a collar specifically made to repel them.  Since we started using that, Sammy has had only one tick on him, and we walk along the river and in the woods almost daily.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

I have never seen a tick. They don't seem to be that much of a problem around these here parts. I wonder if they only live in a particular climate or something...