The Nine Month Check-In

Markus enjoying the view at the end of a hike on our first trip together to Salt Spring Island

In our development with Markus, we’re constantly pushing for the next thing. We’re always trying new things to train and work with him - so much so that when something doesn’t go the way we expect it to, we can become discouraged or even frustrated.

Taking the time to reflect where things began helps us to appreciate where we are today and it gives us the boost for another day. Putting in perspective that Markus was a rescued dog who had difficulty being adopted because he was labeled as aggressive helps us to appreciate how far he’s come in his time with us.

The Paws & Reflect series is our way of pausing to appreciate all the progress Markus has made from his days as an aggressive dog at the rescue shelter. We revisit his past to help us put into focus all the great things he’s already accomplished with us.

We've been in the practice of checking in roughly every three months to share with you how Markus' development is going. Markus is our dog who we adopted about nine months ago now. We were told that Markus had aggressive tendencies by the rescue organization in South Korea and he went unadopted for over a year for that reason. They did also mention, however, that they felt that Markus could be trained and we latched onto that and committed to working with him. With that, we had him brought over to Vancouver, Canada to be under our care.

We’ve done a lot of training with Markus in the last nine months - both at home and by taking him to puppy training classes where we could get the help of professionals. Markus has adjusted well and although we've seen bursts of the aggression (he's actually more reactive than aggressive) we were warned about, they’ve been seldom. He's been receptive to his training and life in North America, exploring the Pacific Northwest, and we're proud to call him our dog.

We wanted to take a bit of time this week to talk about the past three months of training and life with Markus since our last Paws & Reflect update.

Shiba Friends

Markus at the Shiba Meetup playing with his Shiba friends

We're so happy to say that Markus has made a lot of friends (and many of them happen to be Shiba Inus). The reason for this is because we attend the Shiba Meetup here in Vancouver and we end up seeing the same people a lot. This is great because we've been able to socialize Markus with dogs he's familiar with and this makes a big difference. 

Since we've gotten to know the other owners, we’ve been able to share Markus’ backstory. They understand that he's a dog who spent his first three years on the street and a rescue shelter, so many of them have been great at keeping an eye with us in case his aggressive tendencies start to show. When you're in a park with so many strangers and new dogs, it's so helpful to have friends and other dog owners being supportive and looking out for your dog in this way.

If you think your dog might be reactive and you're worried about bringing them to a dog park, make dog friends. Meet with those friends in smaller, more controlled settings and then slowly build it up. Dog owners are an extremely supportive bunch, so you’ll never know the type of support you can get by just sharing your concerns with them!

Going on Trips

Markus passed out on the dog bed at the Airbnb

My wife and I traveled a lot throughout the Pacific Northwest prior to adopting Markus. We mostly travelled for vacations or weekend getaways with plenty of shopping and maybe we’ll attend games and concerts. We weren't sure what this was going to look like after adopting Markus. Were we going to be able to travel with him? Would we have to leave him at home while we travelled? When are we going to take our next trip?

In the past three months, we finally got the chance to go somewhere and we brought Markus with us as a trial and it was such a blast. Even though it was a new setting for him and he was away from home for the first time since we adopted him, he did so well. It's been less than a year since we adopted Markus, I'm starting to see that as long as he's with us, he doesn't mind being in new environments.

This trip we did was on Salt Spring Island, which was a lot of fun because it includes a ferry and we were able to bring Markus to explore the outdoors. Most of all, we're extremely happy and relieved to know that Markus is okay travelling with us. Sure, planning a trip with a dog is very different than planning for just the two of us, but this is all a part of adding a new member to the family.

Markus enjoying the beach view at Salt Spring Island

Funny enough, we’ve become a lot more "outdoorsy" since we adopted Markus. To make sure that Markus gets his exercise, we end up getting more exercise ourselves. When we plan a trip, we’ll also consider where we might be able to stop to do a hike or trail. After all, we live in the Pacific Northwest!

We have a few more trips planned in the upcoming months and we look forward to learning more about travelling with Markus. He’s proving to be an outdoorsy dog, so we’re excited to discover more of the Pacific Northwest together.

Developing Habits, Good and Bad

Markus has grown so much as a dog even in just the past nine months that we’ve had him. When he first arrived, he wasn't familiar with a domestic life - playing with things like dog toys or what the TV, radio or even stairs were. He'd always fall back on certain behaviour because that’s the life that he's known. We’ve been able to work with him to develop new habits and he’s taken to them fairly well. We will see some of his old habits surface every now and then.

We've seen instances of him growling, barking and snapping at dogs at the dog park, which gives us a glimpse of the "aggressive" (again, we consider him reactive more than aggressive) label that he was given at the rescue shelter. We're working with him to expose him to more dogs and to socialize him, but more specifically we’re trying to find out what makes him tick. We’re starting to narrow it down to either a specific breed or when another dog tries to sniff him too excitedly.

These behaviours tend to surface only when there are other dogs in play. Up until now, he hasn’t shown any hostility towards us until we recently gave him a bone with marrow. We knew this was a high level treat and we needed to reposition him while he was enjoying it and when we reached in to pick up the bone, he growled at us. This was the first instance of resource guarding that he have been. Obviously, growling at us is not behaviour we want to see. 

I've heard of a lot of dog owners or trainers with a zero tolerance for dogs growling at them. I’m actually not too sure how to proceed, so at the very least, we are trying not to put Markus in that type of situation again. We haven't seen it again since, which is good, but the fact that it happened once does make sure wonder if or when it'll show up again.

Part of us wonders if this is happening because he’s reverting to his previously learned behaviouor where he needed to growl at other dogs who would try and take a treat away from him. We hope that with time and with the understanding that there are more treats where it came from, Markus will come to understand that resource guarding from us is unnecessary. 

All in all, Markus has improved so much from his nine months with us. This is definitely one of the major behaviours we’re working to train him out of right now and we're glad that the list is not long. We're proud of all of his accomplishments to date and we’re encouraged to continuing to work with him because of how receptive he’s been with us!

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!