Have a serious flea problem? Before you start a flea treatment program for your dog, you’ll first have to treat your house.

Start with the places your dog sleeps, or usually goes to hang out. His bedding is simple: wash it all on “hot,” then put it through the dryer. Couch cushions and favorite spots on the carpet aren’t quite so easy, but you can start by vacuuming them.

Move on by vacuuming every surface possible: this includes your furniture, drapes, rugs and carpets. Don’t stop there — you’ll also want to vacuum your hardwood and linoleum floors, paying special attention to the cracks and crevices. Finally, run your vacuum over all your couch cushions; then lift them up and vacuum underneath.

Vacuuming is very effective for picking up fleas, and it should be one of your frequently-used strategies against them. Just be certain not to leave the fleas sitting in a vacuum bag after a session, because many of them will crawl back out. You can take care of this problem by putting the bag in the freezer for several hours, by placing it in a black plastic bag and sticking in the hot sun for the afternoon, or simply sealing it within another bag and throwing it in the trash.

You’ve made a good start. Now you can charge up your offensive action by waxing your hardwood and linoleum floors. Fleas just love carpet, but a surprising number can also lodge and start to reproduce in the cracks between your boards or the crevices between linoleum patterns. Waxing your floors will give them fewer places to hide.

Also, now that you’ve vacuumed industriously and raised the pile of the carpet (so it looks fluffy), now is the ideal time to lay down a safe drying agent that can kill the fleas even in their semi-indestructible cocoon state. Diatomaceous earth is best for this purpose, but you can also use common borax powder from the grocery store. Make sure your pets aren’t around when you’re sprinkling it, because it can get into their lungs and irritate them. Another great place to sprinkle this powder is that flea haven underneath the couch cushions.

Now you’ve done a bang-up job of treating your house (don’t forget to vacuum and sprinkle drying powder regularly), it’s time to start treating your dog.

Pyrethrin-based flea dips are safe and inexpensive way of treating your dog. Many of them can be used once a week. This is a good place to start if your dog is simply loaded with fleas. You can also spray your dog with insecticidal spray or apply powder between dips. However, there are probably more effective ways of removing your dog from the flea lifecycle.

A systemic insecticide for dogs is just what it sounds like — anti-flea medication that works internally, traveling through the bloodstream. Frontline and Revolution are two common brands of anti-flea systemics. This method is slightly more expensive, but it’s also more effective and convenient. The owner applies the medicinal drops between the shoulder blades once a month. When the dog is treated, any flea that bites it dies, which is a terrific way of disrupting the lifecycle of fleas in your home.

A third method of treating your dog is to slip on a flea collar. However, flea collars have not been shown to be terribly effective — in fact, many fleas may be happy to cavort around your dog’s tail while he’s wearing the collar. Another possible drawback to the flea collar is that it actually irritates the skin and eyes for many dogs. So if you use a flea collar on your dog, you’ll want to check his neck regularly for inflammation. In addition, you’ll want to make sure that his collar doesn’t get wet, as that will reduce its effectiveness.