Romanian rescues anyone?

[disappearingfish]

We lost our old boy early last summer and are ready to take on another rescue.

We have had a home check with a charity that rescues dogs from Romania and have been matched with a 2 year old dog that looks lovely.

Has anyone been through this? I'm slightly nervous about adopting a dog that you don't meet IRL first. Otherwise the organisation seems great.

Most need a lot of money to run effectively, but there are some fantastic breed rescues out there, and ask to foster before you adopt, or volunteer to foster. That way you can get to know a dog before you are emotionally invested.

So if the person decides they don't like the dog on foster, they just dump it back in the rescue and it's fine to do this as long as the person isn't 'emotionally invested', yet no thought is given to the animal's wellbeing.

How can anyone know that for certain, though? Unless the dogs have travelled that kind of distance before, it's just guesswork. Lots of these dogs arrive from overseas completely traumatised and shut down, and with absolutely no experience of being handled by people, let alone living with families.

There is one in my area at the moment who came over from Romania and escaped from his foster home (he broke out of a latched window) and has been on the run for nearly three weeks now. There are multiple teams of trappers working to get him but he's proving impossible to catch - so he's currently living "wild" in the countryside.

@andrainwillmaketheflowersgrow interesting you say that as we have been warned by the organisation we're adopting through that they are excellent escape artists in the first few weeks/months until they realise they're "home". And they've given us advice on how to keep them extra safe. I guess as with all rescues, home and abroad, you have to at some point trust that the volunteers are working with the dogs' best interests at heart.

Our previous (UK) rescue was much trickier than the Dog's Trust initially assessed him to be and he had life long issues that we adjusted to. I expect there will be similar with this one. Dogs are by their nature unpredictable, even pedigrees from impeccable lineage.

It's not a one-off either @disappearingfish - there are lots of stories of rescues escaping from transport or from their new homes and just bolting. They have absolutely no trust in people and just go into survival mode. As lots of them are ex-street dogs or ex-ferals, they're more than capable of feeding themselves and keeping themselves safe without any kind of help from us - which makes it even harder to trap them and get them back.

Our local animal rescue team are really experienced in foreign rescues and there have been multiple stories in the past couple of years alone of these dogs surviving on junk yards, or in woodland, or on farmland and just never being caught. They've never been raised with people and don't need them in the same way properly domesticated dogs do.

If you want to see his story, he's on the run in the Furness area of Cumbria and his name is Oscar.

https://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/23824083.missing-dog-running-around-furness-9-days/

This is an old article now but he's still missing.

I adopted a brilliant dog from Ireland through a breed-specific rescue. We had 11 years with him and I think we were so lucky as he genuinely had no issues at all.

I wouldn't do it again as (a) I doubt we'd be that lucky again and (b) they are now bringing them over from China!

Having said that I know of successful rescue dogs from Romania and Greece.

In my opinion, UK rescues need to loosen up a bit.

@andrainwillmaketheflowersgrow poor old Oscar 😕

We've been advised to keep doggo strictly to the house and garden for the first two weeks, then the same local walk for a further 2-3 weeks, with a harness and two leads.

Ours has been living in a home since March but I don't take anything for granted.

@disappearingfish Oscar was at home. He broke out of a locked window and bolted.

Ultimately I think there needs to be middle ground.

The UK rescues need to loosen some of their criteria to make it easier to adopt rehomeable dogs, but in the same vein they need to start facing up to the fact that many dogs really aren’t suitable for rehoming and while many don’t want to contemplate it, loosen up on the no kill strategy which leads to thousands of dogs having to spend the rest of their lives in kennels because they simply aren’t suitable to be rehomed

From the other side I actually think that foreign rescues need to be banned. But in the absence of that, they need to tighten their criteria and be more stringent at who they rehome to. The fact that it’s so easy to rehome a feral dog which has no experience of living in a home with children or other dogs and cats tells you everything you need to know about their lack of standards.

And as I said about the UK rescues, many of these dogs from abroad simply aren’t suitable for rehoming and would be better off being pts.

Fact is, the face of the rescue dog has changed.

It used to be that you could go to a centre and pick out a little dog, and it would be a lovely little pet (I’m talking when we were kids). Now many of these rescues are unsocialised products of puppy farms and the dog fighting trade and will never make anyone a decent pet.

People used to adopt a dog and while it might have been a bit fearful you rarely heard of major issues.

Now if you rescue a dog you’re expected to have to have a traumatised animal with severe behavioural issues.

There's whole huge Facebook groups of people happily owning and loving their Mioritic sheepdogs (Mios) in the U.k so I guess not all overseas flock guardian breeds are unsuitable pets. I am not sure that my dog is more inherently unsuitable as a family pet than a German shepherd or a Doberman plus he has the advantage of not having premature arthritis or dying young of heart failure from inbreeding.

