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 .

Does this 'charity' start with the letter P at all? If so they're a despicable organisation

As an owner of a Romanian rescue this is so sad to hear. Maybe I have been lucky but my rescue has a wonderful temperament and is probably the most docile, loving dog I have ever owned.
I don't think some people realise the back story of a lot of these dogs, some of them really have really traumatic backgrounds, treated like vermin, living in kill shelters and abused on the streets.
Unfortunately you have found yourself with a dog who you feel poses a danger to you and your family and it is the responsibility of the rescue to take them back, but please do not PTS until you have spoken with them again.
I really think people underestimate the time, patience and training it takes for these dogs to integrate in to our families. Not saying this is your fault, it sounds like the rescue have wrongly advertised in this case.
My experience of these rescues has been nothing but positive and I wouldn't hesitate to rescue again from abroad. I appreciate I may have just been lucky with my dog though. Please keep badgering the rescue, they need to take the dog back.

OP, could you call your local dog warden for advice? They may be more familiar with the law around this. I would guess they would advise euthanasia.

They might be horrible to you but were all domestic pets once, abandoned.

No, not at all. Some may be, but when I lived in Asia, there were packs of feral dogs, who were breeding because lets face it, the kind of person who thinks it is ok to take a pet and turn it out of the house is unlikely to pay to have it spayed or neutered. Got chased on my bike once, it was very scary. My friends and I always used to say that the kindest thing we could have done was a massive cull of the street dogs. Some were lovely (I adoped two and brought them home with me), but many were in terrible condition, and there were packs of large dogs who were truly terrifying.

We've been trying to get a dog from a rescue home over the last couple of weeks and it's impossible.
My kids are 9 and 11 so that rules most of them out, I also work part time and even though I work from home some rescues still count those hours as the dogs being alone.
I completely understand the need to be careful and do their best to match dog and owner but the blanket 'no children' rule is preventing so many dogs from getting a lovely home.
My friend has recently had the same problem and she's a vet so surely the rescues could see the dog would be in a great home but they all said no because her son is under 10, she's also had a puppy who has the most wonderful bond with her son, something that a rescue dog could've had.

The foreign rescues are practically begging you to take a dog, I could've got one from them with no issue but I don't agree with the practice of importing dogs when the rescues here are overflowing.

In the end we've bought a puppy which does go against the grain as I know I'm part of the over breeding problem the UK has but it was either get a puppy or do without for 7 years until dd turns 16.

They tried euthanasia but animal rights groups and the EU put a complete stop to that. So the Romanian government is spending millions neutering but the problem is too big, neutering is too slow. Most of these dogs were not domestic pets once. They were born strays and so were their parents. They are vicious and attack anyone and anything for food. The problem has been going on for decades and is just getting worse.

Plenty of Romanians have dogs as pets. And they are loved and treated well, just like here. There is a reason most locals won't touch these strays and it really baffles me that people don't stop to think about why.

@Preciousmemory The contract is neither valid nor enforceable so you really don’t need to worry about that. If you are too scared of the contract to have the dog euthanised then either drop it off to them directly (if you have any sort of address) or see if you can surrender it to the dog warden/whoever and let them scan the chip and force them to come pick it up. They’re playing dirty with you so do whatever you have to do. Tell the dog warden that the “rescue” has abandoned a dangerous dog with you and is refusing to come get him.

Street dogs are typically feral dogs, born from generations of feral dogs with little human contact. These groups often try to market them as “stray” as if they once had a home and human socialisation but that is rarely the case. Very few people are equipped to handle a feral adult dog in their home.

I volunteered for one beginning with P and I quit because they wanted me to lie on the write ups. There is a facebook page about their malpractice

Dog contracts are completely unenforceable especially if you handed over any cash to them. Once you take ownership the dog is yours and their is very little they can do about it.

Exactly. Public safety comes before any bullshit contract regarding Romanian dogs…

It’s their culture. They don’t care about pets. When they get old or sick they dump them at the side of the motorway or tie them to a tree in the hills. They dont look back. Then they go and buy a puppy.

