I just want a dog

[Coronagroaner]

Our dog died shortly before lockdown. Once the grief had subsided enough to start looking for another one covid restrictions had kicked in and it was impossible to look at rescues.

Then puppy prices went through the roof and there are still slim pickings at rescues.

Now at the stage of simultaneously just wanting anything just to have a dog in the house again and worrying that no dog can ever live up to the last one and worrying that whatever we get will have some big issue and we’ll regret it.

Kids are still devastated and ask when we’re getting another dog every day-they want to play With and stroke every dog we meet and often cry afterwards because they want one so much.

I know you’re right bunnygeek. It just seems so unfair that we’re in this position at this time! I’m sure sadly there will be plenty of lockdown puppies in rescues in a few months.

A friend is fostering for a local organisation and they've said they're expecting it to be busy from September onwards :(

The breed specific rescues do seem to be the most through at matching the right dog.
I’ve registered with a lurcher one and a spaniel one (and in a moment of madness an Irish wolfhound one)

Oh I do hope you get one soon. You could put word out locally in case there's a rescue from strange circumstances- move abroad, breakdown of relationship, old person not able to cope. We had our best childhood dog from a lady who needed to go into a care home. He was 6 when we got him but a total joy

@Borderstotheleftofme

Romanian ones I really wouldn’t.. There are so many threads on here of abroad dog rescue gone wrong.

Our last dog was a lurcher and I’d love another one of them but we now have (lockdown wink) guinea pigs which complicates things a bit and rules out most greyhounds
Another reason to avoid an abroad rescue.
A fair percentage will be ex street dogs, their prey drive may well be extremely strong.

Ah, yes, those 'foreign' dogs are such dirty, feral, dangerous, savage beasts. That god for brexit, eh?

This attitude makes me sick to my stomach

@Honu

Oh OP I so feel for you. I have been there in the same time frame as you. The grief, the queries about rescue or puppy, how will it match up to the old dog, the lack of puppies - all of it.

I decided my biggest worry was what if it didn't work out? My mother had three rescue dogs - the first she found so difficult it had to go back, the second, despite initial difficulties was perfect and lived a long and fantastic life with her, the third was 'OK' and she kept that one but it was always very second best. So it was to be a puppy.

I have spent three months looking because this dog is for ever, not just for Covid, getting more and more desperate. Breed websites had nothing and I found my best bet by far was Gumtree. You have to be quick - I was looking for ages and the advert I eventually replied to was only up for 40 minutes, the seller was so overwhelmed. This was a litter not even born at the time but .... my puppy was born last Monday. I won't have her till September but at last I am on my way.

Every good wish to you.

That's terrible advice! You do realise you have bought a puppy-farmed puppy in all likelihood? I hope most animal lovers don't put their on needs (which in your case is just timeframe) above the welfare of the breeding dogs & puppies.

God how utterly ridiculous.

My objections to overseas dogs are as follows:

• lots of these ‘rescues’ don’t do things properly, as evidenced by the myriad of threads on here from people who have been given dogs that have turned out to be dog aggressive/human aggressive/uncontrollable prey drive/escape artists/nervous wrecks etc and are given zero support from the rescue whatsoever.

• thousands of healthy uk dogs with no major behavioural issues are put to sleep every single year for no reason other than lack of homes yet somehow it’s deemed to be a good idea to bring even more over from abroad?!

• taking dogs from abroad does not do anything to tackle the attitude towards dogs in these countries and it doesn’t do anything to tackle the number of strays.

You cannot physically rehome every single dog as soon as you bring one over to the UK plenty more replace it. I am in support of neutering schemes and education to change peoples perception of dogs. I am not in favour of exporting the chosen few to new homes in the uk.

• these dogs have mostly lived on the street, many have been subjected to terrible abuse at the hands of people, many have had to fight with other dogs for food or hunt for food.

It is well known that a large percentage of street dogs suffer with issues like severe resource guarding, aggression, high prey drive etc because of their experiences on the street.

• there are certain ‘rescues’ operating as business in these countries making large profits.

• there are diseases, some zoonotic (transferable to humans) that are not present in this country but are in Greece, Romania, Spain etc.

It’s not unheard of for dogs from abroad to reach here carrying or suffering from this diseases.

My opinion has nothing whatsoever to do with racism.

FYI me and DH are totally against Brexit.

We are really, really worried about the implications actually and desperately want to move but can’t afford it.

A huge proportion of DHs family are foreign and DH has been subjected to racist abuse all his life because he has a non British name and looks obviously Middle Eastern despite being born here.

But yeah we are obviously terrible, entitled racists because we don’t agree with abroad dog ‘rescue’.

I got 2 dogs from a Romanian rescue I found on Facebook.
They don't have strong prey drives (I have a cat) and they are better behaved than a lot of dogs I see our and about that are UK raised from puppy.

