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 is about us trying to socialize Markus more by going to parks, some major news on Acana dog food and the lawsuit they’re facing, we purchased a long leash for Markus and our first time using it and teaching him the wait command.

Socializing with dogs

Since bringing Markus to doggy training and having taken him off-leash a handful of times, we've gained more confidence taking him to new dog parks to keep exposing him to other dogs. It’s important to us that he consistently meets new dogs so that he can learn how the other dogs interact and play with each other. As an almost 4 year old dog, Markus had developed some bad habits during his time at the rescue organization and we've seen glimpses of the aggressive dog that we were warned about. Although it can be stressful since we’re constantly on the lookout and even embarrassing at times, we are choosing to keep socializing him so that he can learn to play with other dogs.

If your dog is reactive and you see signs of hope, keep working with them. If they're not great in large groups, work up to it. Make dog friends and explain your situation to them. For those who are comfortable, go out with them in smaller groups until they’re familiar with each other and then slowly build the group up from there. Then as a group with familiar dogs, go to parks together. At least your dog will have friends they’re comfortable with and you have other eyes to help you watch. 

Don't be discouraged. I get it. In that instant when your dog goes at another dog, it’s frantic and it's scary because you don't want your dog to potentially hurt another dog. Dogs act out when they're no longer in control of the situation or feel threatened and want to regain things back to their terms. It is important, then, for us to control the environment for them by removing variables that make your dog uncomfortable and surrounding them with things they’re okay with. Then but by bit, we can introduce new variables in a way that's not overwhelming for your dog.

But keep working at it. The important thing here is consistency. Don’t stop bringing your dog to the park after an incident because you’re discouraged, but think about the long-term gain. We’re inconveniencing ourselves today to control a setting by taking little steps so that our dogs can eventually feel comfortable running around and playing with other dogs. This is a skill that needs to be developed, but it's really about our commitment as the owners as well.

At our stage, we've made some new dog friends with Markus this year already. We've learned that he doesn’t like to be crowded. When we enter a dog park and he's rushed or crowded as soon as we go in, he become uncomfortable extremely quickly to the point of growling and barking. To control this situation for him, we actively wait outside and only enter when the rest of the dogs aren't crowding the door. By doing something as little as this, Markus gets to enter the park on his own terms and meet the other dogs in a controlled environment.

We also need to be observant. There’s no one size fits all solution for dogs and what makes them comfortable, but if your dog is reactive, watch for the things that make them react in the first place, minimize and them slowly reintroduce their exposure. What makes them tick? Is it being rushed at the door? Is it how aggressively other dogs try to smell them? Is it a specific dog breed? Look for the signs. And sometimes it’s out of our control - there’s a lot that goes on in a dog park - but there’s also a lot we can do to help our furry friends out.

And if it doesn’t work, then don’t push it. Just like humans, not all dogs like having the company. Some really would rather be alone and if that’s the case, then we need to listen to them as well.

Acana's Lawsuit + Trialing Valens

You may have heard about the class action lawsuit filed against Orijen/Acana. The lawsuit claims that their foods contain levels of "arsenic, mercury, lead, cadmium" in their foods that's "known to pose health risks to humans and animals, including dogs." The lawsuit was filed in the US and we have different manufacturers here in Canada, so it's worth noting that there's nothing filed here so far. For our American readers, understand that there's nothing proven yet, but it is worth being careful anyhow.

If your dog is currently on Orijen or Acana, I encourage you to find the lawsuit and give it a read. It could be helpful to understand what the claims are and the types of symptoms these dog owners are seeing just in case. It’s also helpful to understand the ingredients that are being discussed and the risks they pose to be better informed when you’re looking around at other dog foods as well.

Although there are no known risks with Acana in Canada, it seemed like a good time for us to try something different since Markus hardly ever finishes his bowl to begin with. At My Fluffy Friend where we bring Markus for doggy training, they’ve been handing out samples of a brand of dog food called Valens. Priced roughly the same as Acana, Valens seems to put a lot of care into their dog food products and they are a family-owned business in Canada. You can visit their website to read about their process and all the things they put into selecting ingredients and how its made to provide the best product for your dog. 

We tried Markus with three different samples: the Fisher (salmon and cod), the Farmer (chicken and turkey), and their Small Breed (turkey and salmon). For each of these, Markus ate them as if they were his treats. He seemed to prefer them in that order, so we picked up an entire big bag so he can start having it as his meal full time. I'm not sure if he really liked them or if it was just something new, but he seemed to like it more than what he was previously eating, so we’ll find out soon enough if he can have it full time.

You’d think we were at a Costco with the way we fell victim to these samples. 

Playing with the long-leash

Our order for a 50-foot long leash for Markus finally arrived. We like seeing when Markus has room to room, but the nearest off-leash parks are still a bit far for us. There's a park right in our area, so we wanted to see if we could bring Markus there with a long leash to let him run around.

From our first time using the long leash with Markus, we’ve already learned a few things. First, it's important to establish the boundaries to make sure that your dog understands that they're still leashed up and not just fully off-leash. If they start thinking they're completely unleashed, they could take off in a full sprint only to discover that they’re in fact still leashed up. This is crucial depending on where the leash is attached to (like a collar around the neck, for example) and whether you’re still holding the other end or if it’s tied to something like a tree. See where it gets dangerous?

What you want to do is to hold the long leash and slowly let more out. That way, the dog understands that they're still leashed up, but slowly expand the area until you've established an area for the dog to play. If your dog runs a lot, you might want to also hold onto the leash as well, as opposed to tying it to something. That way if your dog takes off, you can be the one to slowly apply more tension on the leash to slow them down as opposed to the dog trying to go against a tree.

Markus took off in a straight line after thinking he was unleashed and the other end was tied to a tree, but luckily we were still holding onto the leash so we slowed him down before anything could happen. He’s also in a harness with the clip attached to his back. Nothing happened, but I can see the potential for all the wrong things aligning to make it dangerous. If you’re planning to try a long leash, just keep that in mind!

At the end of the day, the experience of going to an off-leash dog park is much better than a long leash, even if the leash is 50 feet (or 100 feet in diameter). It's an okay alternative, but if you’re not holding onto the other end of the leash, it’s hard to establish the boundaries for the dog and get them to play within it if they have the desire to take off running.

Teaching the Stay and Wait Commands

As part of our training with Markus, we're training him to both stay and wait in different circumstances around the house. The commands are similar, but they’re also distinctly different.

The “Stay” command is getting the dog to stay in position while we move around (or even leave the room). For example, when we're going out for a walk, we'll get Markus to stay by the door as we step out first and then we’ll call him out with a release command.

The “Wait” command is used for getting dogs to actively wait for something before getting a reward. What we like to do is get Markus to sit or lie down and we'll place a high reward treat like Snack 21’s Salmon Sushi Roll a bit further away him. We then ask him to wait until we give the release command to get the treat. We’ve seen some dogs who are able to wait by balancing a treat on their nose before they’re finally allowed to eat it!

Teaching dogs patience will go a long way as you continue to train and develop them. Aside from being great at posing for pictures, these commands are also important to know in case any circumstances arise (especially if you're outdoors) where you need to be able to control your dog immediately with commands to stay or wait.

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!