I don't know about dogs and game animals, but my brother, who has just been hunting a spot for a little while says that the one time he looked on his leg, there were at least 13 ticks crawling up it. Also in the past, there were some in his hands there, and yesterday when he went in, he was about to put on his hat after attaching his treestand, and they were all in his hat! So basically he said forget this and I'm not hunting this spot until it snows. I agree with him there.