Milo

Want to know what life with Milo is like? We asked his foster!

When I’m done saying everything I have to say about Milo, you might question my promise that he’s an “easy” dog. But he is. He is easy to walk, easy to feed, easy to pill, easy to leave alone in the house, easy to cuddle with, easy to play with, easy to trust with the cat, easy to love. He’s also anxious, and really needs his medications to get through the day to day. But as long as you can promise to provide him that much, he promises in return that he will provide the absolute best sessions of tug-of-war, cuddle on you until your legs are numb, sleep by your side every night, and always be the best, most relaxed walking buddy.

And don’t worry about giving him those medications: Milo is the easiest patient you ever saw. He takes pills like they’re treats. Anxiety medications actually give him more energy than not – they make him not shut down in fear. Without them, he’ll spend hours curled into a tight ball on his dog bed, refusing to eat. Without them, he’ll flinch and cower when you raise a hand or object in his vicinity. He’ll even flinch at bully sticks. We don’t know if his anxiety is genetic or trauma based. But with his medications, he’s able to open up and become your happy, playful pal. The medications don’t “fix” him – but they level him out enough to balance whatever messed up his brain.

On walks, he ambles nicely along, sniffing every five feet of pavement, his tail wagging slowly as he lumbers down the street. He is happy to meet other dogs, trading friendly butt-sniffs and occasional play-bows. He would love to greet every person on the walk, too, but he’s great about not approaching if you tell him no.

He lives with our cat, to whom he is a polite and respectful roommate. Milo would love to be friends, but our cat is cranky and boxed his ears early to let him know his place. He’s never chased or barked at our cat, and two can often be seen sharing the same space, or sitting in our laps on the couch at the same time. (Yes, Milo is 65 pounds, yes, he thinks he fits in a lap.)

When we leave the house for long stretches at a time, Milo is totally fine. We watch him through the pet cam and he’s never destructive. We live in a townhome and have never gotten noise complaints. He usually whines sadly for a few minutes, and then goes back to sleep, same as he would if we were home. But when we get back, he greets us with his favorite toy in his mouth, wriggling so hard that we wonder if his tail will fall off. We usually play a round of his favorite games: tug-of-war, Look At My Toy, no-take-only-throw, and so on.

Here’s another part of his anxiety: he sometimes becomes afraid that his food will get taken away from him. This is a dog that takes treats SO gently from your hands. But he might growl if a person or animal tries to get in close when he’s eating meals. That’s a couple minutes, twice a day, when you should supervise him. But otherwise, he doesn’t counter-surf or go looking for food. If you’re eating a banana in front of him, he’ll sit and give you his best puppy eyes, but he won’t be anything but polite in asking for it.

To learn more about Milo or meet him, please contact his foster at Dimitri.j.wolff@gmail.com and they will reply to you within 24-48 hours.