Dogs from overseas. Have you adopted one.

[Itsmeandhim]

We have been searching for the right dog to adopt for nearly 4 months. And are prepared to wait as long as is needed. We'd prefer a dog or bitch between 1-5 years old.
We want a small dog that will get on with our sons dog who we have a couple of times a week.
I've noticed that a few dogs are from Romania and even China.
Has anyone else ever adopted a dog from overseas.
If they are a couple of years old what about the language.
How do the rescuers know the dogs history.

Maybe a stupid question, but aren't there thousands of dogs in the UK waiting to be rehomed? The RSPCA are saying that their shelters are struggling due to how many have been abandoned recently.

I know people who have and they've been very happy

We rehomed a dog from Athens in October. He is an absolute darling, and the support from the individual managing the adoption has been great. He arrived very nervous, but is building up his confidence gradually and we are absolutely thrilled with him. He is sweet and affectionate, if a bit needy at times; no barking, chewing or resource guarding at all.

We looked at UK centres, too, but the dogs tended to have quite serious behavioural issues, thanks to having been living in family homes where there was little understanding of canine behaviour. Our boy has some issues from institutional living; but at least he hasn't been screwed up by English anthropomorphism 😁.

And he is SO much easier than the fancy £5K 'doodles etc that are so popular where we live!

@tintodeverano2

Maybe a stupid question, but aren't there thousands of dogs in the UK waiting to be rehomed? The RSPCA are saying that their shelters are struggling due to how many have been abandoned recently.

Yes but they seem to have much stricter re homing policies. Lots of stories here of people waiting endlessly but without luck.

We also don't have a stray problem.

Rescues overseas (as was explained upthread) rescues street dogs and their litters.

They don't tend to be surrendered for behavioural problems like in the U.K. they'd just be shot.

@tintodeverano2

Maybe a stupid question, but aren't there thousands of dogs in the UK waiting to be rehomed? The RSPCA are saying that their shelters are struggling due to how many have been abandoned recently.

I can only answer for us, @tintodeverano2 - we did look at UK rescues, but none of the dogs that seemed right for us could live with cats, and we have a cat. The Cypriot rescue was willing to intrusive our dog to cats and see how she reacted to them - I doubt that the SSPCA or Dogs’ Trust would have done this.

If reputable uk centres won't consider you because you have young children, wait until your children are older!
This is ridiculous. We already had our dog since before our son was born. Our son is five and our dog sadly was put to sleep a few months ago. So we already had a dog, but now we can’t have a replacement dog because our son is too young? He’s older now than he was six months ago when we had a dog! This is why we will end up buying a dog because rescues won’t let us have one.

We adopted a dog from Bosnia last year. It's been a long road and he is actually a really lovely dog now with loads of potential BUT he was a nervous wreck. I think we got lucky in that he is healthy and sweet natured. He was terrified of us and everything else, we couldn't get close to him for months or take him out and he still has a long way to go.
It's a massive gamble that I wouldn't do again, but having said that, he is beautiful and it's really rewarding to see him grow and thrive.