The 6 things I changed so I could finally let my dog run through long grass again
By Claire Bennet · dog mum to one very muddy Australian Shepherd · 6 min read
If you saw the video of my girl rolling around in that field, you'd think she had the easiest life in the world. She does. The problem was never her. The problem was me, standing at the edge of it, doing the maths on how long she'd been in the grass and how long the tick check was going to take that night.
I did that for over a year. Every single walk. And on the days I did film her, like that one, I'd smile for the camera and then quietly dread the evening that was coming.
It took a long time, and a lot of dead ends, before the dread actually started to lift. These are the six things that, looking back, genuinely changed something for us. I'm not a vet and this isn't medical advice. It's just what I worked out, roughly in the order I worked it out.
Her favourite field. Also the one that used to ruin my evenings.
1. I learned where ticks actually wait — and it wasn't where I thought
I assumed ticks dropped out of trees or lived in woodland. They don't. They sit near the tips of long grass and low vegetation with their front legs out, waiting to grab onto whatever brushes past. It's called questing. Knee-high grass in full sun, the exact field she loves, is about as perfect as it gets for them.
Once I understood that, the panic actually got a little better — because at least I knew what I was dealing with instead of imagining ticks everywhere.
2. I stopped relying on the evening tick check alone
For a long time my whole defence was checking her on the kitchen floor every night — ears, armpits, behind the legs, the lot. And checks matter. But I was treating them like protection, when really they're just damage control. By the time I'm finding a tick, it's already on her and possibly already attached.
That was a hard thing to admit, because the nightly check was the one thing that made me feel like a responsible owner. It just wasn't actually stopping anything.
3. I decided against the chewable tablets — and I'm glad I did
At one point I almost went for the chewable tablets you give monthly. They're convenient, no question. But the more I read, the less comfortable I felt about giving her something systemic every single month, all year round.
And it wasn't only what I read. A couple of people I know told me about side effects their own dogs had after the chews — nothing I want to dramatise or claim is typical, but enough that I personally didn't want to risk it with mine. That's a personal call, and if you're considering them it's worth a proper chat with your vet. For us, I wanted something that didn't go inside her at all.
4. I found out why I was still finding ticks despite the collar she was wearing
This was the one that genuinely surprised me. She'd been wearing a well-known collar the whole time — the one the vet recommended, the one that's meant to be the gold standard. And I was still pulling ticks off her.
It turns out most of the popular collars and spot-ons work by killing the tick after it bites. The tick has to attach and start feeding for the product to do its job. The label doesn't lie — it just doesn't spell out that the bite happens first. Which explained perfectly why a dog "fully protected" could still come home with one on her.
So I wasn't doing anything wrong. I'd just bought the wrong type of thing without realising there was more than one type.
5. A friend mentioned a repellent collar — the kind that stops them before they bite
This is the one I almost ignored. A friend at the park said hers used a repellent collar instead of a kill-after-bite one. The idea is simple once you hear it: instead of waiting for the tick to bite and then killing it, it gives off a scent ticks won't climb through, so they let go before they ever reach the dog. No bite, no problem to begin with.
The one she pointed me to was a small UK brand called SweetPaws. I want to be honest here — I'm not partnered with them, I don't get anything if you buy it. I'm just telling you what worked for me. You can get a repellent collar from other places too. If you do, the thing to check is the ingredients. Mine is 100% natural — lemon eucalyptus, lavender, citronella and a few other plant oils, and that combination is what does the repelling. After deciding I didn't want anything going inside her, a collar that works purely through plant oils was exactly what I'd been looking for.
One thing that actually made me trust them: they say a natural collar lasts about two months, and that's it. No eight-month miracle claims. Anything natural simply doesn't last longer than that — so when I see a "natural" collar promising six or eight months, I now assume someone's not being straight with me. The honesty is part of why I went with them.
And I won't pretend it was overnight. It wasn't a switch from 100 ticks to zero. It got gradually quieter — fewer each week, then the odd one, then walks where I genuinely didn't find anything. That slow, steady change is what convinced me it was real and not just a good week.
This is the one I use →
6. I let her run again — and this time I was actually there for it
The real change wasn't on her. It was in my head. I can stand at the edge of that same field now and just watch her be ridiculous in the grass, without the running commentary in my brain about what I'll find later.
That's the bit I didn't expect. I thought I wanted fewer ticks. What I actually wanted was to enjoy the walk again. Turns out those were the same thing.
That's everything that helped, in order. If you've been standing at the edge of your own field doing the same maths I was, maybe one of these helps you too.
Honestly though, looking back, the repellent collar made the biggest difference of all of them. Not because the other things didn't matter — they did — but because for the first time I felt like I was actually doing something before the tick ever got to her, instead of just dealing with it after. That shift, from reacting to preventing, is what finally let me breathe again on those walks.