Hi all! Wondering if anyone can offer any advice.
TL;DR: Dog scared of flies. What can we do to make him less anxious? We can’t just avoid flies, there are too many!
We have a little jack russell who’s generally pretty chilled out, apart from the usual (massive dogs, the door going). Calm with fireworks.
However about 5 years back we went away on holiday and our flatmate at the time looked after him. When we came back he was in our room with about 5 massive bluebottles flying round, looking traumatised. Our flatmate is an animal lover, so we do trust them, but they said he had been heading off and spending time on his own in our room by himself (bit surprising as he loves company). The flatmate had a pet rat in a cage at the time (usually covered over), don’t know if that bothered him.
Anyway, 5 years later, he’s still absolutely terrified of flies. If he sees or hears one he shakes and trembles and has recently even started panting and looking wide eyed. He’s clearly incredibly stressed and frightened by them. He will leave the room and cower in the bathroom or an upstairs bedroom by himself, sometimes keeping away for hours.
As it’s getting warm again now, there’s at least one about every day. We kill them as they pop up (sorry flies) which scares him as well.
But we would really love to address his anxiety. I have started giving him treats when we see one and praising him the same way I used to after I’d turned the vacuum off! (Well done, etc.) He’s no longer scared of the vacuum so hoping it gives him a bit of confidence that he’s done well and the fly won’t hurt him!
Any other suggestions how we can help him?