Does anyone have a rescue dog from Romania? Bad idea?

[ThisIsNotAIBUPeople]

Me again! We are thinking about getting our first dog. We have 2 DS aged 10 and 15, and 2 cats. I am at home Mon, Tues, Weds and out of the house 8-4 Thurs Fri. I can come home in my lunch hour for a quick walk or let out in the garden, my Dad will also come and give it a walk on the days I work.
I'm looking at rescues in the area and found this one which rescues dogs from Romania
https://www.dogswalkthisway.com/dogs-walk-this-way-rescue.html
Its really important that we find the right dog to fit in with our family, I really want to get it right and can't risk ending up with the 'wrong' dog, that would be worse than no dog. This rescue seem to be good at knowing the dog's personality and whether they are children and cat friendly. Any thoughts? Really bad idea? All comments and advice very gratefully received

My experience was awful. After much emailing and several visits to the rescue place where the dogs was fine with us, we were recommended a dog. That was supposed to be suitable for our family. Turns out she was a street dog and had never lived inside or been taught basic commends. She was used to being in a pack and she was aggressive towards my ds so we had to return her to the rescue place.

I am near Portsmouth in Hampshire. As stated in my OP, any rescue centre would need to be open to our family dynamics. 2 boys aged 10 and 15, 2 cats, 2 days a week left for 2-3 hrs at a stretch. I really think we could give a dog a wonderful life, we have a large house and garden, our holidays are pretty much always in our Campervan in the UK, the right dog would fit in perfectly. I know you have to put the work in with any dog, I know some rescue dogs come with issues, and some more than others, that's why I won't commit to any dog unless it is as 'right' as it can be.
I completely understand all the comments about the issues of a street dog who has been neglected, I'm not an experienced dog owner and couldn't give it the right home. Lots to think about.

Such a shame when rescues aren't honest about the dog, how do they expect a rehoming to be successful if they don't give the correct information in the first place? Its not fair on the dog or the family,.

Rescue ‘centres’ can have rigid rules hence why I suggest a foster based rescue, you could apply to foster. Many Tears rehomed across the UK and is always in need of foster homes, mainly small breeds though often puppy farm rescues.

We have five from Romania, all picked up in the street, and have not had any real issues. We have always made sure that a member of the family was around 24/7 during the settling-in period.

Friends of the Animals is near Portsmouth I believe.

The place we used was not a centre as such but a small team of women one who had an isolated house with an acre of land that did fundraising events and had a Fb page to help bring Romanian dogs over to the U.K.

@Bookworm4 would that be with a view to adopting if the fostering was successful? Interesting.

Yes most fosters usually adopt, one of mine was only a foster, 5 years later he’s still here as we fell in love. I have fostered others who have been adopted but you know the dog that’s meant to be.

I haven't RTFT and won't comment on the ethics of rescuing dogs from abroad but I am good friends with a dog walker who volunteers for Dogs Walk This Way and they are an extremely responsible rescue who take every effort to ensure their dogs are well matched to the new owners. So if you do decide to go for a Romanian rescue dog they would certainly be a good starting point.

@Bookworm4 @thepurplepenguin thank you both

Surely the UK had enough homeless dogs? A vet friend of mine despairs at the import of rescue dogs as they are bringing in all types of diseases alien to UK that UK dogs are not immune to.

This thread seems to have covered that issue quite well! I've certainly learnt a lot.

"As for foreign diseases. I know there is stuff like leish in mediteranean basin, but that is not transferable to other dogs, as thats from sandflies and its easily controlled if they are tested to have it, which they would be if from med countries. Things like rabies would be vaccinated against before arriving. Im not sure what other "foreign" diseases people are worried about. Do you also worry about foreign people??"

If you look/search back through this section of the forum you'll come across a thread about Tongue Worm which is a nasty parasite not found in the UK but increasingly reported in rescue dogs. It's not something that's routinely checked for and neither is it prevented by the vaccinations and treatments required within the Pet Passport scheme.

I don't worry about "foreign people", I worry about people who don't realise the limits of their own knowledge and don't consider that there might be diseases and parasites they've never heard of.

