Romanian dog rescue

[Preciousmemory]

I am in an awful situation that I can find no solution to. Please if any one could give me some advice.
i have rescued a Romanian dog which has turned out so badly.
He arrived 10 days ago and has serious problems I am not able to deal with so am asking if anyone can offer me advice.
The rescue have a policy that I must give him back to be rehomed but are not able to find anyone although it is a short time they are describing him on the advert as a dog that loves humans and children and dogs. A huge part of this is not right I have not tested him with a child but as for people he definitely does not like them , only me.
He attacks my husband in the morning, in the evening when he returns home from work and then randomly at any other time. The attacks are getting progressively worse. But yesterday he met my 80 year old tiny dad for the first time which I had also for the first time put a muzzle on him after 7 days of training with it.
The attack was so ferocious on my dad that he was foaming at the mouth leaping as high as his shoulders to grab him but because he was muzzled there was no damage. my dad immediately left. I despair to think what may have happened otherwise. My daughter turned up shortly after the same thing happened. I was thinking he maybe afraid of men but it seems not.
I have constantly tried to work with the Romanian Rescue which could take months for them to find a suitable home, the only option I have from them is to stick this traumatised dog into a kennel which will cause further damage to him, but I am not able to keep him in my home with this level of aggression.
Dog rescues are full up. I have contacted a few that specifically deal with dog aggression. I do not see how this poor dog can just be homed in a normal family environment as this will happen again. He is a large growing powerful dog that could cause serious damage to a person.
Thank you for reading , this is such an anxious problem that I see no solution to.
I am grateful for any advice possible .

I know someone who has 3 from Romania and they live outside all year round because that is what they are used to. They have never adjusted to being adopted and are still really quite feral, not at all socialised, living behind large fences to keep everyone else safe. So many Romanian rescues are street dogs. Anyone thinking of taking one on really needs to think twice.

I bet it will be sold on to another unsuspecting person.
It could savage someone {a child, an older person} or someone's beloved pet.

The person it attacks will not be ''lucky''.

It should never have been trafficked to this country, but it will be re-advertised with a different name, sure as eggs is eggs. {edit..With another ''adoption fee''...hope it has been tested for canine brucellosis .

I never got a response to my enquiries from any of the established rescues in the UK.

I WFH and my mum is up the road and very happy to have DDog on the occasional days I need to go in. No young children, DD was a teenager. We have a house with garden.

I grew up with having dogs as pets, and as a teen did agility training with one of our dogs, but hadn't been a pet owner as an adult.

I was willing to take any small/medium dog (we live in a city- we had bigger dogs growing up but that was in a rural area) of any age, no preferences about breeds. No major health issues for financial reasons. No major behavioural issues because I don't have the skills, but was willing to take on minor issues and follow advice.

I didn't even get an answer to my emails.

We adopted a wonderful 6/7 month old from Southern Europe who is a complete lovebug and wuss. She can't even stand up to next door's thug of a cat. She is snuggled up against my legs now. She has been wonderful for DD, and for me. She was abandoned on the street.

TLDR UK rescues are overflowing because they are so risk averse and don't respond to queries. Overseas rescues can also be dodgy.

Thank you

I am so sorry you have had this experience but pleased you have found a solution you can live with.
when you have regrouped please don’t be put off getting another rescue you have really gone the distance for this dog so has your poor husband.
you have a dog size hole in your life and somewhere out there is a dog to fit it.
wishing all the best to Lucky.

If its a reputable rescue then I can assure you that is not the case. I volunteer for an organization that rehomes romanian dogs here in germany. First of all, the adoption fee doesnt make anyone rich and running a proper rescue is not a lucrative business. Its a small amount that pays for treatment/travel/food etc. In my organisation nobody gets paid, its all volunteers doing their very best.
We travel to romania regularly in our free time to meet the new dogs in the kennels and we try to assess them in order to properly rehome them. Its not easy to figure them out sometimes. We have completely feral dogs that cant be touched, who fully change when living with one of us voluteers for a few weeks. Then we have dogs who let us pet and cuddle them and when they arrive at their home and everything is different they dont handle the change well. Often we assess the dogs right, but its just not possible all the time.

The rescue did the right thing taking the dog back. Now its up to them. Unless the organisation is shady, they wont rehome the dog until hes ready and they will only rehome to experienced people.

