I'm in the New Forest, where we have our fair share of ticks, and I use an O'Tom tick remover.
I don't use any tick or flea preventative on my dogs, so I check them after walks and remove any that I find before they attach. Any that I miss at that stage are spotted when I groom the dogs, which I do every couple of days, or just when they're settled on the sofa with me of an evening and I'm making a fuss of them and find one. That's when the O'Tom comes into action.
William is a largely white orange roan, so it's a lot easier spotting them on him than on blue roan and tan Louis.