29/05/2026
This sweet little boy is Milo.
Milo's owner adores him, but as cute as he is, he has brought her to tears on some of their walks.
Milo barks and lunges at other dogs, traffic and anything else that worries him. His behaviour has progressively worsened over the past year.
His dedicated owner has tried lots of things to help Milo including off lead socialisation with other dogs which Milo enjoyed, but it didn't help his behaviour on walks.
As you can see from the video, Milo is a young, energetic dog. He loves his ball and loves to play.
When I went to visit Milo for a behavioural assessment, he was happy in the house and able to engage with play and treats, but as soon as we went out onto the street he was hyper alert. Treats and toys were completely ignored, as was I and his owner. It was clear that Milo was incredibly anxious and ready to kick off at anything that came near.
Anxiety doesn't always show as a dog cowering/hiding away. Some dogs try to make the scary things go away by barking and lunging at them.
During the initial assessment it also seemed that Milo had an intermittent skip on his hindleg. Little abnormalities in a dog's gait are often overlooked because dogs still run and play, but something like this is a sign of pain.
Its taken a while to get answers as to the cause of Milo's discomfort, but with the help of a physiotherapist and the vet we now know there is a problem around Milo's pelvis. Operating may not be an option, but we can now work with the vet to ensure Milo has the right pain medication and management plan to help him.
Once Milo's pain is under control he should be in a better position to learn so he can be less worried by the 'scary' things on walks.
