Hello I am new to the forum. I have a mini dashaund that has gotten fleas. I have tried everything to get rid of them! I have used Dawn on him, flea shampoo, dips, drops on the back stuff! This puppy is miserable! Does any one know what to do to get rid of them? He seems to have dry skin also, probably from so many baths! We live in AR.. HELP!!

Use a tight flea comb. You have to really stay on it. And they have great puppy conditioners. Make sure you are incredibly careful that your pup doesn't keep re-getting it. Fleas can live a while on beds and blankets and carpets.

They have fleas in Arkansas too? Just kidding for such a little thing they sure are a pain in the tail.
Be very careful applying grocery store offered topical flea medications. I can't stress that enough. Its not far off from actually feeding your dog poison. These readily offered products enter the bloodstream. I know pet owners wouldn't have any desire to add insecticide directly into the bloodstream. But that's actually what's happends. Small bread dogs are the first to show foamy mouth vomiting tremors, seizures and the last is not very pretty way to leave this life. So now we know that doesn't work. The money I saved you there will be needed to purchase one of 3 different effective topicals sold at your Vets office.
Revolution: www.revolutionpet.com
Advantage: Bayer Advantage Flea Control nofleas.com
Frontline & Frontline Plus: www.frontline.com
Each Vet has his or her preferance, although Revolution does require a Rx. Its coverage expands too much more than fleas. The other 2 do not. Some dogs and cats have an allergic reaction to fleas, and can commonly require earlier applications then recommended. My lab is a good example. One flea on him and its like 100lbs of itching maddness. Dips can be effective, but literally for a short time of hours. This also includes the same for shampoos. The reason I shy away from those is very simple, You have to wash the dog so often it is time consuming, unhealthy to his skin, an doesn't break the life cycle of the flea at all. After 2 months of the advantage,revolution,or frontline, you have really pissed off the grand pappy flea in your house because his live is minutes from the big flea farm in the sky. Good luck with your new found info and flea killing spree.

Yes I know my lab is obeast,, I am a horrible parent, he just won't get off the couch when the food network is on TV.

Also you will never get rif of the fleas from the puppy if you do not also treat the house , the fleas spend minimal time actually on the dog and once fed will jump off and hide,

They hide all over the place and can hibernate for a very long time,

Buy an husehold flea spray and treat the whole house, this will ensure that all fleas die ,

Give the pup a bath, the fleas hate water and will try to get off the dog you will see many of them head for the pups head or back if it is out of the water, completely soak the dog and the fleas will be found floating on the water,

But what ever you do follow instructions...

And spray the house more importantly, common places for fleas are under skirting boards, in the dog beds, curtains, in the upholstrys ,
But they get all over the house..

Good luck and hope you sort the problem soon

To many fleas can cause the pup to get to sick by dehydration , anemia and irritation rashes :( good luck

If the drops that didn't work were over the counter stuff, do as DocWill said, get the good stuff from your vet. A good vet will take time to asses your needs and help select the best product for your dogs. I am using Revolution. I can't say my dogs need it. Before the older one came into my care, I didn't use anything and had little problem. Aster has a flea allergy from before the good stuff was in common use. This is the fourth year on Revolution, and no sign of a problem.

And I agree, if badly infested, you may need to bomb the house and treat the yard. The carpet in the car makes good flea habitat too.

Eggs are laid in the hair coat and are designed to fall off the host. They are resistant to insecticides, but susceptible to various insect growth regulators. Larvae develop in the host's environment and feed on adult flea feces (blood) that fall out of the hair coat of the pet. Larvae are susceptible to traditional insecticides, borates and insect growth regulators. Larvae eventually spin cocoons (often within carpet fibers) for pupation. Pupae are resistant to freezing, desiccation, and insecticides. Pupae can lie dormant for many months; they are stimulated to expupate as emergent adults by vibration, warming and increased carbon dioxide. Normally, expupation occurs when a host is near and the new flea finds the pet within seconds of emergence. Emergent fleas are fairly mobile and can survive a few days without a host, if in a suitable environment. New fleas begin feeding within hours of finding a dog or cat. Once a blood meal has been taken, the flea can survive only a short time if it is dislodged from the host. New fleas experience very high mortality on healthy adult hosts. Most fleas do not survive 72 hours on an animal that is itching and able to groom itself. Unfortunately, limited egg production does occur even on allergic animals. The entire life cycle of C. felis can be completed in as few as 16 days!
Life styles of the rich am fleamas.

You will need to keep treating the puppy for flies and do not give up. You will also need to do a treatment for your home, to rid fleas of you home because fleas will need somewhere to hide and they will hide in your carpet, etc and then they will get back on your puppy when the treatment has wore off. You can buy several flea treatments and some for your carpet, tiles, and many different brands. Are cat had flies and it took a long while to get them out of the house and off us and off the cat, we used several different home treatments and several for our cat also. The fleas will get on other animals also like hamsters, cats, dogs, and even birds if you don't get rid of them.

I can't help but to find that quite comical. Fleas can't live in the home with out a host, regardless of the pet as a host.They live on the host and feed from the host. Fleas don't jump off go back to a carpet hiding spot till the coast is clear, get hungry and seek out the pet to feed again. Why do you see fleas on the carpet furniture? Two main reasons, one they hatched away from the host and or were dislodged from the host scratching etc. Continued treatment with advantage and the others I have listed kills the life cycle of the flea from survival by removing the ability to feed. Nothing can live long with out a food source. There for aggressive treatment of carpet and furniture is not all that necessary as long as the host (pet) is continually exposed to proper flea repellant.

I am not sure.

I had a cat at one time for a very short period and we got rid of the cat and we still kept fleas in our home after the cat was long gone. We had no other animals in the entire home at this time but 1 hamster! We noticed fleas on our hamster, it became very infested and I had no clue that a hamster could get fleas and he was severely infested, that was all you could see was fleas!! We had to take the hamster to the vet and fleas kept biting us in the home like crazy, every few minutes fleas would get on us. I had red marks all over my skin and I was going CRAZY!! Every time I would go to kill the little flea sucker, he would hop away! After treating the hamster AND the home several times every single day, we finally got rid of them in about 2 months!

The cat had bad flies because when we would hold him, fleas would get on my arm, face, etc and then we gave him away we still had the flies and it took a few days to realize that our hamster had them. The (small) hamster stayed in the down stairs bedroom and Fleas would hop on me in the Living room, kitchen, bathroom down staires, and in the bedroom downstairs but upstairs I don't think they ever got on us and we didn't have them, only downstairs where the hamster cage was or in the whole down staires area. We IMMEDIATELY went and got flea powder, spray, etc when we found out that we had fleas in are home and it STILL took about 2 months to get rid of them. Fleas would hop on us every few minutes and we could not stand it, I hope I/we never have to go through this again!