Have you ever adopted a dog from abroad?

[Nikhedonia]

Has anyone got any experience of adopting a dog from Cyprus, Bulgaria etc?

I've tried adopting in the UK but most rescues don't seem to have puppies and aren't allowing me to adopt a dog with a young child. The minimum age they ask for always seems to be 8 or 12.

You have ultimately decided to bring in a traumatised dog from another country, after completing a questionnaire about your suitability, in to your family home. A dog that you have never met and know nothing about.

I absolutely have not. I am considering it as an option and asking others what their experience has been. No deposits have been paid, no decisions have been made. I'm making enquiries and looking into it as an option.

I’m on the other side of this. I’m in Portugal and have bottle fed abandoned puppies for a charity who has links with a U.K. rescue. Before any dogs travel to the U.K. they are health checked, vaccinated and socialised in foster care.

Most go straight to their new families, some go to U.K. foster families for a few days but they don’t bring diseased, unsuitable dogs over. If you’re in the south try Chimney Farm Rescue, but they don’t have very young pups as they have to be around 16 weeks to be legal to travel

All my pups are with their original adoptive families and living great lives (I see their updates on fb)

So much ignorance on this thread

Yes - from Spain and it was a bad experience. The dog was fostered in the UK first. The Foster person was new to fostering, we were new to owning a dog. The charity pushed us to have the one year old dog and mentioned no issues. The fosterer, we believe, concealed issues, as she wanted the dog out of her house.

The charity made us feel very guilty when we could not cope with a dog that lunged at every car, person, cyclist when we walked her in the busy urban environment we lived.

She was a lot more traumatised than we'd been led to believe. We were out of pocket by a fair bit of money and had to drive her a long way to another Foster home and she s adopted in a countryside setting which was better for her.

We instead adopted a 3 year old lurcher from a lurcher rescue in the UK. Our youngest child was 7 at the time. We love our lurcher dearly, and she's now 11. But we still think of the dog we couldn't cope with and feel a lot of guilt and sadness over the experience.

I run a volunteer company tracking lost dogs and 90% of the work is for dogs that come from abroad.

Do remember they are street dogs and used to fending for themeselves. They do need special care and will need a lot of help settling into (for them ) an enclosed area. Some street dogs are pretty happy!

I do worry about the diseases and would not want to commit to a dog I had not seen in real life before hand

@Nikhedonia. Ive posted in similar threads before. I foster dogs in the uk but have had lots of abroad dogs in my time due to this.
Other than the whole needy dogs in the uk issue:

1. the company. Basically it hugely depends on the charity you get them from. Lots of the charities are financially dubious,and realistically lots you end up paying huge amounts for the dogs to be bought over. Some of the "charities" are dubious also in where they source dogs. Ive certainly come across some where concerns have been raised where they seem to be be producing puppies to meet demand. There is often no after care at all. So often dogs are bought over with the promise of follow up, support etc and none of this materialises. Hence a lot of them end up in the uk system.

2. the adopters. It tends to be much more you give us money we give you the dog. Often (understandably) people go abroad because of the uk requirements. This can mean that people who dont have the right set up for a dog are given a dog.

3. the dogs themselves. In my experience dogs arent assessed properly and are sold as something they are not. Often they are sold as some sort of generic dog with no regard to breed needs etc. Lots that ive encounted have said they are good with children, cats, house trained etc. Think about it logically why would a dog whos never lived with humans be good at any of those things? They are sold as being much easier than uk dogs (hence why you are looking at them) but often they have much more needs. They might take months to settle in a house, might need experience and often need lots of time investing. There is little matching of the dog with a home

The perfect example of this was my last foster. She was homed to a couple who worked full time and had young kids, cat etc. Because of their set up they wouldn't have been allowed a uk dog so they went abroad. They didnt really have the time for a dog, they also wouldnt have passed a home check as they didnt have a secure garden etc. The dog they were "matched with" was child friendly etc, a bit shy but all round good fit. What they got was a terrified dog who was a puppy collie cross it turns out. Theres no way a collie cross would have worked in their set up because their energy needs being too high, you wouldnt pair that dog with full time workers. Due to her background she was scared of the kids, thus un predictable, used to fighting for food and petrified of house hold items eg washing machine. No clue how to walk on a lead. She was given to inexperienced owners who also didnt have the time to allow her to settle in eg. If you have kids you dont have time for the dog to get better with kids. None of the after support promised was given so the dog ended up in uk rescue.

Shes a cracking dog after lots of work but she should have never of been given to those people. I have met many lovely dogs from similar circumstances but all have needed lots of work and time. Expect a highly traumatised dog that will need lots of work.

@Gatr that's all really useful, thank you.

The vast majority of dog bites are from family pets to children 5 and under.

So no, I wouldn’t expect any reputable rescue to rehome to families with young children.

I despise the abroad dog rescues.
I think most are a front for business, not legitimate ‘charities’.
Taking strays and shipping them to another country does nothing to actually tackle the problem of strays/overpopulation and their abuse.
Diseases which are not currently in this country which has already been mentioned.
A lot of these dogs have significant behavioural issues and despite what some would have you believe, lots of love and cookies and a good behaviourist can’t always fix it.
And if/when it goes wrong these ‘charities’ are rarely there to pick up the pieces.
It falls onto British charities who are already fit to bursting.

Either wait and get a rescue from a proper, reputable organisation or buy a well bred puppy would my advice.

@Dogsarebetterthanpeople thank you, I'll have a good think about it.

