Arava Flea and Tick Collar for Dogs & Puppies - Natural Flea and Tick Prevention for Dogs - 22" Length - 11 Natural Active Ingredients - Safe for Babies & Pets - Enhanced Control & Defense

As a lot of reviews say, this thing smells really strong. We happen to like the mix of essential oils... They kind of smell good to us! It really comes down to effectiveness, which I can say the following.Four years ago, we moved to a rural area with 9 acres of deer filled swampy wetlands in an epicenter of tick concentration in the NYC tri state area. We blazed trails to take walks, and now we spend a lot of time in the woods behind our house. Within the first year, we found ticks on him... Usually dead. He was on AdvantixII at the time. Nonetheless, he tested positive for Lyme during a routine vet appointment. He showed no symptoms, and didn't tolerate the treatment (doxycycline). Our vet said it is not a big deal, lots of dogs can carry Lyme for life and never show symptoms... So we just check his liver and kidney function once a year.It makes for an interesting conundrum - does our dog even need tick treatment anymore? He's always positive for Lyme now. We just wanted to keep the number of ticks on him low to zero so he didn't track them into the house to bother us. So we stopped paying big money for simparica trio, and now only her heart guard from the vet. For fleas and ticks, we get this collar twice a year and some cheap topical tick stuff once a month.Since doing that, I can't recall the last time we found a tick on him or on us. It's been years. So in that regard, I think it's worked well. The dog tolerates it mostly well; he does rub his face a LOT for the first few days after putting a new collar on... Kind of like that move dogs do even they want to rub in something smelly. I think it's a strong smell and it's right near his face/nose, so it might bug him a little bit - but it seems to work and he doesn't mind it much after those first few days. We like the smell, don't see any ticks, and the dog doesn't hate it...so we'll keep using it.

I really wanted to love this, I use sprays on my dog but wanted something that didn't reek of peppermint (it doesn't) and smelled somewhat decent (it does) for ticks for my active big dog.I've had this for under 3 months.During that time I had to be careful where she was laying as there's essential oils that aren't good for cats and this leaves oils behind, which was either taking this collar off in the house or covering every single spot she laid this on, which is a lot as the cats, the dog, and I are often in the same room and they cuddle. I had to air out the collar as it gave my one cat an asthma attack the first half hour the dog had it on.She had a tick within a week and another the week I took it off just 2 months later, which is 2 months shy of the promised 4 months, halfway!! Ridiculous!! I wasn't using the sprays as I got this to stop using those. One was right near her collar getting quite fat! I live in an urban area without a lot of ticks and we didn't go in any wooded areas or anything, she doesn't swim, we don't walk in the rain, etc... no reason this shouldn't have lasted the promised 4 months, no reason it shouldn't have worked either! I haven't found a tick on a dog in at least 15 years so to find 2 in 2 months WITH a tick collar on means it's junk. So annoyed I wasted $30 on this (which I wouldn't mind if it worked and lasted 4 months, $7.50/month is acceptable to me, $30 for zero protection is a waste).

I've ordered two for use through the summer. My dog had a severe reaction to the pesticides in two of the most popular Flea/Tick topical solutions. I won't name them as it's a long story with the bottom line being one of my dogs almost died because of these pesticides. I stopped using a lot of the prevention meds and my dogs bloodwork bounced to perfectly normal. I've had her off of all meds for about 1 year and i was worried about flea / tick prevention...so i waited, and waited, until May of this year when i had to dig a tick off of her. I decided i couldn't do that all summer long so bought a Arava collar. I've purchased only two all summer and haven't found a tick on her yet. They do state it's only a preventive so i do check her for Ticks every few days. So far so good - we live in Virginia so have an abundance of Ticks in the area. Also - i thought i might have an issue with the herbal smell of the collar. Straight out of the vacuum package it is a little strong but the smell dissipates over the course of the next day. My dogs fur around the neck was a little oily the first time she used it but again it dissipated and didn't cause any discomfort of irritation to my dog. The smell isn't even noticeable to me anymore unless i really put my face up to her neck. I'll be purchasing these from now on and may even switch my other dog who doesn't have any allergies that i know of to topical solutions over to Arava. Remember though - it's only a preventive it won't kill a tick that digs in so check your dogs periodically. Purchase a tick removal kit as well - they're pretty cheap and they work great.