Shampoo and flea and tick recommendations

[Luna0331]

Wanted to know if anyone has any good experience with a particular shampoo and flea and tick defense for a GSD puppy? She's mostly inside the house or in the backyard right now but when she's older, I want to take her hiking with me in the Southern AZ mountains. Any advice is appreciated.

[Freestep]

Flea/tick shampoo will only kill the bugs that are on the dog at that moment. It has no resdiual protection. So if you're going to be in a flea and tick-infested area, you probably would have the best protection using a spot-on product like Frontline.

As for flea shampoo, any shampoo will do as long as you leave the dog sudsed up in it for at least 15 minutes. Heck, even dishsoap will work in a pinch, though it can be drying so I don't recommend it for frequent use. Earthbath makes some nice shampoos and is readily available at most pet supply or feed stores.

A shampoo with pyrethrin, permethrin (or anyting ending in -ethrin), d-limonene, or neem will kill the fleas a lot more quickly--just a 5 minute soak should do the trick with those. Technically, shampoo can only be labeled as "flea shampoo" if it contains an insecticide. So anything else will need to sit on the dog for 15 minutes or more.

[Luna0331]

Thanks. For around the house we've never had problems with our other dog with fleas or ticks so the shampoo would be mainly for cleaning the dog, but I will try the Earthbath.