A Bavarian-styled Winter Wonderland & Aggression-shaming

Markus standing outside The Danish Bakery of a pretzel filled Christmas tree in Leavenworth, Washington

Raising Markus is the series where we share stories about our time raising Markus. Said to be aggressive and having gone unadopted for over a year, Raising Markus is the story of a rescued dog from Korea given a second opportunity, now in Vancouver, Canada. This series will include the lessons, joys and struggles of dog owners fumbling our way through our first adoption. The hope is that if you're considering rescuing a dog of your own, our stories are useful to you.

It's been quite a while since we've had one of these updates and we've done quite a few things in between that time. We took a trip out to Leavenworth in Washington, which was absolutely amazing and we had a great time along with the great food. In between the holidays, we had some harder moments with Markus and other dogs at a dog park that we wanted to talk about.

Leavenworth

Markus standing on the snow-dusted the streets of Leavenworth, Washington

If you live in the Pacific Northwest (or even if you're not) and haven't heard of Leavenworth, then you're in for a treat! For families who are looking for a getaway, Leavenworth is a fun destination and touristy spot without having to go all the way to Europe for the experience.

The feeling of driving into Leavenworth was surreal. From Western Washington, you drive through some bigger cities and towns, and once you're more or less through the Cascade Mountains, you emerge into the Bavarian-styled wonderland of Leavenworth. It's an escape that's not only a ton of fun for the family, but delicious with their Bavarian and German-styled foods and beers.

Around the Leavenworth area, there were also some parks that we visited with Markus and you can read about that entire trip here.

My Thoughts on Aggression-Shaming

Our training with Markus took a hard turn this past weekend when we went took him to an off-leash dog park. It's one of those moments that you fear as an owner of a reactive dog because you never know how far it goes. Especially considering we've only been with Markus for less than half of his life at this point, there are things about him that we don't know simply because we weren't there.

It was a regular, nice day out and we decided to take Markus out for a walk at McDonald Beach. It's an off-leash park, so we did the usual thing of leading Markus into the off-leash area before we let him off. We've been to this park quite a few times now and as he always is, he's fine in the beginning stretch of the walk. It's usually not until we hit the beach area where the other dogs are playing that it starts to get unpredictable.

The dogs on beach must have seen Markus because in that moment, a group of 4 or 5 dogs rushed toward him and crowded around him, each trying to sniff his butt and he didn't respond well to that. In a snap moment, he growled and lunged at a dog and since he was already off-leash, he was able to pin a dog down, but we were able to pull him off from his harness pretty quickly.

The moment itself was fast, but what made matters worse was that the owner of the other dog started screaming that her dog was hurt. As owners of the aggressor, we stuck around and asked the owner to check her dog, but she wasn't able to get the dog in control long enough to even check. Her dog wanted to just keep running and playing with the other dogs. It didn't appear to us that anything had happened aside from the fact that her dog got pinned.

Since Markus was triggered, we leashed him up just to be safe, but we could already hear the lady throwing around the word that he's aggressive. She was not so subtly hinting that he shouldn't be off-leash even though nothing had happened aside from her dog being pinned. 

Having been Markus' owners for over two years, he's never shown the propensity for biting another dog. Not even close. I can be careful and acknowledge that he's spent three years of his life where we simply don't know what type of dog he was, but I cannot act and discipline him for being an aggressive dog if I haven't seen it myself. But it appears that other owners are able to?

These are tough moments that we don't look forward to. As owners of a reactive dog, we're hyper aware of it. It's also a hard position to be in because on the one end, Markus needs exposure to other dogs in new situations. On the other end, something like this can happen where other dog owners aren't just uncomfortable, but actively pointing fingers and throwing the word aggressive around. When that happens, it feels like all eyes are watching and we no longer feel welcome.

To us, Markus has made incredible strides and has progressed so much in his training, but something like this happens and it's tough on us. You're discouraged as an owner, but it makes you wonder if there's a side to him we've yet to see.

I know that the situation was exacerbated by the fact that the other owner perhaps overreacted, but the way Markus was quickly singled out as the aggressive dog there made it so difficult for us. As his owners, we're left wondering - do we keep up with his training and taking him to dog parks or do we stop out of discomfort from both ourselves and other owners?

In our view, Markus is a reactive dog that responded when a group of dogs tried to sniff him all at once, but others won't see it that way. Other owners don't know how that he was a rescued dog, said to be aggressive, was adopted here in North America and hasn't had any issues in two years of visiting dog parks and this exact beach. Other owners can be quick to shame, point fingers and openly call out other dogs for being aggressive and that's, perhaps, the hardest part for me.

We're not going to stop training Markus and bringing him to off-leash parks because of one incident. His track record so far tells us that he can be better than this and frankly, other dog owners don't know enough to pass judgement like that. But I'd be lying if I said I'm not worried about the next time he goes to an off-leash park.

My hope for all those who are reading this is that we need to respond to the situation appropriately rather than sweepingly casting judgement on dogs who appear aggressive because we simply don't know. Yes, dogs can be vicious and if the dog is actively attacking and biting, then yes, absolutely something needs to be done. If something happens and the owners act as though they don't care, something needs to be said.

In our case, Markus pinned another dog down and stood over it, and the owner beat over our heads that he was aggressive. And when that word is thrown around, then other dog owners' ears perk up and suddenly they're watching us and our dog with their fingers ready to point as if he was.

Let me tell you this - most owners of aggressive dogs know their dogs are aggressive or reactive. There's really no point in trying to hammer that home and singling them out for it. Similar to us, a lot of them could be trying to train their dogs and taking them to a dog park is already uncomfortable, but necessary. 

When it comes to dogs, things can go out of our control quickly. Especially when a dog is reactive, moments sometimes boil over a bit faster than usual. All I'm asking is that if an incident happens and as hard as it might be in that moment, read the situation and how the other owners are responding and respond appropriately. If the situation warrants a louder response, then yes, absolutely we have to respond.

But I'm hoping that as collective group of dog owners, we can learn to respond with empathy and patience and not be quick to aggression-shame because we simply don't know what the other owners and dogs are going through.

We’re so grateful for your support of The Markus Project. We mostly choose our locations through searching and word of mouth. If you know of a park, trail or location you think we should check out, please share it with us. We’d love to know!