A Labrador is a good robust dog for children.

There will be hundreds/thousands of dogs being rehomed in September wnen the schools go back/furlough ends/redundancies/recession starts so sit on your hands until then. I have lost dogs to old age in the past and rushed to rescue another, but be patient and you will find the right one.

@Borderstotheleftofme

God how utterly ridiculous.

My objections to overseas dogs are as follows:

• lots of these ‘rescues’ don’t do things properly, as evidenced by the myriad of threads on here from people who have been given dogs that have turned out to be dog aggressive/human aggressive/uncontrollable prey drive/escape artists/nervous wrecks etc and are given zero support from the rescue whatsoever.

• thousands of healthy uk dogs with no major behavioural issues are put to sleep every single year for no reason other than lack of homes yet somehow it’s deemed to be a good idea to bring even more over from abroad?!

• taking dogs from abroad does not do anything to tackle the attitude towards dogs in these countries and it doesn’t do anything to tackle the number of strays.

You cannot physically rehome every single dog as soon as you bring one over to the UK plenty more replace it. I am in support of neutering schemes and education to change peoples perception of dogs. I am not in favour of exporting the chosen few to new homes in the uk.

• these dogs have mostly lived on the street, many have been subjected to terrible abuse at the hands of people, many have had to fight with other dogs for food or hunt for food.

It is well known that a large percentage of street dogs suffer with issues like severe resource guarding, aggression, high prey drive etc because of their experiences on the street.

• there are certain ‘rescues’ operating as business in these countries making large profits.

• there are diseases, some zoonotic (transferable to humans) that are not present in this country but are in Greece, Romania, Spain etc.

It’s not unheard of for dogs from abroad to reach here carrying or suffering from this diseases.

My opinion has nothing whatsoever to do with racism.

FYI me and DH are totally against Brexit.

We are really, really worried about the implications actually and desperately want to move but can’t afford it.

A huge proportion of DHs family are foreign and DH has been subjected to racist abuse all his life because he has a non British name and looks obviously Middle Eastern despite being born here.

But yeah we are obviously terrible, entitled racists because we don’t agree with abroad dog ‘rescue’.

With respect that's a very one-sided view.

I have actually rescued 2 of these dogs (separately) and have had them for 3 years.

I have not encountered anything like you describe (slightly hysterical Daily Mail rant) and none of the issues you have written about.
I'm not the only one as I know a few people with lovely abroad rescue dogs since having mine. That's in real life.

Your post is full of sweeping generalisations;

"- lots of these ‘rescues’ don’t do things properly..."

"- taking dogs from abroad does not do anything to tackle the attitude towards dogs in these countries and it doesn’t do anything to tackle the number of strays..."

"- these dogs have mostly lived on the street, many have been subjected to terrible abuse at the hands of people, many have had to fight with other dogs for food or hunt for food.
It is well known that a large percentage of street dogs suffer with issues like severe resource guarding, aggression, high prey drive etc because of their experiences on the street."

"- there are diseases, some zoonotic (transferable to humans) that are not present in this country but are in Greece, Romania, Spain etc.
It’s not unheard of for dogs from abroad to reach here carrying or suffering from this diseases."

Where is your factual evidence for all these assertions? Would love to see you back up your lazy claims with hard data.

I see 150 dogs twice a week (at a Municipal kennels with a resident vet, not a backstreet charity) who are wormed, vaccinated, well fed, friendly and are there through no fault of their own who are desperate for a loving home. And then I see so many threads on here from people who are desperate to give a dog a loving home but there are no dogs available.

Daily mail rant

Ugh, I give up.
I’m so glad you are pleased with your lovely dogs.
I really am.
But just because you’ve had a good experience doesn’t mean that is the norm.

There are so so many threads and posts here from people who have had really terrible experiences and I still stand by everything I said.

Even if you do get a good rescue who do things properly and you do get dogs properly matched to you, it still doesn’t solve the problem.

Your chosen dogs are lucky and will have a lively life but rehoming strays will never save them all, you are talking about hundreds of thousands of dogs, its doing nothing to tackle the over population problem in these countries and it’s doing nothing to change the way people in these countries view and treat dogs.

But in any case, I’m not going to stay and be accused of racism which is utterly ridiculous or a dog hater ‘dirty, feral, savage beasts’ or any other nonsense.

I don’t believe overseas rescue is in the best interests of the dogs in those countries or the dogs here in the uk.

But I’m not going to argue the point.

So, a flounce instead of facts.

Oh, and if foreign dogs are so diseased ridden, why does the EU have quarantine free movement of animals??

