Millie Great Dane Pensacola, FL

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Millie is a harlequin great dane that has spent her whole life living outside birthing puppies, the life of a backyard breeder dog - and she has the battle scars to prove it. Millie was picked up as a stray by county animal control, covered in scabies, heartworm positive, infected nails, scarred neck and back, cut up legs, lick granulomas, several questionable growths on her feet, legs, neck and back, and tits that hang down to her knees. Her poor body was already a ravaged mess.

Her owners ended up surrendering her over to animal control after being captured, so that's when NWFLGDR stepped in to pull her - because she needed a lot of vet care to get her back up to health. The vet guestimated her age to be about 5-6years old, but it's obvious just by looking at her that she's been bred over... and over... and over... Nothing about her life has been easy.

Because of that, Millie tends to be a bull in a china shop. She’s had to use her big head and big body to push her way around and get what she wants. She came to us with zero manners, but she is learning. Deep down she's a sweet, loving-natured girl who is desperate for affection and attention and human interaction. She’s good with other dogs and cats too! She tends to hoard food so she needs to be supervised during feeding and/or fed separately, but she’s never known anything else but canine companionship, until now.

Millie absolutely adores her human, and can become possessive/protective of her person at times too, only with other humans. Millie needs a strong person or couple that is not going to be a pushover and let her win, because they feel sorry for her. She needs structure and discipline, as well as patience and love, in her daily routine in order to know her place and feel balanced.

Because of her abusive prior history, there are some scar areas along her back and neck that she doesn’t like being handled or touched and will snap. She’s also terrified of thunderstorms (from living outside) but not destructive. She just wants to hide.

Because of this, Millie will not be adopted to anyone with kids under age 13.

Millie has been spayed and her skin infection has been cleared up! She is currently in a foster home with two male Danes and they are all doing great together. She previously lived in foster Care with a female Dane and cats and was perfectly fine.

UPDATE/ADDITIONAL INFO 5/25/2019:
Millie has now been with the rescue for a year and has been in her current foster home for 10 months. Now that Millie has been in one home for an extended time, we’ve gotten to see more of her personality and evaluate her behavior better. Unfortunately, what we’ve seen leads us to believe she was severely beaten and abused in the half a decade she spent as a backyard breeder’s “top bitch”. While she loves humans and wants to be near them and the center of their attention, she is simultaneously anxious and scared that they are going to hurt her at any moment. It took her about 4-5 months to fully settle into her current foster home, start acting herself, and begin to trust her foster humans. When scared, Millie will snap defensively and many things can scare her (especially with new people that she doesn’t yet trust.) That being said…now that she knows us and we’ve learned what her triggers are, we haven’t had an incident with her in months. Millie has been through a LOT and is in need of very special people to be her angels. She can be the perfect dog for the right people but she is not the right dog for everyone. Millie has a very specific set of needs due to her prior abuse so read on to find out if you could be her angel.

Millie’s forever home will be quiet and laidback with a regular routine, very patient humans, and an unending supply of drool towels. So…no kids, no high-energy pets, no roommates or frequent short-term visitors – everyone living in the household needs to be a forever human. Millie’s forever human(s) will have large dog experience and be able to dole out equal parts: exercise, discipline, patience, and affection (in that order.) Millie’s perfect forever humans will have prior experience working on building trust with a seriously abused dog and want to save another.

Exercise: #mustlovewalks
At 135lbs and having not been exercised for the first 5 years of her life, it doesn’t take much to wear Millie out (we’re talking a brisk 3 block walk will put her on the couch for hours) but it helps tremendously to calm her anxious nature. While 2 or 3 short walks a day would be ideal, one longer one would suffice. Backyard-only exercise isn’t going to cut it because this big girl will stay right by your side and not work up a sweat at all. And, while she does like a good stuffy with a squeaker in it from time to time, Millie’s not really a plays-with-toys kind of dog so you’re not gonna wear her out play fetch or anything like that.

Discipline: #gottasetboundaries
It may seem at odds that we’re saying she needs discipline since she’s been beaten in the past but this is an absolute must! She’s blossomed under the tough-love, structured environment in her current foster home. Discipline looks like this: not allowing her up on the human’s bed, not allowing her in the kitchen, tucking her in at night on the couch in the living room instead of the bedroom with the other dogs and the humans, making her sit for treats (every. single. time.), making her sit for pets when she’s gotten riled up, not allowing her to ask for attention/pets when a human has food near them, not allowing her to push the other dogs out of the way to get attention from a human, not allowing her to climb up on top of or into the lap of someone who’s petting her, putting her in time out (gently) if she’s getting overly demanding about any of the above or not listening in general, making her go to her spot and sit while the dog food bowls are being filled and put in their feeding stands (and letting her skip that meal if she won’t), not coddling her when she gets unnecessarily anxious. Discipline for Millie will never include: spanking, threatening with a raised hand or stick, pounding on a surface with a rolled up magazine, etc. – these things terrify her. She has the sweetest, derpiest face and REALLY wants to be loved but, like a toddler, she pushes every boundary. Her forever human will have to be strong enough to NOT give in to the big eyes and the derp-face.

Patience: #slowbutsteadywinstherace
Millie’s angel(s) will be patient enough to deal with a giant, stubborn dog who can’t be handled in a rough manner. Danes are known for being stubborn and when you pair that with Millie’s past of not having any obedience training until rescue and being hit by her prior owners it makes getting through to her a tough job. Millie get nervous if you’re trying to “man handle” her (even just a little), you can’t ever push her into a sit or down position, grab her forcefully by the collar, or force her through a door or into a crate. She will usually follow you in or out of a door if you’re trying to move her to another room for time out and she is happy to have you put her leash on and will let you lead her on it. She will respond to a verbal sit command (eventually) and the more often she hears it from you, the quicker she is to respond (so we work on it every day – with and without treats.) When Millie is going through an anxious or overly-excited spell, we’ve found that using a low, commanding voice works best. Thunderstorms, loud noises from our surround sounds during movies, seeing someone carrying a stick-like object, and being around new people will set off Millie’s anxiety but, sometimes, she will get anxious for no apparent reason. We’ve found that either giving her a quick love and verbal affirmation followed by ignoring her or separating her into a quiet place works to calm her. Millie’s signs of anxiety: breathing heavy, drooling more, panting, in your face asking for attention more so than usual, pacing. When she’s anxious, she’s more likely to not listen and respond defensively so you can see why it will take a special person to be her person.

Affection: #couldyoubetheone
This is the easy one, Millie’s so easy to love and wants your love sooooooo bad! She loves head scratches most of all. She loves to stand in front of you while you’re sitting and get 100% of your attention while she buries her head in your lap. We are very gentle when petting Millie’s back, haunches, and ears – she is covered in scar tissue and is sensitive to hard pressures (think gentle, relaxing massage rather than Swedish). Millie also enjoys spa time with her masseuse, which is good because we bathe her bi-weekly due to the skin conditions caused by her prior life. She gets right into our guest bathroom tub and lets us spray her down with the detachable shower head, she even let’s us spray down her face if needed. Millie has requested a talkative human. She likes you to say hi when you see her (it’s only polite), tell her about your day and that you missed her and that she’s a good girl. Seriously though, she likes to be talked to…once she settled in here and started to trust us, she started thumping her tail every time she heard us talking even if it wasn’t to her. We also talk to her to wake her up when we’re about to sit down next to her on the couch or if we have to step over her so that we don’t startle her.

If you’d be interested in meeting Millie, please email the rescue at nwflgdr@gmail.com.