Your experiences of Romanian rescues

[palmtreesoliveleaves]

I'm thinking of dog adoption and have been looking at rescues online. I've been most drawn to Romanian rescues as I haven't seen any suitable dogs at any of the "traditional" rescues. They've all been no cats, no children, too old, too big, etc.

The smaller rescues have been a lot friendlier to deal with and seem interested in your own individual circumstances rather than an outright no.

I know someone who fosters and I asked her about Romanian rescues but she said absolutely not as she's seen too many disasters. She is very experienced so I trust her judgement.

I have more research to do before being ready to bring a dog home but it's quite disheartening. I would rather get a rescue than a puppy but I need to be careful with a rescue as I have 2 children and a cat.

I've been reading up on Romanian rescues and it does seem that it can be a difficult road to go down.

Does anyone have their own experiences to share?

It stinks and it’s so hard to wash off! He has his own bottle of cheap ketchup specifically for fox poo incidents 💩

He once also rolled in HUMAN POO he found in the bushes (identifiable as human by the shitty tissues next to it 🤮) and I actually cried because I didn’t know what to do about putting him in the car! I had a box of gloves in the boot and an angel of a woman passing by gave me a packet of baby wipes to get some of the shit off (if you’re on MN, I honestly love you!) before wrapping him in a blanket and putting him in an IKEA bag to get him home to shower him 😂😂 both blanket and bag were written off but the car was unscathed! I keep wipes and an IKEA bag in the boot to this day.

A family member adopted a dog from Romania. Once they had committed to the dog they kept being told there were delays because of paperwork or vaccinations or whatever but that the charity were struggling to afford to keep the dog so asked my family member for money. They won't tell us how much they sent in the 8 months it took to get the dog in the country which makes me suspect it was a lot. The dog arrived at 1am in the end, delivered to their house from a big van full of dogs. Dog was flea ridden and very underweight.

A couple of years on, they're happy with the dog but she's very reactive and I keep my kids and my dog well away from her.

I didn't expect so many responses, thank you.

Some of them have been pretty eye opening and are definitely making me think again about Romanian rescues.

As our first family dog I don't think it's a risk in willing to take.

I grew up with dogs and my first dog as an adult was a rescue who was amazing and settled in immediately. Having such a good experience I was hoping to bypass the puppy stage and get another rescue. As I'm in a different position now with kids and a cat I need to think of what's best all round.

I'll just need to keep plugging away and keep researching.

A friend was going to adopt a puppy from a Romanian rescue. Oddly the puppy "died" unexpectedly. So they were encouraged to choose another. Date booked for travel etc. Assured it was a healthy litter. Then was told it wasn't the age they said it was and it wasn't ready to travel.

They pulled out of the adoption in the end.

I wonder if some of them are puppy mills masquerading as rescues to be honest.

It is so frustrating that the UK rescues seem to be putting unnecessary barriers between dogs and good homes. I'm sure they have their reasons but there are just so many stories about people being rejected for spurious reasons.

Depends on the rescue. My sister adopted a dog via a U.K. rescue centre that works with rescues abroad. All the dogs are assessed and you have lifetime back up from the rescue if it doesn’t work out. The dog is a delight. Clearly a discarded pet. Was housetrained and is well behaved.

so would say yes get one but research the rescue first. Where in U.K. are you?

I have one and she is the sweetest natured and most loving dog I have ever had.

You need to think about brucella canis with Romanian dogs so do do research round this too.

I am not surprised to hear that some are deliberately bed abroad to fuel demand here.

A lot of people are vocal that buying a puppy = bad, but it's also very hard to adopt through a UK charity if you have children, work, aren't very experienced etc. (rightly so)..

So "adopting" from abroad makes people feel they've done the right thing when their other option would be buying a puppy.

I bought my dog as a puppy (from health tested parents etc) and one of my friends refuses to acknowledge her as "#adopt don't shop" but we did try to rescue, there just wasn't anything available! It feels like she thinks it would have been better for my dog to have a bad home initially then come to me, than for her to have had a good home from the start (I know the logic is more than we shouldn't buy when there are homeless dogs, but still).

@Hairychristmas I totally understand what you mean. Everywhere I look it's #adoptdontshop which I was in full agreement with until I started looking!

After my last (and first) rescue I was very much in that camp and thought how could anyone buy a puppy when there's all these poor dogs needing a home. How naive was I.

I had a look at several rescues within 100 miles of me last night and none of the available dogs on the websites were suitable. The main issue being no children under 12, if at all.

I noticed the Dog's Trust must have recently changed their adoption process as you no longer choose a dog with them, although you can give up to 4 preferences. They now match you with a dog instead as many of their dogs are overlooked.

@Bobsledgirl I'm in Scotland

@disappearingfish Thanks for sharing your previous thread, it was very helpful. I'm glad to hear your rescue is settling in well.

Unless you are determined to get a mongrel of unknown parentage, breed rescues here are better than the big charities at matching a dog to a home. The dog will usually have been in foster with people experienced enough to assess its suitability for the prospective adopter’s situation, and very many pure bred dogs are rehomed through breed rescue for perfectly genuine reasons which do not always reflect badly on the dog. Do the research and talk to them.