I wanted to adopt a dog like the one we had growing up really who we adopted from Battersea. A proper Heinz 57. No idea what kind of dog she was at all apart from a happy go lucky, fit as a fiddle one. You don't seem to be able to adopt a dog like that these days they are all poodle crosses

People say 'go to a breed specific rescue' but what if you don't really have a favourite breed? I would also think that those dogs are very likely to have been breeding failures given up for expensive medical issues. I will admit I am partial to a Goldie but all the ones on their breed specific rescue are riddled with arthritis. I am willing to put time, energy, money and adaptations into behaviour issues that I think I could change or work around but the one thing I didn't want was a chronically sick dog with joint problems, digestive problems, allergies etc etc. I would just feel so bad for them being ill and suffering.

Good post @MayThe4th I find it hard to disagree with anything you've said. Although I like to hope there's a happy home for every dog and healthy dogs never have to be euthanised.

From the other side I actually think that foreign rescues need to be banned. But in the absence of that, they need to tighten their criteria and be more stringent at who they rehome to. The fact that it’s so easy to rehome a feral dog which has no experience of living in a home with children or other dogs and cats tells you everything you need to know about their lack of standards.

This is your own personal opinion and a ridiculous sweeping generalisation - have you ever actually volunteered at any overseas shelters or participated in their education/outreach work? I would be very interested to know which organisations you're basing these statements on.

We have a gorgeous Romanian girl. We didn’t set out for a foreign dog, we just went to the rescue centre, liked her and then they told us. We were a little wary as first time dog owners but they had assessed her and she is the most cuddly, gentle dog. She’s 9 now and we got her at 2. She came to a local rescue via The Scruffy Dog Rescue.

The best part is that she cost us £130 and was vaccinated, chipped, neutered and has a passport. She looks very much like a very expensive breed. She’s out bargain fur baby.

I can only speak for myself as I’ve had two mongrels. Both rescues. That route was closed this time after 2 years of trying so I went on what dog behaviourally and physically suited my lifestyle. We wanted a small to medium sized active dog who would like long walks, be reasonably easy to train and may enjoy competing in agility when older (I’m a trainer and competed my last dog). Low maintenance coat and could settle in the house when we were busy and didn’t need hours of brain work or be particularly needy. Ok with our cat when past the puppy stage. Physically fit and healthy. We bought a Border terrier. Whilst the cat is still a work in progress (she’s still a pup and is beginning to settle with him now) the rest is spot on.

@MayThe4th you are the voice of reason, so many bully breeds in rescues (especially inner city ones) now but they seem to have stopped calling them that and now they are bull terrier cross - I wouldn't want them relaxing the rules to rehome them and considering many have been seized so dodgy history on top I think it'd be safer for them, rescue staff and the community to PTS.
I know it's awful to say but some are so ugly they are just mutants it's so sad.

@disappearingfish I hope it all works out sounds like the fact he's currently in a home will be a big advantage.
Please will you keep us updated (and don't feel like you can't be honest).

That Oscar story- fair play to him 🥴

Bargain fur baby

Unbelievable isn't it 🤬

We have a Bosnian rescue, the first year or so was tricky, he was a traumatised shell
Of a dog. He took about 18 months to be able to be a proper pet, going for walks etc and we got hardly any support from the rescue, they were useless. Now he is sweet natured, loving and clever. He is still nervous and has his quirks, I have had many uk rescues and they settle much, much better but also end up with some annoying habits,,most dogs have them though don't they?
I would personally not recommend a foreign rescue and wouldn't do it again, you don't know what you'll end up with, it's too much of a gamble especially with such a mature dog. Hold out for a uk rescue.

Please don’t.

The last Brucella detection in Great Britain was 2004. But as of February 2021, more than 40 cases have been reported to APHA in the UK. The vast majority of these came from Romania.

I think PP just means bargain as in not £2k French bulldog or whatever everyone was going mad for a few years ago. Rescue dogs are way cheaper than designer puppies from a breeder for the initial outlay, obv life long costs will be similar in terms of insurance, food, vets etc
really no need to get all het up

Ours is honestly perfect. Because we got her at 2, she has never chewed anything but doesn’t really know how to retrieve a ball either! It’s like she didn’t have a puppyhood. We were told she was a street dog but was rescued with her siblings so I wonder if they were just dumped as puppies and not long on the street. She was in an awful ‘shelter’ and was so matted when rescued. She had some housetraining issues but we sorted that with walks every hour until she got the message. She was very timid and wouldn’t come in the living for several days but got there. She looks like an oodle of sorts . Love her to bits and would clone her if we could. I guess we got lucky

What’s wrong with bargain fur baby? She really was! We have friends with £1000 lookalikes. We were never going to buy a pedigree for several main reasons: don’t agree with some breeding practices, would never spend that amount on a dog and mongrels have far fewer inherited medical issues. Plus I’d rather rescue a dog that’s already born than order one.