I know, I seem to have noticed the same thing this past summer and even still, there are still ticks! The vet said that ticks were extremely bad this past year. She gave me (well, I bought two and got one free) a flea/tick collar like that called Preventive (or preventix) something like that. It was $15 from my vet office.
There is always one that I found at my local vet supply store and it is at
http://www.petedge.com - it is cheaper, like $6-7, it is called Zema Tick Detach.
Those have seemed to work okay, and they last 3 months, but I still notice ticks. I just don't know what to do. I do not use the collar on Mojo, just the three big outside dogs.
We used Heartguard w/ our Shihtzu, but this vet doesn't carry it. I remember that our Shihtzu (Buddy) actually liked to take it because it was in a form of a treat - the Intercepter is a very small pill, but we put it in a treat or boiled chicken for Mojo and the big dogs.
There is something new all Natural Defense that is a once a month topical for fleas/ticks/misquitoes and it is only $9.99 - it is always at
http://www.petedge.com. I wonder if it is better?
Does anyone have any household tricks that they use for the ticks/fleas/misquitoes?