Thank you so much your words mean so much truly

I know exactly what you are saying all of what you say is in my mind. A week ago I have had a brucellosis Uk test carried out because I understood that Romanian ones can be fake . Although I have all of the certificates I feel they could be fake he is free of this . I needed this before I let him go to public places or meet family dogs . Yep another adoption fee for sure but foster is no fee and from what I have been told the Foster will be assessing if he is adoptable and if he isn’t then he will be where he would have been at 5pm today …. Not here. So I prey he will come good the Foster is completely aware of the aggression and I will be meeting them tomorrow so will know this is the case. I do not feel I am experienced enough to say this boy is not good enough for this world
please send me an email though as message does not work here MNHQ has removed an email address

I'd remove your email, @Preciousmemory !
Be absolutely truthful with the foster people - don't try and gloss over any of it, or minimise it.

A woman in a local park had her beautiful dog {he is so gentle and kind} attacked by a Romanian heavy breed- I saw it enter the park, with aggressive body language and called my dog to me to get as far away as possible, but the woman with the lovely pet was oblivious to it.

It savaged the pet dog without any provocation.

The screams of sweet pet dog were terrible to hear.

The owner of the Romanian dog just kept repeating like a robot ''She's a Rescyooo. From Romania''
She's from Romania..a Rescyooooooo

{Like it was an excuse}

The wretched woman didn't offer to pay vets fees for the injured dog-

Luckily photographs of this antisocial mutt were shared locally and with the dog warden, and the mutt hasn't been seen locally since.

That is awful and so sad was the little dog ok. Why do people let their dogs off the lead or without a muzzle if they know what can happen. It is so bad.
I have written a very long detailed letter to give them of all the good and bad. The good is so much more but the bad is very short but much more important. I will probably get hate when I hand him over which is why I have written it all done. The absolute truth

No idea why people with aggressive dogs don't muzzle them.

Denial? Vanity? Thinking that their dog won't like them if it's muzzled?

It was very distressing.

The 'rescue' have no right to be nasty to you - it is ALL on them.

They will palm off un assessed dogs onto anyone, it seems.

A bona fide rescue assesses for months if necessary, in a home, and always take the dog back if necessary without ''shaming'' the adopters.

IF they had done their job properly, there is no way this aggressive dog straight off the ''££££ bus'' would have been placed with you.

They have failed everyone. The dog and you.

It probably would be happier in an outdoor compound in Romania - it was used to this, but this doesn't bring in the money.

I may be cynical but if the rescue were advertising it as good with children after you'd initially said you wanted to return it, I wouldn't trust them not to palm it off on some other unsuspecting family after a brief spell with the foster

Thank goodness you'd worked on muzzle training so your dad and daughter were kept safe as it sounds like without that it would have ended very badly. Certainly not something that sounds like it should be near any children

I think pts is the best situation here

I'm glad this dog is being removed so your family will be safe . I do think your being very short sighted as to how the so called rescue will help the dog. I strongly believe it will soon be deemed safe and passed on and is a disaster waiting to happen.

I do think this rescue will just palm the dog off and could have very tragic consequences.
Make sure the chip is absolutely not registered to you.

I think for my own peace of mind that I'd photograph that letter, that way if there's any but "she didn't tell us that" in the future you have proof. I'm probably being paranoid but it's quick and easy to photograph it and it certainly won't do any harm.

I am so sorry you have had this experience but pleased you have found a solution you can live with

Comments like this make me so cross.

This isn't about OP and how it makes her feel, it's about a heavily traumatised dog that struggles to be a UK pet. A dog that has been taken from everything it knows, put in a dark (?) , cold (?) and rattling (?) minivan to be carted half way across Europe. Then placed into a home setting and expected to function as a pet, suppressing the natural instincts that ensured the dogs survival as well as traits that have been selected by humans over centuries. And now it's expected to forget all this? Beeing managed by some well meaning people who have no idea of what this dog really needs are definitely unable to provide the rightenvironment. As a result this dog will spend the rest of its life in suppressed misery.

To many people in the UK forget what a dog is, they see it as an pet, an accessory an commodity to make money from or seek some sort of pleasure (walking, k9 sports, ...) Whereas not so long ago a dog was ment to work in conjunction with humans not sitting on the sofa watching pet rescue programs.

These dogs need jobs according to their breed traits because they have not been selected from pet breeding stock as its often the case with UK dogs.

