If your dog lie on straw, burn it once a week, as fleas harbour and propagate in the tubes of the straw.
Not otherwise in summer do the dogs, Now with the foot, now with the muzzle, when By fleas, or flies, or gadflies, they are bitten.
Fleas can live some time under water; which I have often thought only makes them bite the harder and stick the closer, when reanimated from their temporary torpidity.
I have seen animals literally worried to death by fleas, perfectly exhausted from incessant irritation, at last worn to a skeleton, and gradually extinguished by a creeping consumption.
If kept in the dwelling-house he should have a place appropriated to his night's rest; this may be an open box, or a basket, with a piece of carpet or blanket, or clean straw at the bottom: if either of the former it should be often beaten, to free it from fleas or nits, which soon infest it, and frequently washed and dried.