I was fairly involved with a Romanian rescue for a while. A fellow cabin crew member had set it up after finding a skinny and tortured dog wandering the streets. And I ended up following her on Facebook, and six months later took on one of the dogs. I already had two U.K. rescues. She has been with us for almost ten years and has been a little sweetheart from the start. The only issue we had with her was that house training took months. She was such a nervous little thing and hated our rain! I think having two other dogs helped. I stayed involved with the rescue for a while, helping fundraising. They were fabulous- the homecheck to get the Romanian dog was far better than the rescues in the U.K. we’ve used. They managed to buy a kennels in Romania and have the dogs there to be assessed by vets and acclimatise before coming to the U.K. They also have kennels in the U.K. for the rare occasion that a dog gets returned. They have a huge facebook community of people that have rescued and everyone helps each other with teething problems. They have recommended trainers and schools. There’s so much back up. And they have started lobbying the mayor of the town for neutering programs and also visiting schools to try to teach them that dogs are not to be thrown away. Not all foreign rescues are dog traffickers…
In the U.K., the Lab rescue that one of ours came from didn’t do a home check before or after we got our dog, and sent him out un neutered - gave us a discount if we said we’d get him done, but never checked up that we had. We were his fourth home (he was one year old). They were a right useless shower.

As for those not understanding why anyone would rescue from abroad when the country is full of dogs needing homes. I hope you also feel the same about people that breed and buy dogs?? I have a very dog friendly cafe and have lots of expensive pedigree dogs come in with owners that are absolutely clueless and incapable of controlling or training them. I have had three labs that people have paid a fortune for- one was the nutter that had had four homes. He was “proper gundog lines” (I hear that trotted out a lot like it’s better, it’s crap, just a way to breeders to con more money out of you), the other two were given to us for free by owners that just couldn’t cope when the dogs reached adulthood. All of them were just as challenging, if not more, as the Romanian dog. All of them turned out fabulous dogs and had long lives with us.

And if you see what’s going out there, sometimes you need a heart of stone to ignore it. This week “my” rescue found six two day old puppies crying carrier bag in a skip. Would you have left them? And a little dog covered in cuts and bruises with half her teeth knocked out - again could you leave it if you walked past? It’s easy to be sanctimonious from your sofa…

But this particular rescue the op is dealing with, and I do think it’s a rescue because they’re telling you that they own the dog rather than blocking you, sound completely incapable and not looking at the big picture. I would personally get the dog to the vet, or have a decent dog trainer assess the situation. I wouldn’t blame or judge you for putting the dog to sleep. It should absolutely not go back to the rescue if they can’t foster it themselves and watch how the dog is before they even contemplate rehoming. Having the back up of a professional- vet and trainer or behaviourist would be good if the rescue did decide to come at you for pts this dog (and I believe they would be the type to plaster it all over social media etc how you’d let he dog down etc, so you need back up). Good luck to you. It sounds a really tough situation.

@Bakedpotatoes I got my cat from local Cats Protection and didn't have too many stipulations.
I have heard of people in their 70s who lost a partner but weren't allowed to adopt because they were "too old". How awful when they're lonely and just wanting a pet for company.
They'd happily give an animal to a younger person - anything could happen to them

I think importing dogs from abroad should be banned, It makes no sense whatsoever as can be seen here. This dog needs to be given back and a complaint made about the organisation who arranged the re-homing.

I feel so sad for him to he doesn’t appear petrified in anyway, full of confidence in so many ways but with a random switch for aggression. Some attacks seem for a reason that someone has entered the house. But then for example my husband was sitting quietly reading and he leapt up behind the settee and bit him twice in the head. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern really . I did call the police more for advice on a contract they said it isn’t a police matter unless he was to seriously injure a person but that the contract means nothing with what has happened. I have mentioned to rescue about being homes with children and has he been tested as it says in advert he is ok with them but I have no idea how they have tested this if he was living in a pound

I don’t know why people are not using the name of unscrupulous rehoming organisations. What “begins with P”?

