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

[Bookworm4]

@Branleuse
Rescues have requirements to ensure the dog doesn’t end up back in rescue. Foreign rescues are basically catalogue shopping, you don’t get to meet the dog or get to know it, it’s just delivered to you. The amount of foreign dogs rehomed that go wrong is huge and most of the time it’s left to a UK rescue to save the dog. Note how all the street dogs are ‘loving and friendly’ people are incredibly naive with these dogs, a street dog isn’t instantly fitting into your home.

[MattMagnolia]

I know at least eight rescue dogs from abroad. The only thing they have in common is that each was of unknown past, experiences and personality. You can’t guess what you are getting and several have had serious problems.
Not a good idea for anyone’s first dog.

[GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman]

All I can provide is some anecdata, about 5 Romanian dogs in this area:
One very shy of other dogs and zero recall, but she is quite new here and may well improve
One has to be kept on lead as might go for other dogs (this is after perhaps 4 years, no change)
One legged it a few weeks in and was never seen again
One legged it almost as soon as it got to its new home and was eventually recovered after half the countryside was looking out for it.
One seems fairly okay.

Plus today I was listening to a podcast about a rehomed street dog which sounded like an absolute fucking nightmare and a time-, money- and emotion-eating project. 'Such a lovely dog but...' anxiety, aggressive behaviour, couldn't be taken on walks. Okay if you're up for it and have dog experience, but otherwise, no.

Not great odds, though I think some rescues that bring in dogs from abroad are better than others. Some are breed specific and foster the dogs to get a better handle on them. I'd insist on multiple meetings before I took a dog.

Personally if I was planning to rescue, I'd decide on a breed (or cross of one) and contact a breed-specific rescue based in the UK.

[Branleuse]

@Bookworm4
I met my spanish dog in the UK at the rescue centre before choosing her. It wasnt like catalogue shopping at all.
I know that what you say does happen, as my friend didnt meet her dog first so that was a gamble that worked out thankfully, but tbf, our other rescue dog that is english, was chosen before we met her too. Sometimes that's just how rescues work. It probably depends on which rescue you use, but its not true to say that rescues that deal with foreign dogs dont allow you to meet. Ours was also on a weeks trial

[Maneandfeathers]

I wouldn’t ever consider importing a dog.

Personally I think the money would be better spent on education and neutering in the home country than shipping dogs to another country and expecting them to fit in a society they are not adjusted for.

Most of them have behavioural issues, quite a few serious ones. It’s my job to deal with aggressive dogs and LOTS of my clients are imports. Mainly issues with nervous and food aggression as well as issues adjusting to home life.

I also don’t agree with the disease risk. No matter what tests are in place it’s a matter of time before we end up with something terrible. We’ve already seen tongue worm and other random parasites not native to this country.

I was in my local shelter today, 20-30 dogs of all types and sizes, from a chihuahua to a greyhound and everything inbetween. There are rescues for just about every breed in the UK What’s wrong with them

[ThisIsNotAIBUPeople]

@Maneandfeathers Would your rescue rehome to a family with children, cats and someone who worked part time? Genuinely interested to know, and if so where are you?!

[Maneandfeathers]

@ThisIsNotAIBUPeople I don’t work for a rescue but there are lots that do!
Plenty of breed specific and smaller rescues. It’s a misconception that uk rescues don’t rehome to the above.
I know for a fact dogs trust, greyhound rescue, GSDR, blackretrieverx, spaniel rescue, many tears and rspca rehome to families. That’s excluding the hundreds of small rescues out there.
I am in the north and can provide details of so many places to pick up a nice dog if your happy to wait for something that fits.

I think UK based rescues are stricter and rightly so.
If I am assessing a dog for potential rehoming I will not rehome it with children or pets if i am not 110% happy with it. I often wonder if rescues are dammed if they do and dammed if they don’t, I mean would people prefer they sent dogs to homes that are unsuitable?

I don’t think the Romanian rescues test as thoroughly from the dogs I’ve met.

[user1471542018]

The main diseases worried about with foreign dogs are parasites like leishmania, heart worm, ehrlichia and babesia (one strain of which is now known to be transmitted in Essex, brought over by a mammal (most likely dog) from Europe and released into the tick population. Some of these (leishmania) can be transmitted to humans. Some of them can be controlled with medication but not cured. None of them are tested for before coming into the UK, the pet passport is only interested in rabies and one strain of tapeworm.

I personally have seen a dog imported as a rescue with leishmania and erlichia the rescue helpfully telling the owner it cost £20 a month to treat. In the UK, the cost of the medications was nearer £150 per month for the rest of the dog’s life, without counting blood tests or vets fees. Unsurprisingly the owners were not able to afford it, the rescue was unable to help with fees, they stopped treating the dog, and it relapsed and died within about 6 months of being in the UK.

[ThisIsNotAIBUPeople]

@Maneandfeathers Thank you. Not up North unfortunately!

[Branleuse]

Ultimately, if you can, and know full well you can, give a dog a good home, then it is worthwhile to adopt a rescue dog. Its a good thing to do, as long as you go into it with your eyes open and not in some fantasy land. It is better imo to adopt a dog from wherever it needs adopting from than to buy a puppy from a breeder.

