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.

This week's updates includes the Kuranda, us running around in a tennis court, lovely door greets and the fact that we're never going to wear dark clothing again.

The Kuranda Thing

In our last update, we mentioned that Markus was tearing up his blankets and bed instead of playing with his toys. At this rate, the cost of replacing the beds was going to add up very quickly. So to get ahead of this, we did some research to see if there was an alternative for dog beds that are both comfortable, but Markus wouldn't be able to destroy.

Our research led us to a brand of beds called the Kuranda who make beds out of a material similar to PVC pipe (and there's no way a dog is chewing their way through that). The structure is raised off the ground, which creates a hammock for the dogs to sleep in the middle. The hammock is made out of a nylon material and since it's pulled pretty tightly, it's difficult and near impossible for the dog to get a hold of with their teeth.

Our bed arrived a few days ago and it took a little bit of installation, but it was easy to do. Even though the bed's a bit taller than the usual cotton bed, Markus had no difficulty getting into bed and settling. In his case, he's attached to his blanket and will settle anywhere his blanket is, so it was easy for us to put his blanket on the bed and he settled in right away.

It's only been a few days, but we find that he sleeps well on the bed. At first, we thought that maybe we had ordered one size too small, but when he had fully sprawled out, we saw that it was enough. He also has the tendency to curl up when he sleeps, so he definitely doesn't use up the entire bed at most times.

We've recently visited some doggy daycares in our area and we noticed that they use the same Kuranda beds. It makes a lot of sense since there are so many dogs in daycare and many have the tendency to destroy cotton-filled items. Even though they're pricey, we've found that the cost of replacing a regular cotton bed adds up pretty quickly.

The Tennis Court Thing

Heading into the new year, one of the things we'd love to do with Markus is take him to an off-leash park. To prepare for this, my wife and I thought that we should test his recall to see how good he is at coming back to us when we call him. We've done some training with him in the yard and he seems to do well in an enclosed space, but we wanted to try it in a larger open area.

To test Markus on his recall, we brought him to an empty tennis court. We chose the tennis court because it's fenced all the way around and we'd be able to let him off-leash. We put the collar on him, removed his leashed and let him run freely.

And boy, was he loving it.

It must've been a long time since Markus has been able to run that freely. Even at the rescue organization, when he was let out during times of the day to run around, their space was limited so it still wouldn't have been as large at this fenced area around three tennis courts. We were happy just to watch him run around and do sprints.

Focused on the task at hand, we tried to call him back a few times and we learned that day that Markus' recall was not good at all. Once he got over the initial excitement of being free to run around, he quickly turned his attention to figuring out how to escape from the tennis courts. We would call him over with treats in our hands, but his curiosity got the best of him.

This seems to happen a lot. Even as we're going out for walks, sometimes we would have a treat in our hands and call his name, but he would rather explore than respond to us. At the tennis courts, he would go around the edges of the fenced area and sniff the potential exits, looking for a way to leave. This is something we'll have to monitor when we bring him to a dog park. We'll also need to find higher value treats and keep training him with his recall.

In the tennis courts, we also tried to play fetch with Markus. In a smaller space like our home or in the yard, Markus eventually learned to bring the ball back to us as long as there was a treat involved. At the tennis court where his curiosity took over and our treats weren't high value enough, Markus was never even close to retrieving the ball. He would run after the ball, but then he'd just walk to the closest fence and start sniffing the edges again.

Picture the two of us throwing a ball back and forth to each other and calling Markus' name in high pitched tones trying to get him to bring the ball back. Instead of bringing the ball back, all he'd be doing is sniffing the edges of the tennis court trying to escape. Meanwhile, we're retrieving our own balls.

It was a silly sight and we're glad no one was there to see it.

The Front Door Greeting Thing

Why didn't anyone tell us about this!?

This is perhaps one of the best parts of being a dog owner. It's been a few weeks since Markus has been living with us and he seems to have gotten used to us too - so much so that he evidently misses us. How do we know? Look at the way he greets us when we come back home after a long day. 

We have a gate close to the front door that helps us make sure that when we open the door, Markus doesn't dart all the way out. So instead, he greets us at the gate jumping up and down with his ears back in excitement. Once we open the gate, he'll run at us and crash into our feet with his tail wagging so hard it's hitting himself in the face. That's love.

We've asked around other dog owners and we've learned that this isn't the case for everyone. Not all dogs greet their owners at the door. Lucky for us, Markus has done it without fail so far. No matter the type of day we've had, coming home to a dog that's so excited to see us just makes us forget the long day we've had.

The Dark Clothing Thing

Ever since we adopted Markus, it's become so hard for us to wear dark clothing now. The downside of him showing affection and rubbing himself on us is that we're finding that his fur sticks everywhere. Since it's blonde, it's showing up everywhere on our dark clothing. If I'm wearing dark clothing, I feel like I need to keep my distance from Markus because once he comes over and brushes up against me, it's game over.

Not wanting to look like crazy dog owners, we've tried lint rollers and those lint things with the handle that flip both ways. They work fine, but we just have to do it so often. I was pretty on top of it at first, but then I realized quickly that it's an endless task so light clothing it is.

Ahh, well. I'll trade not wearing dark clothing for the affection of a loving dog any day.

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!