thanks for all of the advise. SHe has very short hair so I'm hoping by just me petting her a little more closely will let me see if she has one. Lyme disease is very bad where I live and there are ticks all over the place. Does anyone know if a flea comb on a very short haired dog would help at all? I was thinking about running a flea comb through her after every walk we go on (we walk along a wooded path). i would assume the fleas wouldn't attached completely after a walk?

Petting her or flea comb should help you find ticks on smooth coated dogs easily. But, obviously, you need to go slowly and stop if you come across an 'lump' as it could be an attached tick and you don't want to rip it apart.

As for smearing with vaseline or alcohol - apparently that makes the tick regurgitate into your dog's blood stream. I would rather use O'Tom tick remover - very easy and safe way to remove the little *uckers.

There are four stages to tick removal:-
1) When the tick is still crawling around on the fur pick it off with your fingers and place on a metal surface, then place another metal surface on top and press, you will hear a 'click' when it is crushed, nothing else but metal will do, wood, plastic, etc are far too soft.

2) When they have just biten the dog and still tiny they are most difficult to remove, I can do it if my finger nails are long enough.

3) After about an hour they are bigger and it's at this stage when the various tools can be used, I've found they are not much use before this.

4) After about two or three hours they are the size of a pea and will drop off, or you can easily pick them off, but rather than crush them (Blood flies everywhere ) I burn them or put them in the waste bin.

I have O'Tom tick removers but find them impossible to use. I also have a couple of these:

http://www.misotrading.co.uk/

which I find a lot easier, although as Pereg is treated monthly with Frontline Plus it is very rare that I have ever found a tick on her. When I have it has been the Trix which has been the only one I can manage to use.

Yes, I was just making the point that some tools work and some don't but IMO none of them work when the tick has just biten the dog and is still tiny.

I haven't tried the Trix, maybe I'll get one of those one day, thanks for the suggestion.

I didn't know that, Muddymoodymoo! Thank you. I've never used this method myself-- well, once, in my youthful stupidity, when my boyfriend's cat came in with a tick and we couldn't find any rubbing alcohol so we raided the liquor cabinet and used gin (I know... that's pretty sad, isn't it? We were stealing dad's alcohol not to drink it, but to try to de-tick the cat)...

I did once find a tick on my dog about a quarter of the way bloated. It was just on his side, so I called a friend who is a vet nurse. She said I might be able to remove it if I could grasp it by the head with tweezers, and turn it-- this is important-- counter-clockwise. Apparently their jaws are such that they dig in in a rotational sort of way and you're more likely to break the head off if you twist the wrong way. I did as she said, and it did come out-- took a magnifying glass to the thing's head to make sure I got it all.

If you're not confident or if the tick is in a sensitive spot, it's probably best to let a professional do it. My vets don't even charge for this.

I hate the things and living out in the countryside we get a fair amount, I use advantix which seems to work well on my lot but I do use the little O'TOM tick removers when they do get them, Ive used them for years and have never come across anything that works better, this shows how it works.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xe1...twiste_animals

I know how they work - I just do not have the dexterity to use them though. Luckily Pereg so rarely gets one and I was lucky enough to have someone send me a couple of the Trix tick removers.