Can anyone help? We have a lovely female Vizsla (aged 6) who is a fantastic and well loved member of the family.

She is very well behaved and a pleasure to have around but can be a little nervous sometimes due to
thunderstorms and fireworks. Nothing unusual there but last summer she developed a fixation with flies!!!
Is this something you have come across?

She just can't settle if there is one in the room and if one lands on her when she is sitting in the garden she leaps up as if stung.
Recently this has got worse and has even stopped her sitting in her favourite place - her bed by the fire in the sitting room.
She spends a lot of time looking up around the ceiling as if looking for flies.

We thought she may have a 'floater' in her eye and have booked to see the vet. Just wondered if you had experienced or heard of similar.
All thoughts gratefully received as I hate to see my little orange dog distressed.

mine is the same if there is a fly and she always thinks they have crawled up her bottom and starts nibbling it franticaly

Any idea how to help her kick the phobia/habit? Anything you have tried. Distraction worked for a while and normally she would always rather be with us but now if she thinks flies are around she would rather be on her own.

Are you sure it's a phobia?  Mine love chasing flying things - great entertainment and a bit of protein too.  I used to worry a lot when they go for wasp/bees but they seem to have a knack of not getting stung [touch wood]. I don't encourage it but I also cannot guard them 24/7.
Just a thought - your dog may have sensitive hearing and the buzzing may set her off well before you can hear anything - her other fears are sound related too. I have a sounds CD which is supposed to help - it did a little with my collie who is scared to death of fireworks/doorbells/telephones......and is getting worse the older she gets, but has totaly confused my Elkhound.  So can't help on de-sensitisation - many here can but maybe also try a pet behaviourist before it becomes ingrained behaviour.

I have a 8 1/2 stone male dog that is scared of flies! :)
Nothing else makes my male nervous, he is a well balanced boy, but when it comes to flies, he comes running to me and looks back at where he last saw the fly!
Where as my girls who are the same breed try to catch the flies! they love to play chase with them! :)

I am not sure of the cure for this behaviour, but I feel in my males case, he is not really destressed about it, he still holds his tail, it just annoys him I think when a fly comes near :)

Why don't they get stung?  Anton has a fascination for beas and has actually retrieved one to me which was still alive in his mouth!  He dropped it at my feet and it just flew off.  It petrifies me every time  I see a bea now when he's nearby.

I have nothing to add. Just wanted to thank Tina S for the biggest laugh I've had for ages. (Sorry, dont know how to do the quote thing)

My nearly 7 month old Vizsla pup will air snap at flys he will also chase them round the garden, i think it's the noise that drives him potty! :)

One of my Rotties is scared of flies/bees/wasps etc , he disturbed a wasps nest a couple of years ago so we know why he`s scared, the other Rottie is scared of feathers! don`t know why, he see`s a feather and runs a mile, oh and he`s scared of the dark!

Thanks to you all for your comments, really helpful. I'll let you know how we get on. :-)