The Dogs Trust have said that foreign dogs can bring diseases in that are not here currently and not tested for so I’d rather get my information from them and DEFRA rather than someone on the internet who volunteers .
There are a number diseases found in mainland Europe that we don’t have in the UK and which are not subject to testing or management under the rules of pet travel.

more: [[https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/18/dog-rescuers-rehoming-pets-romania-bringing-disease-uk-12258134/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: www.facebook.com/MetroUK/]]

Sorry posted too soon , there was also a thread on here a couple of years ago about a dog that had tongue worm iirc .

I volunteer in animal rescue in Portugal. Some of our dogs go to the U.K. to be rehomed. They are subject to health checks and only go if totally healthy

Most of them are puppies who’ve been abandoned at a few days old and I have bottle fed many litters of pups and kittens, who are fostered until they can travel. They’re perfectly capable of making good family pets but there aren’t enough homes here, Portugal has a fraction of the population of the U.K. I’d rather see these pups rehomed rather than all the farmed puppies being churned out in appalling conditions

I didn't want a staff, akita, husky or greyhound so UK rescues were out.

Most rescues abroad run some sort of neutering scheme. Plus dogs abroad have absolutely awful lives in pounds compared to dogs in the UK.

My abroad rescue couldn't be more utterly perfect for what I wanted. Might not be able change every dogs life but I changed hers.

We also do tnr, trap, neuter, release for those animals who aren’t suitable to be pets. Every animal taken off the street, or neutered will eventually make a huge difference

I have just had a female cat spayed (she was already pregnant) have rescued 3 kittens, one homed, two still with us waiting to be neutered, and am trying to catch their mum, although she’s very wily. If we hadn’t done that by next spring there would have been probably 20 or 30 unwanted cats and kittens

@Yaottie

I didn't want a staff, akita, husky or greyhound so UK rescues were out.

Most rescues abroad run some sort of neutering scheme. Plus dogs abroad have absolutely awful lives in pounds compared to dogs in the UK.

My abroad rescue couldn't be more utterly perfect for what I wanted. Might not be able change every dogs life but I changed hers.

Some have awful lives. Some are loved and cared for.

Glad you've found your perfect dog

"- thousands of healthy uk dogs with no major behavioural issues are put to sleep every single year for no reason other than lack of homes yet somehow it’s deemed to be a good idea to bring even more over from abroad?!"

Really, though? Why would the UK be simultaneously slaughtering dogs and preventing them being adopted by lengthy lists of rules at the shelters that make all their dogs sound like cat-eating, growling nightmares and demanding all owners be highly-experienced and child-free?

Pretty sure that might have been sorted by now.

Foreign shelters offer puppies bred accidentally, fostered within families. Domestic shelters offer, as it seems from their websites, little more than abandoned Staffies. Very sad for the Staffies, it's true, but in my area a number come in via the RSPCA from dog-fighting circles. Maybe it's because I live in a city, but there's no basket of puppies turning up at these places. And all the dogs are labelled to be in need of experienced owners, no children, no cats.

You can't blame people for going down the puppy or EU-foster route when domestic shelters are clearly caring for some deeply damaged dogs, clearly so damaged that the average family can't be considered capable of repairing them.

As far as I've seen dealing with foreign rescue, the door hasn't been slammed in my face yet for the anti-dog crime of having a nearly 12 year old.

I know there are plenty of deserving “foreign” dogs. In Italy, for example, people will abandon a perfectly nice dog at the drop of a hat - because they’re going on holiday for two months, or because that breed is out of fashion and they want the latest puppy etc.

But... I am highly suspicious of the sudden spike in he availability of “trendy” dogs from abroad, eg cockapoos and cavachons and so on. Makes me think they are being bred to order and then sold at “adoption” prices which undercut breeder prices in the Uk but are still pretty high for unregulated dogs.

Those are indeed being bred to order. With laxer restrictions, the UK contact is just a middle man. That way, 'designer' breeds are shipped in. Cockapoo etc. Pomeranians. French bulldogs. Just puppy-farming but from abroad.

Foreign RESCUE shelters are for abandoned dogs in those countries, and street dogs. You don't get cavachons from there, you get mongrels who've been spayed and treated for their ailments before being fostered.

My dog came from Cyprus where she was a street dog. She's a mix of one easily identifiable breed with who knows what else. I have never seen someone get a designer dog from abroad and claim to rescue it

I have a Romanian rescue. She was born into rescue and came to England at 14 weeks old. She was fully vet checked and although not well socialised she is quite possibly the Best Dog in The World.

We used a small, very stringent rescue organisation who have been hugely supportive the whole way through. She’s our first dog and we couldn’t be happier with her.

Happy to send you the info if you want?

Oh and as for being a designer dog, she looks like about 3 different breeds sewn together. If any of you are fans of Terry Pratchett she looks like one of Igor’th experimenth

People who rescue a foreign dog get so much more shit than people who buy a designer puggle or jackapoo etc etc.
A dog is a dog, and to rescue an existing dog, no matter where from is always better than perpetuating the horrible puppy breeding for profit industry