Stupid dog and her obsession with fly catching.

Tropez

My youngest has developed this quite irritating habit of trying to attack flies. Silly girl doesn't realise the reason most of her attempts are an abject failure is because the fly's vision allows it to see her clumsy form coming.

Anyway, I've kinda let this slide but last night a fly landed on my arm and the daft dog went for it only to bite me so now I am sporting a lovely puncture wound and bruised arm.

Unfortunately, due to there being quite a lot of farmland nearby flies are quite common around here and the odd one or two get into the house. The other three tend to leave them alone, only going for them if the fly enters their personal space... but young 'un seems to believe that nothing but all out warfare is an appropriate response. So anyone got any good tips on getting her to leave them alone? I have a couple of those fly traps up but I'm not spraying insecticide in the house. Maybe I should get a Venus Fly Trap?

krlyr

How about flyscreens on the windows and doors?

Tropez

krlyr wrote: »

How about flyscreens on the windows and doors?

I have fly screens on the windows. The flies get into the house when I open them to either let the dogs out or go outside myself.

zaksmum

My dog Jack's even more stupid. He can't tell the difference between a fly and a wasp...!!

He had a very sore mouth for a while.

Dollardog

Venus fly traps wouldn't help you. If they catch a fly, they close and it takes ages for them to digest it and open up again.
What about the sticky pad things that you hang up, they don't look attractive but they are effective.

Tropez

zaksmum wrote: »

My dog Jack's even more stupid. He can't tell the difference between a fly and a wasp...!!

He had a very sore mouth for a while.

I kill wasps on sight. Lost a dog to an allergic reaction to a wasp sting when I was a teenager.

krlyr

Tropez wrote: »

I have fly screens on the windows. The flies get into the house when I open them to either let the dogs out or go outside myself.

We keep a voile curtain across the back door on a spring loaded net curtain pole, doesn't stop the flies completely as the wind can blow it aside but it has cut down the numbers hugely! The dogs know to duck under it to get past so I leave it pulled across the doorway if I need the door left open for some fresh air.

(also keep a stash of Piriton to hand to administer for wasp stings - handy the other week when I found Casper sniffing at a dying, wasp and OH wasn't sure if he'd snapped it out of the air or not so chucked a Piriton in his gob just incase! Monitored him closely and no problems, but the Piriton can be very handy to buy some time to get a dog to the vets if they do react)

Tropez

Dollardog wrote: »

Venus fly traps wouldn't help you. If they catch a fly, they close and it takes ages for them to digest it and open up again.
What about the sticky pad things that you hang up, they don't look attractive but they are effective.

I have those sticky pad things and they don't work too well for me. They catch the tiny ones and some small moths but the bigger flies seem quite capable of avoiding them and those are the ones the dog is obsessed by.

If anything, all the sticky pads have done is moved in a couple of spiders who have been using them for snacks.

Tropez

krlyr wrote: »

We keep a voile curtain across the back door on a spring loaded net curtain pole, doesn't stop the flies completely as the wind can blow it aside but it has cut down the numbers hugely! The dogs know to duck under it to get past so I leave it pulled across the doorway if I need the door left open for some fresh air.

(also keep a stash of Piriton to hand to administer for wasp stings - handy the other week when I found Casper sniffing at a dying, wasp and OH wasn't sure if he'd snapped it out of the air or not so chucked a Piriton in his gob just incase!)

I don't leave the doors open at any time. As I say, those opportunist flying nuisances just whizz in whenever I have to open the door.

It's not too bad overall for flies. Most of them hang around the farms all day flying around cow poo, just the odd one or two a week seem to find themselves in my house tormenting my dog and hatching nefarious plans to give my dog a taste for my flesh!

Never heard of piriton but I'll ask my vet about it.

art_for_arts_sake

My dog's had a fear of all flying insects since being stung left a permanent mark on her head but it hasn't stopped her trying to catch/kill them. We have an (expensive) chain door curtain installed but it doesn't stop insects entering the house. If it's a wasp or bee I've resorted to putting her on a lead to keep her away.

krlyr

Piriton is a human product - hayfever/allergy remedy. A vet will often just write a prescription for you to go and get it from a human pharmacy (or save you the prescription fee and just tell you where to buy it and the dose to use for the animal). Piriton has been tested on animals much more thoroughly than Piriteze (the one-a-day version) so the former is better to use. Just don't tell the pharmacy it's for your dog as many will refuse to sell products if you intend to use it on an animal (unless you have a prescription)

You could leave a voile curtain across when you open the door, like I said my dogs just dart under it so there's a lot less open space for flies to whizz through than a whole open doorway.