Hi Becky,
We use something that leaves your dog & your home chemical and odor free, and flea free as well.
We got ours at the local Tractor Supply Store. It's an electrical device that you plug into a regular wall plug outlet. Just like if it was a "Glade Plug In" air freshener. Only, there is no scent emitted into the air, but rather a high intensity "sonic sound".
At least that's what the wrapper box says that it does.
We had a very bad flea problem when we first moved here, and tried all kinds of house and carpet sprays, and nothing worked. Our first two summers here were miserable, LOL. Then about 3 years ago, we got this sonic plug in. It doesn't kill then, but does DEFINATELY deter them.
Since you have them now, like we did, first you have to take care of the source. Marty's suggestions are very good ones for bathing the dogs with. We use Dawn Dish Detergent, mild on their skin, but kills the live fleas right off. Simultaneously, plug in those sonic plug ins right off too.
Keep then bathed regularly, as you normally would. The sonic plug ins take care of the rest. Any eggs that were laid beforehand may still hatch, but THEY LEAVE, and do not stick around their short period to maturity where they inturn lay and hatch more.
On the box, there are charts for however large the square footage your home/rooms are, that will determine the size of the plug in box needed. For severely infestations, they may recommend that you use a fogger bomb initially, in addition to bathing REALLY good with "defleaer" bath of the dog (Dawn is excellent for that), but then, once any exhisting adult fleas are killed, the sonic plug ins should keep it under control from then on out.
Our house here where we are now is very small, about 800 sq ft. (I think), so we just got one "large" plug in, and it takes care of all the rooms in the whole house. It costed about $35.00. We've had ours for over 3 years now, nothing to replace or refill. Just plug it in, and there it stays.
No chemicals, odors nor sounds to the human or pets ears. The only way we can tell that it's even "here", is that it's worked all this time, in that we've not had any fleas in the house, nor on our dogs ever since that first week after having plugged it in.
Hope this helps...
EDITED:
So...as long as your dogs have no existing skin conditions, (you may want to consult with your vet first, either way), this should help....
When you bath the dog, if the fleas are really bad on the dog, shampoo into a lather really good then quickly rinse completely. Then shampoo again into a really thick lather, and let that set for about 10 minutes. You would have to set with your dog, or he'll likely much prefer to shake it all off and RUN. After about 10 minutes, then rinse really good. Also, as with most soaps though, be very careful not to get the soap in their eyes, it will irritate them.
What this does, is kill all the fleas, but there is also something in the Dawn dish soap that takes "the itch" out of their skin as well. I don't know what or how it works, but it DOES!
I even use it on myself when I get mosquito bites, or ant bites. Ant bites especially...ITCH! I just rub in a little dab onto the mosquito or ant bite, let it dry, and NO MORE ITCH.
I've used it on my horses too. Tuffy, stepped into an ant his leg was quickly covered with ants. He was stomping from frustrations of the itch and wanted so badly to rubbed his mouth to scratch with his teeth. But, I didn't want him to get a mouth full of ants, so I hosed his leg off with the water hose, and then I rubbed some Dawn all over his leg and foot (generously) then let it dry. By the time he was dry, he was no longer stomping with frustration of wanting to bite/scratch.
Hope this helps...
