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.

Okay it's a little bit early, but we're doing our Christmas post already. This week, Markus met Santa Paws, we share his Christmas wish list of his favourite things and he gets a new mean friend.

Meeting Santa Paws

We brought Markus in to meet Santa Paws for the first time. The PetSmart in our area had a Santa in for photoshoot on Saturday and we went to line up for it. It's a nice and free event that they put together. We were a little nervous bringing in Markus because he's not good in confined spaces and we figured we'd have to stand in line to wait for Santa. In the end, this ended up not mattering because we lucked out. There was only one dog in line when we got there and they were already up!

I like what they did with the space. They had a dedicated area that was closed off and only a family of dogs could be in at a time. Santa was sitting on the end with photographers there to take the photos for you. Their Santa was pretty good with dogs, although he did try to pick up Markus and he wasn't having it. Markus hates to be picked up. He actually became suspicious of Santa for trying to pick him up, but since we just wanted a quick photo, we just asked him to hold onto the leash and Markus sat by his feet.

Do Christmas wishes still count if you're not sitting on Santa's lap?

Markus' Christmas Wish List

We wanted to change things up a bit on this update. We wanted to pretend we were in Markus' mind and imagine what he would have on his Christmas Wish List if we had the choice. Without further ado, here is Markus' Top 5 Items on his Wish List:

5. Tendon Chews

Markus loves his tendon chews and whenever we give him one of these treats, he'll carry them to his bed and play with it. It's incredibly cute to watch the pure excitement he gets from receiving one of these where he'll take the chew and bury it in his blanket before finally going to work on them.

We love giving Markus the treat because it's a good workout for his teeth. Aside from the strengthening from chewing, the constant abrasion from chewing the tendon helps to clean his teeth a little bit too. Markus likes to use his back teeth, so it really get back there. The tendon has also become our go-to when we need a distraction since it takes Markus longer to finish it.

Here in Vancouver, there's a Canadian brand called Puppy Love Pet Products that we usually get for Markus. We like getting the Beef Tendon Bits because they come in smaller pieces and at a reasonable cost. They're also single-ingredient with no preservatives or additives and you can't go wrong with that.

4. Another Blanket

Markus isn't getting another blanket, but I'm sure he'd like one. He's always played well with his blankets - so much so that it's taken him a little bit longer to learn to play with his actual dog toys. His form of play is to thrash the blanket around and start tearing holes and ripping it apart. For the sake of not having to constantly replace his blankets, we've been warming him up to dog toys.

We realized from his adoption photos that the only other thing that Markus had with him in his cage was his blanket. In the photos, you can see the blanket in his cage, so he likely learned to just play with that during his time at the shelter. Now living an adopted life, he seems to have kept that behaviour and he'll still gravitate towards his blankets when he plays. He's starting to appreciate dog toys more, but blankets are still his first love.

3. Naked Beasts Snacks

We wrote about receiving our first Naked Beasts order about a month ago and since then, they have shot up the charts on Markus' list of favourite things. Naked Beasts specializes in dehydrated whole prey snacks. Whether it be full quails, chicken or duck feet, whole sardines, rabbit legs, duck heads or an assortment of seafood, Naked Beasts is not only delicious, but healthy for your dog.

Their products go through a long dehydration process that preserves the essential vitamins and minerals so that it's passed on to your dog. Dehydration ensures that they get the benefit of keeping the food longer without having to use preservatives or additives. The process also makes things like the bones and nails of the whole prey very brittle so that it's safe for your dog to eat and it gives them nutrients they wouldn't normally get.

Even though he's a picky eater, Markus loves his treats from Naked Beasts. In fact, these are the treats he's holding out!

2. Bone Marrow Treats

Earlier this year, we wrote about Markus developing a bad behaviour of resource guarding. The resource that he was guarding was a piece of bone marrow. It was the first time we had seen Markus exhibit that behaviour, which is another way of saying he really likes the treat. The bone marrow is usually from the femur of animal (the leg bone.. which is attached to the.. hip bone.)

These bones usually come in 2-3 inch blocks and the thing that dogs love about them is the marrow inside. Bone marrow is often a delicacy for humans and dogs love them just the same. We usually give the marrow to Markus in a frozen form and he licks the marrow out of the bone like it's ice cream.

A little bonus that comes with the bone marrow is it might also come with meat still stuck on the bone. This will depend on how cleanly the meat was removed from the bone, but your dog will appreciate the extra protein. The act of trying to scrape the meat off the bone is also good for cleaning a dog's teeth naturally. 

You can purchase these bones at the frozen section of the pet store or some butchers can supply them for you as well. Just be sure to give it to them raw because cooked bones are not safe!

1. The Pizzle

We were introduced to the pizzle last year when Markus got one as a gift. Since we hadn't gotten one of these before, we didn't know what to do with it, so we gave the whole thing to Markus - the whole 2 feet. We realized within a few minutes that the pizzle was a chew, so to his disappointment, we took it back and cut it down to 4-inch single servings instead.

Dogs go crazy for pizzles. If you're unfamiliar with them, they are also known as bully sticks and if you're still unfamiliar with it, they're dried bull penises. If you're unfamiliar with that, I can't help you.

It goes without saying that they smell pretty bad, which is probably the same reason why dogs love them so much. You can purchase these in pre-cut individual sticks or bundles. To really save on cost, you can buy a full pizzle and trim them down yourself (though I should mention they're really tough to trim down and you might actually need a saw.)

Just be sure to watch your dog if they're working through one!

You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

Earlier this year, we subscribed to the BarkBox subscription box for dog toys and treats. These boxes usually come once a month and they're filled with themed treats and toys that are as much fun for humans as they are for dogs. For Christmas, we made a special order outside of our usual monthly box.

In keeping with the Christmas spirit (or not), BarkBox had a special Grinch toy! Since How the Grinch Stole Christmas was one of my favourite books and movie (the 20-minute cartoon one - sorry, Jim Carrey fans) growing up, we picked one up for Markus from BarkBox because it was so darn cute.

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!