Dogs love to play outside and explore, but they may attract ticks when doing so. A lot of times a puppy will push his nose into places that are infested with pesky parasites like ticks, and the bugs will make their home in his fur. These ticks bury their head into to dog's skin, causing itchiness and pain. They can also detach from your dog and lodge themselves other places in your home, so you will want to get rid of them as soon as possible. You could take your dog to a groomer or to the vet to get the job done. This is recommended in cases where the dog is carrying a lot of ticks. If there are only a few of these little pests on your dog, then you may be able to remove them yourself.

When removing a tick, ASPCA veterinarians suggest that you don't rush. Be careful and slow so that you won't hurt your pet in the process. There are many great products available at your local pet store for tick removal. Pet care companies have invented all sorts of tools and solutions to help get rid of the bugs. These are a lot more effective than the alternative: a tiny pair of tweezers. If you live in an area with lots of ticks then you might want to take measures to prevent your dog from attracting them. This could mean using repellants to keep ticks away.

To remove a tick, you will want to prepare by getting a Ziploc bag ready. Once the tick is removed, tossing it in the trash or flushing it down the toilet won't kill it. These little bugs are resilient, and can survive just about any sort of damage. Instead, you should store it in a bag or a jar and save it, just in case your dog falls ill from the bite. If your pet gets sick soon after the tick is removed, then you can send the little bug you kept as a sample for testing at the vet and it may help to determine what caused your dog's sudden illness.

After you have prepared a resting place for the tick, put on some latex gloves. Ticks can have infective agents that could enter your bloodstream through breaks in your skin or through touching your eyes, nose, or mouth. Also, you don't want to touch the bite area on your dog's skin without clean hands, and gloves prevent the possibility of you transferring an infection to the animal. Find a helper to hold your dog down while taking the tick out. This will help keep your animal from squirming away while you are trying to help it.

Before you extract the tick, treat the bite area with rubbing alcohol. Then, carefully use tweezers or a tick removal tool to grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible. Pull straight up and then put the tick in a specified container. Don't jerk or twist when trying to remove the bug, because this can twist parts of the mouth off. These teeth will then stay embedded into dog's skin. Sometimes jerking will cause the tick to regurgitate infective fluids which could cause serious medical problems for your pet in the future. The fluids may also enter your dog's system if you squeeze or crush the tick.

Despite carefully removing the pesky parasite, you may not get the entire tick out of the bite area. If your dog's skin remains red and inflamed, then you may want to take your pet to the vet. You can try to coax the mouth parts out with a warm compress, in the meantime. Keep disinfecting the area as it is healing, and wash your hands. Sterilize your removal tools and keep watch over the bite area for the next few weeks to make sure that there is no infection. If the area looks abnormal or infected, take your dog to the vet immediately for professional help.