You won't get an 8 week old puppy from abroad, they have to be no younger than 4 months old in order to be legally imported. In that 4 months they may or may not have been in kennels with minimal small-child/house socialisation and will require a LOT of work to make up for those few essential weeks of socialisation window they've missed. If you've not had a dog from a puppy before and done all that training - I wouldn't recommend it.

Rescues in the UK are getting puppies in BUT they're getting 500-1000 applications for one dog. EVERYONE wants a puppy at the moment.

If you want to rescue a puppy in the UK, wait until the new year. Hopefully the 2020 madness will have settled down.

A 5 year old and a bitey puppy can be very hard work regardless of where the dog has come from, this is why rescues are wary of rehoming to kids that little - returns to the rescue are higher after the child has been nipped a few times and is now terrified of the dog.

I'm aware I won't get an 8 week puppy from abroad. I didn't have that expectation, either.

@Junobug

I hate the line that breeders are the problem. If more people went to breeders, who look after their dogs, love their dogs and vet the future owners, then there would be far, far less dogs in rescues, who were brought in haste and because they were cheaper. And I'm talking about proper breeders not puppy farms and whatever cross breed is currently in fashion. You have ultimately decided to bring in a traumatised dog from another country, after completing a questionnaire about your suitability, in to your family home. A dog that you have never met and know nothing about.

I do think there is a fair point here. My (now) five year old "puppy" came from a "breeder". A working farm, breeding border collies, with ISDS registration - and their dog was a descendent of one of mine! So definitely "breeders". I bought my pup, after they satisfied themselves that I knew, could look after, and train, a border collie - the price for a blue merle was less than half what some places were charging because they were only interested in covering their costs and getting the right home. Using "breeders" as a perjorative term is offensive and unfair, and makes it sound as though nobody is in it for anything other than money.

I'd honestly have more questions about the Kennel Club and their breed standards that have led to breeding which is not in the best interests of the dog but, rather, some human definition of what a particular dog should look like. Perhaps if we got rid of them, we could let dogs be dogs and reduce the inflated prices being charged for whatever is the "in" dog this year.

I got 9 month old pup from Romania. We were home checked etc. We had a lot of issues with separation anxiety at the start but that settled down. It was hard work.

The problem with any rescue, you just don't know what their history is, trauma can be deep rooted. Our dog was a street dog for the first few months of her life then lived in a shelter with a lot of other dogs.

She is fine with other dogs that we meet on the street but had zero recall, we've went through many trainers. She just runs away. She also still acts like she doesn't know if she'll eat again so eats every food she finds on a walk.

She's coming up for 4 years old now and she's a lovely dog with a lot of love to give.

My two Romanian girls were not puppies, one 3-4, one 15 and they have both been wonderful. Both scared from traumatic experiences but gentle souls when we got them and it has been an absolute delight to see them blossom into confident dogs.

What's the attraction of a puppy over an older dog? They have lots of needs sometimes more than an older rescue.
Our first dog we picked up 4th hand at 6 months! Talk about anxiety issues. He's amazing now but we wouldn't have been able to do all we did with him if we'd had a child.
Our second dog came at 8, she's very much a puppy at heart but really well trained. She's very playful with my younger child (6) we didn't want a puppy or young dog whilst DC was so young partly because the kids would be all over it and partly because those first few months can be hard.
Our first dog is getting on a bit now, I think if moving forwards another dog were to join the family it might be a puppy because we might be ready for one.
I've got friends who adopted a foreign rescue puppy it's a very anxiois dog, and anxious dogs can be very loud barkers! Lovely dog but shy and timid until it barks

What's the attraction of a puppy over an older dog?

I've explained this quite a few times upthread.

I would prefer an older dog, but can't rescue in the UK due to DD's age. Wouldn't consider an older rescue from the EU, due to the much higher risk that they would come with behavioural issues.

I would prefer an older dog, but can't rescue in the UK due to DD's age. Wouldn't consider an older rescue from the EU, due to the much higher risk that they would come with behavioural issues
A large proportion of temperament is inherited so without meeting the parents there is always a risk that any puppy will grow up with a poor temperament regardless of their upbringing.
Also, as a PP mentioned, the youngest you can legally get a puppy from abroad is 16 weeks due to the rabies vaccine.
16 weeks means you’ve missed the socialisation window.

Also, as a PP mentioned, the youngest you can legally get a puppy from abroad is 16 weeks due to the rabies vaccine.
16 weeks means you’ve missed the socialisation window.

As I've said upthread, I'm aware of this. The puppy i am currently considering is in a foster home so is being socialised.

The puppy i am currently considering is in a foster home so is being socialised
So was the puppy was born here then to a mum already in the UK?
So both the mum and pup can be seen?

Thanks again to those who have taken the time to provide their advice and experiences.

I'll have a think about what's best for all involved and make a decision.

I have a spanish rescue (terrier) that I adopted at 4 months. He was in a foster home before he came to England, so was well socialised. Mostly he's a dream of a dog, but has a very high prey drive, which means his recall is a bit precarious. Well mannered around children and other dogs, and he managed to fit in with the cats who were already resident. This took a while though, and for a while I thought I'd made a terrible mistake and ruined the cats lives.

I have a dog from Spain.
Rescues wouldnt give me one, because i was too young to take responsibility for a dog (i was 19).
I already had a dog who was 4 years old at the time and i wanted to get a companion for him.
We quickly found the perfect dog with a rescue from spain. Everything went smoothly and the dog is still with us 12 years later.
We didnt get a puppy, she was 4 when we adopted her. They informed us really well about her character and all her quirks. We got exactly what we signed up for and there were no surprises.
They came to see our home and wanted to meet everyone living there. They came to check in again 6 months later to see how everything was going and they called a couple times after that for an update.