Have you used conventional or natural flea & tick products with your dog? There are pros and cons to each type of treatment approach, and many people are not familiar with natural alternatives to Frontline, Advantix, and other chemical products, and also may not know of the health risks that come along  with them. What has worked (or not worked) for your dog’s flea and tick situation? If you have any thoughts, experiences, questions, or advice to share, please join the discussion and help others decide whether natural insect control is a good choice for their canine companion.

I have found that Avon Skin So Soft (dark green bottle,yellow cap)outdoor bug repellent (kid safe) has worked the best on both of my dogs-1 7 pound min-pin-pom and a 107  pound bullmastiff.  We live out in the country, have cattle, fields, woods and streams.  THis product has not failed us yet. very satisfied.  its kid safe, so I feel safe using it on the min-pin-pom.  Neither of them have had any reactions to it, nor have they carried any critters in from the outdoors. 

Thanks for the advice on the Avon. How often do you apply this to your large dog? and do you have any residue problems from the oil? I have tryed several different things with my 6 month, 60 lbs (so far) purebred samoyed.  I do really like a product call Mad about organics it works well but only for about a 5 to 7 day's.  It is applied topically just like frontline but with a white long haired dog it stains his coat and the oils attracts lot's of dirt so needless to say he has a yellow dirty streak. I use to be an Avon rep years ago and the bug repellent works great on us.

Thanks 

Doesn't the Skin So Soft outdoor repellant have DEET in it? I have heard of using SSO, but only the regular one.

The Skin So Soft Bug Guard Plus contains an ingredient called Picaridin which is a deet alternative.  This is widely used in Europe and is very effective.  However, they do not list what the other 90% of the ingredients are and I am not sure if Picaridin is a chemical or plant based.  I am going to do some more research on this before I put it on my dog.  Hey, thanks for bringing this up.  I do know that Avon uses alot of chemicals in most of their products.  If anyone is interested I'll post my research when I'm done.  Thanks again for bringing this to my attention:)

Picaridin for those that are interested is a chemical that consists of hydroxyethyl,piperidinecarboxylic acid and methylpropyl ester.

It was manufactured as a Insect Repellent against biting flies, mosquitoes, chiggers, ticks, and fleas.It has a low acute oral, dermal and inhalation toxicity.

The product has had extensive study and has never shown any evidence of maternal toxicity and no evidence that Picaridin is an endocrine disruptor and has shown no toxicologically significant effects in animal studies and not likely to be a human carcinogen.

Chronic Toxicity and Carcinogenic systemic an dermal irritation testing by EPA as it pertains to dogs reveals

No observable adverse effects or toxicity at tested levels

Highest Dose Tested (EPA) =200 mg/kg/day

Thanks Call of the dog for the info.  I also pulled the EPA's fact sheet on this product and he is dead on.  This being a chemical no matter how safe they think it is, I will not be using it on my dog.  Much better probably than deet though for us.  I live in the pacific northwest and we are in the cascades most weeks where the mosquito's can be really bad at certain times of the year.  I am going to try a product I have that's from Ark Naturals for mosquito's here in the spring It's called Neem Protect Spray.  The active ingredients are: Neem oil, Citronella oil, Celery seed oil, and Eucalypyus oil. I have tried this for flea's and It works well, it's the smell that we have a hard time with.  Very strong. If any of you have used this, please let me know what you think or if you have tried any other all natural products for biting bugs.  THANKS.

I have heard that Skin So Soft, the plain version, works well, but is quite oily and attracts dirt. I have also heard that the neem oil preparations work well, but the smell is awful.

Someone on this site mentioned something about "orange-glo" or something that sounded similar. I wonder how that works?

I found it! The product is called Orange Dog, and is listed under "fleas Season" on New Dogs on the Block. There is a website posted as well.

For an effective and natural flea and tick repellant cut two lemons into quarters and place in a dish that can take boilong water and cover the lemmon in boiling water. Place covered so the moisture can not escape and let the contents sit over night.
the next day you have a flea repellent to be used with a spray bottle.Or you can mix a 50/50 solution of apple cider vinagar as a spray solution. Avoid the eyes, nose and genitals but spray away from behind the ears to the tip of the tail and arm pits. A teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in your dog water if they do not mind it and many do not, will make the skin more acidic and very unappealing to both ticks and fleas.

This sounds very easy and interesting.  So how often do you reapply the diluted lemon and does the acidity dry out the coat & skin? With Samoyeds you have to be very careful, they are prone to very dry skin.  I don't think I could handle a dog that smells like vinegar:)

Thanks