My dog loves going to the dog park. It has become a Saturday morning and Sunday morning ritual for us. After a quick stop at the local coffee shop to get a large coffee we head to the dog park. A visit to this park allows my dog to go off leash, gets loads of exercise and to socialize with other dogs. It also gives me a chance to catch up with my neighbors and get a good dose of local gossip.

In general, going to the dog park is a very enjoyable part of my weekends. The only drawback is that it makes my dog vulnerable to getting fleas. It’s hard to say whether he gets the flea infestation from playing with the other dogs or whether he gets the fleas from going into bushes around the edge of the park. One way or another he tends to be vulnerable to getting a good dose of fleas at the dog park.

Having fleas on my dog, and then in my house is not a very pleasant experience for either of us. My dog scratches constantly, and I spend entire weekends vacuuming, laundering to try and get rid of flea infestations, rather than enjoying our time at the dog park. So park visits were put on hold, rather than risk bringing home a new batch of fleas. After several weeks of missing the park, I decided there had to be better way. I needed to find out how to repel fleas, rather than avoid the weekend outings that my dog and I were both missing.

There was a little trepidation that came with my decision to go back to the dog park, so I decided to try and figure out some sort of natural flea repellant so we would avoid picking up fleas at the park. I talked to my dogs groomer, and she had some great suggestions. Two of the best natural flea treatments are garlic and citronella. I decided to try them both to double up on my dogs flea resistant powers.

So I just started simply by adding a bit of garlic to my dogs food every day. Having garlic absorbed into the blood stream makes my dogs blood and extremely unappetizing meal for fleas. Once they detect the garlic, they avoid my dog like a vampire turned back with a cross. As added protection, I also spray a citronella based insect repellent (mosquito spray) on my dog before we go out, and this seems to help a great deal as well.

Since finding a good solution to keep my dog from picking up fleas in public places, going out for our weekend outings has been much more pleasurable. Not having to worry about bringing fleas home, and especially finding an all natural flea solution has been the best discovery my dog and I have made this summer.