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.

Since our last update, allergy season's really kicked into high gear, so we're sharing some of our approaches to keep the allergies at bay. This week we also visited Granville Island and we tried raw beef with him.

Allergy Season & Pet Dander

Do you smell that in the air? That's the smell of allergy season.

For some dog owners, this time of the year is a really big deal. In an excess of research to adopt a dog, we looked up reasons why dog owners give up dogs. There were a lot of behavioural issues and we were committed to working with Markus through those, but the one that stood out to us were allergies.

We learned that a lot of dog owners who have had to give their dogs did so because their allergies got so bad that it affected their health. This was a question that we couldn't answer during the adoption process until Markus was living in our space. The alternative was that we could have adopted a hypoallergenic dog, but that really limited our options.

I had seasonal allergies growing up. It was so seasonal that it didn't show up on certain months of the year. My allergies would flare up some years and then I wouldn't get anything for a few years in between. As I grew older, the allergies seem to have lessened in severity, so that was why we felt comfortable adopting Markus. Still, it was in the back of our minds as a possibility.

During that time, we did quite a bit of research on keeping allergies at bay with a dog and we learned a few things that we wanted to share with you. If your allergic reactions are super sensitive, this post isn't going to help you too much. But if you think your allergies aren't as severe and want to do try a few things to keep it at bay, then this is for you.

The Pet Dander thing

The first thing you need to know is that allergies go beyond the fur. While it's important to keep a vacuum going, it's even more important to keep an air purifier running. If you find you're sneezing because of a dog, it's likely due to pet dander more than the dog's fur.

Pet dander is this tiny, even microscopic, flecks of skin like dandruff, but even smaller. Pet dander exists in the air and even if you're actively vacuuming up the fur, it's unlikely for vacuums to pick up the pet dander. In fact, a running vacuum can disturb the peace and stir more pet dander into the air.

For the vacuum, we recommend looking for one with the proper HEPA filters. These are the types of filters that are built to target smaller fine particles in the air such as pet dander. But a vacuum sucking up the fur alone likely isn't going to be enough.

Our recommendation, then, is to pick up an air purifier and run it in the house as often as you can. An air purifier is made to target small particles like pet dander and it can be left on for long amounts of time. They run the stagnant air in the home through a series of filters and circulates cleaner air on the other end. An air purifier has been a difference maker for us and one that we use is the GermGuardian Air Purifier.

Visiting Granville Island

We also brought Markus to Granville Island this week. Granville Island is one of those popular tourist spots that people love to visit when they come to Vancouver. We've found that Granville Island is a great place to visit when it's cherry blossom season and we always try to find a way to make it out. We wanted to visit Granville Island with Markus during cherry blossom season, so that's what we did this week.

Granville Island is also known for so many other things like all the food, the views, their fresh seafood, the fruits and vegetable markets and small shops throughout the island. There's a reason why tourists and locals love to come here and spend an afternoon!

You can read all about our visit to Granville Island and what we normally like to do!

The Beef Diet

At the beginning of the year, we switched Markus over to a raw food diet - specifically chicken, bone and vegetable. And it's been really good where Markus hasn't missed a single meal and he's finished every bowl that we've given him. But since we don't want Markus to only have chicken for the rest of his life, we're going to mess with a good thing.

We wanted to try him on other proteins, so we went by CRUDO to see what else they had. Rather than buying an entire 44lb box, we picked up a prepacked bag of 10 tubes of the Beef & Vegetables. Ten tubes of their raw meat will last us just over two weeks, so that'll give us a good sample size to see if Markus likes it or if there are any allergies.

We switched the food over a weekend, just so we could be there when he's having it for the first time. For the first few days, we noticed he was a little bit more suspicious and slower to eat the food, but he was still finishing the entire bowl. We thought, okay great, maybe he's just warming up to it and he'll eventually like it as much as the chicken.

Nope.

On the third day, Markus ate maybe half of the food and left the rest in his bowl and walked away. It was weird - for the first time, Markus didn't want his raw meat. We were left thinking, so what do we do now? He's already touched the food. Can we keep it for next? Do we keep it out and let him eventually come back to finish it? Is that food safe!?

In the end, we threw out the rest of that meal. Markus didn't want it anymore. But a bigger problem was that we still had maybe another 8 tubes of the beef to get through, so how are going to do with it if he doesn't like it?

We ended up mixing the rest of the raw beef 50/50 with raw chicken and we were able to get through the rest of the beef after nearly another month. We're glad we didn't have to waste the rest of the beef and now we're back on the chicken. Good thing we didn't buy an entire box!

The next time we visit CRUDO, we'll pick up yet another protein and we hope to find one that Markus likes enough to eat long term. For now, we're thinking probably turkey or duck, but those tend to be a lot more expensive. 

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!