It's just one serious parasite that vets are becoming concerned about..
veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/content/179/10/259

When I looked at UK rescues, I found there was a disproportionate amount of dogs that had behavioural issues, surrendered because of behavioural problems, or ex breeders that had basically lived in a shed, terrified and unsocialised. Just puppy producing machines or mating machines. That was what I found. Dogs that couldnt be near children. Dogs that were terrified of men. Dogs that had bitten.
I also found that as soon as i mentioned cats and children, there were none available.
I had specific requirements for a dog to fit in to our family, and the fact she came from spain is irrelevent. She is the sweetest gentlest dog ive ever met. All my dogs ive ever had have been rescue, but this is the first foreign dog, and tbh, id do it again.
I think maybe her time on the street matured her. She seems to have far less of the permanent extended puppyhood that most dogs ive known from UK, which is something I quite like. A woman near me has a spanish rescue and she says similar

I have to agree with Branleuse regarding UK rescues. There are a LOT of otherwise lovely dogs where it states they must be the only dog in the house and cannot be left for very long. I work full time but get back at lunchtime. I also have 2 other dogs. One of my dogs is a greyhound because they are easy to rehome and generally very good with other dogs, and coming from ex-racing kennels they are used to being on their own. My Romanian rescue ticked all my boxes.

that parasite in the above link is something that is extremely unlikely to be contagious, even if it affects someones dog. The transmission from dog to human is unrecorded here, and is only applicable to dogs from a specific part of eastern europe.

I guess it does depend on the rescue centre and how thorough they are. When you are getting a dog from anywhere, you of course need to do research.
The rescue centre I used, tested thoroughly for various diseases and my dog was given a clean bill of health.

So UK rescues are full of dogs with behavioural problems and the solution to that is a street dog from abroad? This is about the stupidiest thing I had read on MN.

I have two street dog rescues from Cyprus, my mum also has one, and another from Romania!

All lovely lovely dogs great with children and people.

spdc.org.uk/ - Cyprus rescue, recommend.

I have a Romanian rescue. I tried several UK rescues including The dogs trust and was turned down by all of them due to my youngest daughter being 9. (I work from home and have a garden). We have 3 relatives with dogs and have dog walked/sat so my kids are very dog savvy.

So I went with a charity who bring dogs from Romania. They only bring dogs to the uk who they consider will make family pets. The process involved a detailed application form, two hour long phone calls where they asked about our life style etc and a home visit.

Our dog was a dumped as a puppy along with her mum so she wasn’t on the streets for a long time.

She was very shy at first but is now like a different dog. She is playful and gentle and is devoted to my kids. So it can work. I cam PM the charity details to you if you like?

@EstherLittle yes please

Have had a mixed experience. Ours did bring in a previously unknown parasite Limitedscreentime which led to several months of quarantine, anxiety for us re our DCs and other dog. Not to mention a horrible op and multiple unpleasant procedures for the rescue dog. We had to get the ombudsman to force the pet insurer to pay up: while the parasite had never been seen in the UK, it was obviously in the dog already, so they tried to exclude on the grounds of a pre-existing condition.

So, she had a very unsettled start with us, and we'll never know how that affected her. She is mostly lovely, but as PPs have said, independent to the point of aloofness. It's been almost four years now, and we're seeing more affection now, but alongside that we're suddenly seeing signs of aggression towards other dogs. Two isolated incidents, but enough to stop us letting her off the lead.

I have no qualms about having rescued from overseas (really didn't get any decent choice of home grown dogs), but guess I'm glad she wasn't our first dog.

So UK rescues are full of dogs with behavioural problems and the solution to that is a street dog from abroad? This is about the stupidiest thing I had read on MN.

yes, pretty much everywhere I looked had dogs that were definitely "a project" I was completely losing hope. Everywhere I looked seemed to want no children and no other animals. If you are seriously looking for a rescue dog, and you already have kids and/or cats then I suspect that you will find similar. I was even tempted by dogs for sale on some internet sites at one point, but that would have been really stupid, but hey, at least english dogs eh!! Best of British

Looks at two rescue spaniels that are now working as sniffer dogs and have to disagree vehemently with Branleuse

@ThisIsNotAIBUPeople I have a 16month old Romanian rescue. I looked at various charities before going with them and chose them as they were quite well known and had some high profile ish patrons. We Had a home check and got to meet the little man in person before formal adoption as we had to check our existing dog would be ok with him. (Wouldn't have been fair on either of them if there had been an issue). I am part of an adopters group of Facebook, lots of support. They fund neuter campaigns and support some of the shelters for dogs that can never be rehomed (we are sponsoring three dogs now). They do still have stipulations around children - not sure what they are off hand as mine is a teen. My experience has been really positive.

He was rescued as a very young pup and kept with his mum who was also rescued at the same time,, they came to the uk about a year ago and were kennelled together until they were adopted to two different families in December (we are hoping to meet up with his mum this month).

I think having him from a pup and getting to meet him first was right for us, apart from him being nervous of children (wants to walk as far away from them as possible) we have no issues with him at all. I do think this is because we got him young so training and socialising has been easier, plus he has our older dog to model behaviour on. (The good and the cheeky)You have to do what's right for you.