Teeth Cleaning, Going to McDonald Beach and the Water Thing
Markus happily running off-leash at McDonald Beach Park, British Columbia
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, we brought Markus in to get his teeth cleaned and it was one of the tougher moments in his adoption so far. We're sharing the experience of going through the procedure in case you have to do the same for your dog. Once he bounced back from the procedure, we also brought Markus to an off-leash park without an enclosure for the first time and we learned some more things about him there.
Getting Markus' Teeth Cleaned
Markus resting after the teeth cleaning procedure with a patch of fur shaved off from his leg
You can't fully be prepared for the tough moments of being a dog owner even when you know those days will come. Heck, we've had months to prepare for this and it still didn't help.
We finally brought Markus in for the teeth cleaning that he's been due to have this past week. Markus has needed his teeth cleaned since we rescued him almost a year ago when he was already three years old.
Cleaning his teeth was low on the list of things that Markus needed to have done, so because of that and the fact that the procedure isn't cheap, we dragged our heels a little bit. He never showed any signs of pain or any visible rotting, but it was one of those things that was never given any attention likely since he was born nearly 4 years ago, so we wanted to do it more as a precaution.
On the day of, we brought Markus to our regular vet. As part of the procedure, dogs need to be put under for the cleaning and this adds to the cost. Since they're working inside the dog's mouth and it's easy for the dog to become scared and bit down, this is a necessary step for the safety of those doing the cleaning. There is much better efficiency and the vet can reach into the back corners of the mouth a lot better when the dog is asleep.
For curiosity's sake, we researched into teeth cleaning procedures without putting the dog under. There are options, but it really makes you wonder how effective those procedures are if the dog is fully awake. They do end up cheaper, but we didn't pursue it very hard, though, the idea of not having to put the dog under is appealing.
Before injecting the anesthetics, they will test it against your dog's blood. They'll draw some blood from your dog and run it against some tests to confirm that the anesthetic doesn't do any harm to your dog. You will likely need to sign a waiver to approve them to do this.
Once all of the tests are run and it's confirmed that your dog can be put under, they'll start the actual procedure. Since there's no muzzle-like gas mask to administer the anesthesia, it needs to be injected through an IV line. Depending on how furry your dog's legs are, they might need to shave a small patch of fur off and clean the area to properly administer it. We don't see any of this, but the procedure was described to us in full detail so we can be informed to what's happening.
The procedure itself took a few hours and we went back to work during this time. That said, since your dog will be groggy when they wake up, you'll likely want to plan your day around this procedure if you're planning on one. We also wanted to make sure that we were available to pick up Markus as soon as they told us he was ready just so he wasn't at the vet for longer than he needed to be.
Markus came to us from a rescue organization and it hasn't even been a year since we adopted him. He's lived a full life without us and he's bounced around living on the streets, in the city pound, in a rescue organization and on a plane in his short three years. We didn't want to trigger any type of trauma or thought that he was being relocated yet again.
We got the call that it was time to pick him up about four hours later. When we arrived at the vet, they told us that Markus was awake, but was too scared to come out of the cage. They led us to the back so that we could try and Markus practically ran out of the cage dragging his leash along as soon as he saw us. He couldn't wait to leave. So much so that when we were going to pick him up to put him in the trunk of the car, he jumped in before the door was fully open and just barely made it in his groggy state.
Markus rested and mostly slept the rest of that day. He had quite a bit of energy back already the next day, but took probably another day before he was fully himself again. As dog owners, you don't look forward to these types of days, but they're also ones that are necessary. Having done it and watched Markus struggle through it, you couldn't be prouder of your dog for what they just went through!
Going to McDonald Beach
Markus looking back at us to see how far we are while peeing on a bush
We took things pretty lightly the rest of the week so that Markus could bounce back after the procedure. For having gone through such a stressful time, we brought Markus to an off-leash park to let him run around and explore freely. We ended up taking him to McDonald Beach Park, which is just off of the YVR Airport.
Many people have told us about their experience going to McDonald Beach and they rave about it. One of the reasons why they love it so much is because it's an entire stretch of beach and water where dogs can run freely, but it's hard for them to run away. Dog owners love to bring their dogs here because even if their dogs's not fully trained to go off-leash, they can let their roam freely here without worrying that their dog will take off.
This is also the first time we were going to let Markus off-leash outside an enclosed area. So how did he do?
Not bad. His recall can definitely be better and we can see moments where his curiosity gets the better of him. He'll wander off even if we're calling him back. We noticed that if he wanders off, he'll occasionally look back to see where we are before he kept going. This was good. The fact that he knew to keep an eye on us before going further is a good sign and whenever he did circle back to us, we would rain treats on him to encourage him to come back.
That said, his curiosity of exploring would often get the better of him. The longer we stayed, the more he lost interest in coming back to us and our treats. Still, it was a lot of fun to see him freely jumping around the logs and playing with the other dogs off-leash. Considering we're still training him to play with other dogs and socializing hasn't been one of his strong suits, we're highly encouraged with the way he behaved off-leash and with other dogs on this first attempt.
The Water Thing
We already knew this about him, but it's always interesting to see. Markus does not like water. He wants absolutely nothing to do with it. It didn't matter if other dogs were playing in the water or if the dogs he was chasing ran into the water, he would always put the brakes on as soon as he neared the water. If we're at the beach and we're standing on the edge of the water, he would retreat as the waves came in so his paws never get wet.
We're not sure if this is a part of the cleanliness of his breed or the fact that he's never had any exposure to large bodies of water in his first 3 years before we rescued him. In our initial research of the breed before we adopted him, it did say that Jindos will avoid water and hate to be bathed. With Markus, it's sometimes to the point where he'll refuse to go outdoors if it's raining and he'll always avoid puddles as if it's lava. He'll make a point to go around the puddle than to walk through it.
Whatever it is, he's not having it with water and at McDonald Beach, he had zero interest getting near it.
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!
