The Whole Dog Journal
I highly recommend subscribing to The Whole Dog Journal (whole-dog-journal.com). It’s an online magazine that’s, you guessed it, all about dogs. It covers everything from “best and worst dog foods” to allergies, to dog behavior, and puppies. It also has its own blog.
One interesting article was about how to remove a tick from a dog. It covers everything from how to check your dog for ticks to the removal and disposal of these nasty creatures. One neat tip the article had was to take a masking tape roller and roll it over your dog’s entire body – this pulls off any loose ticks that are getting ready to do damage. It discusses why ticks are so difficult to remove – they have a saliva that contains a cement-like substance that secures them in place.
Tweezers can be used to remove the critters, but the article stresses that you need to grab as close to the skin as possible to avoid pulling the body from the head. If you see a tine pointer at the front, you did not successfully remove the entire tick. At that point, you need to grab a needle to finish the job, by picking at it gently like you would a splinter.
There is even more detail in the article on removal and disposal. Killing a tick is quite the operation – I’ll leave that for you to read yourself.
Top Dog Training
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