Has anyone adopted a dog from abroad?

[squeezycheesy]

Looking for some advice, but not for me (slightly convoluted story that I can bore people with if they like, but not exciting at all) . . .

Has anyone adopted from abroad? If so, which agencies would they recommend?

Is there anything in particular they should be looking out for?

Having never done this myself, I'm sort of assuming (maybe wrongly- probably wrongly), that there isn't always the same level of after-support if required as there would be in the UK.

Many thanks in advance !

I hope it works out well and of course, it might.
Everything might just go fine.

I would just bear in mind that a hunting breed in Spain, will have been used for hunting as they are never seen as pets.
As a sight hound, I would expect them to have an extremely high prey drive even without being worked.

You say he has never been worked, is that because he was born at the shelter?

Hopefully if he has lived with cats there he will be okay, I would still take great caution, which you say you will.

Thanks Buttholelane. He's been at the shelter since he was a very young puppy, definitely too young to hunt. He is well socialised with other dogs, humans and cats. I think it will be okay. With every dog there is an element of uncertainty, but I would feel more confident with a properly assessed rescue over a dog from a backyard breeder any day. And I would never trust any dog 100% because animals are unpredictable. I am not the soft type who makes excuses for their dog, I will be working on recall and manners with him from the word go and am prepared for the fact that he may never be ready to go off lead. And I will get support for any problems I can't deal with as and when they arise. Thanks for your input though, I can completely understand your concerns and agree that this is not something anyone should go into lightly out of sentiment.

I rescued a dog from an overseas charity, was assured of his suitability, his lovely temperament, seen videos, had home checks, visited him at foster home in uk.

All passport, vacs etc done everything was as rigorously checked as it could be. A week after we got him he, with no warning, killed our smaller dog with one savage bite to the neck. Nothing to trigger it, completely out of nowhere.

We contacted the rescue and they told us to put him down, no advice, no support. These dogs imo are not pet dogs, yes some of them may make pets but you take a very high risk adopting one. Think very carefully.

This is the extreme prey drive I was talking about.

Where they have had to hunt for survival it is nothing like the excited, focused chase, sometimes kill behaviour you see in dogs typically.

It's quick, silent stalk, grab, kill.

So sad :(

I am Greek and with all due respect I think that some people from civilised countries can't quite comprehend what conditions are like for street dogs in Greece. They become feral quite quickly, or they die, it's a brutal, sad and horrible situation but it's not helped by re homing dogs abroad.

try Puppy in Crisis in spain on facebook literally hundreds of abandoned puppies and dogs needing homes