[Okki]

We have à Romanian rescue. We've had him almost 3 months. Tbh we didn't know he was from Romania, as so many people have mentioned there are lots of dogs in UK that need rescuing, I didn't want a foreign dog. We saw him advertised at a local charity and went to meet him. Had to take whole family and any existing pets (don't have any) to meet him. He was absolutely adorable and spent half an hour playing with DC's. We said we would proceed with adoption at which point they told us he was a Romanian street dog. About 11/12 months old. He'd spent 2 months in a foster home prior to being brought to UK.

We know that we have been incredibly lucky with him as we were prepared for issues and have had nothing. He has never toileted in the house for example. He goes off lead, takes treats gently.

It was also the first rescue we approached who would consider us because of the age of DC's as my DS is under 10, however not all dogs were suitable.

Very best of luck with finding a family dog. Took us a long time but no regrets. (He's also just done two 17 hr car and ferry journeys with us as we went to France for hols).

Sorry that was a bit long

[ThisIsNotAIBUPeople]

Okki that's a lovely happy ending

[hairycabbage]

I have no experience of adopting from Romania but wanted to post to say that we adopted a lurcher and have 3 children, two of whom were under 5, and I also work part time. We don't have a cat and definitely couldn't with the dog we rescued but many of them are cat friendly.
We were accepted immediately after the home check and admittedly had to wait a few months until one became available but it was worth the wait as he's fitted in perfectly. If you'd consider a greyhound/ whippet/ lurcher (and they do make fantastic low maintenance pets) try Forever Hounds Trust.

[ThisIsNotAIBUPeople]

Thank you @hairycabbage I did think about that breed but was worried about their chase instinct with the cats. I'll look into it.

[Imonaplane]

I have pm'd you.

[MrsBudd]

My friend has a dog from a Romanian rescue and he is wonderful. So friendly and lovely with my 2 year old 😊

[Ylvamoon]

I adopted a London Street dog many years ago. Ok she came from Battersea Dog's Home! Lovely dog, great with kids & I was a FT student at the time! UK rescues do have dogs for all types of homes.

[Branleuse]

Battersea didnt have any suitable when I looked. Zero. Nor did dogs trust, nor did many tears, nor did any of the other rescues. I wonder if they are covering their backs now, not allowing dogs to go to homes with kids or cats in case they get sued?
Have had a battersea dog in the past. She was a brilliant girl, but my partner got her before any kids were on the scene

[Branleuse]

just double checked a few that i previously tried. As suspected, same story. None that are suitable with kids (even older kids) and cats.

Not sure what people expect, or why my precious girl should have died in the perrera rather than be rehomed by me, or wtf that has got to do with anyone else what nationality my healthy, happy and much loved dog is.

[XXcstatic]

I know many will disagree, but I don't think No Kill policies are helping dogs. Unfortunately, due to human cruelty and neglect, many dogs are not socialised to live with humans successfully. There are some successful rehabilitations, of course, but many will always be fearful and stressed around humans and other dogs. De-funding of shelters that have dogs PTS, and people having saviour complexes, so wanting to rescue dogs with a tragic past, mean that we are trying to re-house dogs with no realistic chance of rehabilitation. Meanwhile dogs who could be successfully re-homed are stuck in shelters because there aren't enough adopters to go round.

I want to see a world where no dog is too damaged to live with humans but, to achieve that, we need to stop humans damaging dogs at a formative age, not rely on trying to rehab them once the damage has been done.

[ThisIsNotAIBUPeople]

@Branleuse your dog is lucky to have such a loving home. At the end of the day you have given a dog in need a forever home and that has to be a good thing to my mind.
I have a few contacts thanks to some PMs so thanks to all who have helped.

[OpheliaTodd]

I agree XX.

I don’t agree with the Dogs Trust “Never put a healthy dog down” philosophy at all.

[Rahul88]

We had a bad experience when we agreed to take a Romanian foster dog. We weren’t given the full picture about the dog at all, and the charity didn’t offer us much help when the OH was bitten quite badly (the dog was terrified of men and OH was main carer). We got in touch with the woman in Romania who knew the dog and had arranged his transfer to the UK and she was surprised the charity had placed him with us as she had said he needed an experienced home.

We’ve met several Romanian/Bulgarian dogs since who have settled well in the UK. I wouldn’t do it again without asking a lot of questions first!

[mumofthree321]

As a first time dog owner I would strongly advise you not to get a rescue from abroad. There are so many reasons why I wouldn't know where to start. If the local dog rescue centre doesn't have a suitable dog for you try searching (UK) wide on Battersea, Dog Trust etc. Alternatively, if you can narrow down suitable breeds that would suit your family try contacting the Breed Associations as they are often responsible for rehoming lots of wonderful dogs. Re-homed dogs suit lots of different home environments so there's certainly one out there who'd be so grateful for its forever home with you :)

[escapade1234]

Why isn’t it the law that all dogs and cats are sterilised at birth? (Or soon as appropriate)? There are so many stuck in shelters that morally no more should be born for the next decade at least, surely?