Obviously I could go on and on as there is also a moral aspect to this.

I do agree- Dogs have been selected for certain traits, and a lot of Romanian ones are herding and guarding types - they probably are far happier as strays, roaming in free moving packs.
Spay and neuter is the only way.

''Working'' breeds definitely need to have physical and mental stimulation.

Moscow has highly intelligent strays that travel on the metro, know which people are likely to feed them- the saddest ever Moscow stray has to be the beautiful Laika {Pic below} whose story reduces many to tears almost 70 years later.

Laika was selected for her gentle, biddable, intelligent temperament and small size, and sent into space. She suffered unimaginable stress in orbit . the scientists knew Laika would never be able to return alive from Orbit, and one years later spoke of their sorrow and guilt.

Those ''Romanian transports'' are meant to be absolutely reeking after the three day journey - It's highly unlikely the dogs are taken out to relieve themselves en route.

Exactly. These aren’t purposefully bred dogs. They are more akin to a wild animal. They don’t know or understand homes or humans. When they are on the streets humans are probably a species to be very wary of. They are likely to be chased away from homes and businesses as they are not wanted there.

Just because they are dog shaped it doesn’t mean they are the same as the Labrador that Dave and Joan next door have. Unlike our UK rescue dogs these aren’t family pets that have been handed in because the owner can no longer care for them (for whatever reason). These are going to be more similar to picking up an urban fox and expecting it to function and behave like a dog.

Here is a very happy Moscow Stray....

Now imagine catching him, taking him to a noisy shelter, transporting him to UK where he is expected to be a pet..

He's far better off where he is.

He is intelligent and keeping active. He'd be bored senseless in a shelter or as a pet where he would be expected to be a ''family dog'' and walk nicely on a leash and do pet dog things.

Also note that he doesn’t interact with the humans. He is not going up to them for any attention and no one goes to try and touch him. In the UK people want to touch dogs and make a fuss of them. He would not be used to that and may lash out to stop people trying to touch him.

@BoiledOrRoastPotatoes Absolutely this
In most of the Russian stray vids, the dogs go about their business without any humans trying to “Rescue “ and pet them.
If they are fed, food is thrown on ground.

And yet our lovely pet dog, an overseas rescue, is incredibly loving and wants human attention. You can't generalise. Reputable rescues are honest about the dogs.

We got an absolute sweetheart who would otherwise be a street dog in Portugal. We didn't even get a response from uk rescues.

She is now snuggled up against my legs, having washed my hands, waiting for teatime.

Podencos seem to be a different story - probably as they are not a herding / guardian breed.

There are Pods around locally who don’t seem to cause any trouble with humans or other dogs.

Edit : As a sighthound type these are generally aloof with strangers but not aggressive.

Today we dropped B to his new foster home. He will be living with 6 dogs. Three that like to live out doors in heated kennels and the other three live indoors. The three indoors are all Romanian rescues. Two of them came with aggression same as B has. Whilst the foster was only fostering she has kept all of them because she couldn’t part with them. I met one of her Romanian dogs today that 9’months ago was fearful and aggressive yet today he was the most lovely dog possible because he has been in a settled environment and he welcomed B they loved each other instantly. He showed no aggression to his new mum and has gone off to his new home with lots of land to rehabilitate to see if he is able to be homed. I think she will end up keeping him as she has done her other 6 foster dogs because despite the awful aggression that we were not equipped to deal with she knows exactly what to do. We gave him a home we had no other dogs and as dogs are all he knows he was in turmoil being around only humans . I think he will learn from the other dogs that he can trust humans and he has another chance. He is in fact a lovely dog that could not cope with the situa He was in. I have faith he will flourish to be his best self and live a whole life of happiness and love. Lots of Romanian dogs are lovely dogs and there are so many good endings for them. Some can’t adapt. The problem more I have realised is there is a business here and part of that is puppy farming all for financial gain. Many have not been street dogs at all at any part of their life .
I will get updates on B and can not wish for more from a lady who when she turned around her coat was covered in muddy paw marks which told me all I needed to know. If there is hope for B then he has found it in no better place and he deserves a chance .
i have a feeling he is a dogs dog and living with other dogs will teach him that it can trust humans and he will turn into a wonderful dog.
all I know is he loved me very much and was In free fall. He has hopefully landed in his paws it could have been a different story .

The rescue do not make any more money from Foster so it feels like the right thing has happened