I quite often search Google with the title of what I want to search + mumsnet so I can get info from UK people in the same demographic as me, if I were ever in the market for a Romanian dog (wouldn’t happen) I’d probably search hear and would know to avoid them. They sound bloody dangerous.

How old is this dog? Sorry if I’ve missed it.

Yes that’s exactly true to anyone of us can pop off at anytime but 70 is not exactly old. That’s such a shame also maybe she should try again and maybe have an older cat. It be a shame for her to not have the kitty that they can share their love

I was wondering the same. Why do people go to the trouble and expense of rescuing dogs from abroad when there are dogs needing homes in the UK?

There can be lots of reasons. When we were looking for a dog, none of the ones available were suitable to be rehomed with children. Quite a few were only suitable for very experienced dog owners who could spend a lot of time with behavioural re-training (which we don't have experience of). The other issue I find is many of the dogs seem to be staffy, or bully type dogs. I know lots of people will say they are lovely pets and they love theirs etc, but as a rescue, not really knowing them, and with the way other people respond to them, it's just not for us. Similarly, you see a lot of cane corso, husky, lurcher, Alsatian etc, big dogs which are no good for us.

People seem to think there are lots of lovely family pets just waiting for a rescue. It's far more complex than that. If people don't want to take that risk, there's no shame in that.

Why are you putting up with this. That dog should have been put to sleep yesterday.

8 months old I am told but I am not sure about that either I feel he is more than a year

OP said he was growing into a big dog, so I'm guessing he's still quite young. Although I suppose you can't believe anything this rescue says after reading the description they used in their ad.

My relatives Romanian rescue looked older than he was purported to be too, although, as I said he’s a brilliant dog and they’ve been very lucky with him.

I just wondered if it was normal puppy being a bit mouthy but it sounds like he’s too old for that any way. Feel for you, what a shitty situation. Have a chat with your vet tomorrow :)

I’m sorry you are in this situation. The pet travel scheme was never intended for the mass import of feral street dogs - they are a huge disease risk to the U.K. and a welfare nightmare for both the traumatised dogs and the unsuspecting new owners. I suspect the rescue don’t have a leg to stand on preventing you having the dog PTS but it might be helpful to have a phone conversation with Trevor Cooper at Dog Law to understand the ownership issue but also your potential liability when the dog inevitably injures someone badly. There have been situations in which rescues have started huge social media campaigns targeting owners and veterinary practices in similar circumstances to try and prevent PTS. I would suggest you get it documented in the clinical records by two vets that they support PTS.
I guess we see mainly the things that go wrong in vet practice but we have seen many Romanian rescues which are very unpredictably aggressive, can only even vaguely cope with domestic life on permanent anti-anxiety meds or subsequently test Brucella positive. Importing dogs into the U.K. when at the same time many stray dogs here are being euthanased is immoral. I sympathise with struggles of prospective owners with the restrictive practices of a lot of U.K. rescues and understand that the dogs needing homes often don’t match the type people want. There has to be a better solution to our overcrowded rescues and to the Romanian street dog problem (probably a trap-neuter-release program).

What I was hoping is he could be homed in the exact right environment. Without children maybe a farm dog. He loves the outside and does not seem to be interested in catching animals , he watched a pigeon pecking around and that’s all he did just watched. I also was trying to reach out to rescues that deal solely with aggression issues. I honestly right now am lost what to do but very worried if he got into the wrong hands something dreadful happening. He has some amazing qualities but the aggression is outweighing these

I would no doubt put him to sleep. It's the most responsible thing to do.

I have always had rescue dogs. We currently have three dogs; two from a local rescue, and one from Romania.

Our Romanian pup is missing a leg and was in a kill shelter until he was rescued by a charity my friend is involved with.

He is the most gentle, loyal dog.

Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t. That is true for all rescue dogs. The issue with dogs from overseas is giving them back when it doesn’t work.

It does take months sometimes for a rescue dog to decompress and trust though. That should always be made clear by the rescue.