Oh OP I feel you, it’s so difficult. I have found it impossible to rescue in the Uk as all the rescue places want you to have lots of money, be home loads (ie not at work) and not have kids.

Then you start to look at puppies and there are so many irresponsible breeders or puppy farms.

My advice to you is that if you decide to get a puppy, contact the the official breed club for the breed you want and ask to be put in touch with a reputable breeder. Reputable breeders tend not to advertise, be cheaper and you will know the health and likely character of your pup.

Dog ownership is becoming ridiculous now, those people that are turned down by U.K. shelters usually are for good reason (not always) so why then do they go and get a puppy or a rescue from abroad? A shelter has deemed them unsuitable to own dogs so therefore, in my opinion, they are unsuitable at that point in time for any dog. Dog ownership needs to be far more tightly regulated as is proven by the amount of knob head owners

A lot of the time people are turned down because they have children and rescues don't want to rehome dogs with a history of reactivity/abuse, or an unknown history, to a family with children. Those families will do fine with a puppy, without any history, that they can raise alongside their children.

OP I eventually adopted from Rutherglen Rescue, I believe they are based in Scotland but they work with a lot of Spanish rescues. I think our dog came from All Spain Rescue Dogs but it was Rutherglen we interacted with and Rutherglen who was providing UK-based rescue backup.

What I liked most about them was how honest they were with us. They told me more about my dog's bad points than they did his good points focussing especially on his love for digging holes in their garden but also making me aware he was very excitable and also of unknown parentage so they could not guarantee his final size beyond "big."

He is smaller than I anticipated but still a large breed (27kg). He still loves digging holes but we have managed to train him to dig only in a raised planter we bought for him to dig. He's still very excitable. Learning to greet people calmly is an ongoing lesson. He can now meet 1-2 people who he knows calmly or 1 stranger but he gets overwhelmed and forgets himself with groups of people, especially strangers aka best friends who he hasn't met yet.

There were some minor issues that may have been more serious had he not been a puppy that was not pointed out to me. He had come from rural Spain. Tarmac, paving stones, and cars were a terrifying mystery to him. It took me 5 days to convince him to leave the front garden and a further two weeks to get him to cross a road. He also has digestive issues, anything other than raw food or really expensive wet food gives him chronic diarrhea.

We got an 18 month old Romanian rescue about 3 years ago. She has been great - slightly highly strung but I put that down to being a herding breed. No health or behavioural issues at all. My friend has one too and has had a very similar experience. The adoption agency asked for a £200 donation - which covers the passport (£75), spaying, vaccinations, transport, etc. so I can't believe that anyone is making profit out of it.

There are several which seem to have a conveniently consistent supply of very cute very fluffy puppies and I am convinced they are puppy farms

There are some good ones. There are also lots of really bad ones
Ive a friend who is a behaviourist at the dogs trust and they get a lot relinquished to them as the rescues offer no support and they are out of their depths with a poorly socialised street dog that’s terrified and showing fear agression that they were told it was a perfect family pet.

I know a few people who have had them. Horror stories include,
Being told one was cat tested… killed the cat the second they were allowed in the same room.
”Perfect family pet” = furious resource guarder that ended up biting a grandchild.
Another “perfect family pet” that’s terrified of men. I mean TERRIFIED. All of its walks are done in a secure field. Has to be muzzeled for my friend to answer the door as it would be such a bite risk.

Thwre are some good ones, of course, but there seem to be a lot of awful ones that just tell people what they want to hear, dump a dog on them and offer no support when the perfect, child friendly dog they were told they were getting is a fucking nightmare

I would also add a lot of them you can’t meet the dog first, which is an absolute no with children. Far too big a risk

To mention, my Romanian rescue was from a shelter in Chelmsford. All of the dogs are in foster homes in the UK first, often family homes, and they're cat tested. You have to go and meet them first and get to know them. There is a proper home check process. But we found they were more reasonable with demands - ie we showed we had a vet picked and a dog daycare picked and they didn't mind that we worked or that we lived in London at the time (albeit in a green area with lots of parks)

There were a lot of Romanian rescues in the area of London we lived in, and the vast majority were lovely dogs. I'd never take a dog I couldn't meet first though. And now I've a dog and children, id be very careful about the meeting process and introductions.

Most of the Romanian dogs I know are very good with other dogs, and ours is very savvy with dog body language. We pay for him to go to daycare even on some days we don't need him to go, because he loves the environment so much and playing with his pack of dogs

I have one, adopted from a UK adoption agency who specifically rescues overseas dogs.
We got her at 9 months and she had been in the uk for 6 weeks. She was vaccinated and neutered before we got her and had never lived in a home before (so stairs for the first time were interesting!). I have two boys who were 7 & 11 when we got her.
She is generally fine. In the house anyone can come in as long as they are prepared to rub her belly. She doesnt guard food or toys and both boys wrestle with her (she totally encourages this).
However, she hates the postman (so cliche) and rages at anyone with a high vis vest and is dreadful with a lot of other dogs. In fact, she has got worse in the last few months so we are looking at training classes to socialise her better (had her 5 years and she always hated German Shepherds and collies but it was limited to them but not it seems to be any dark dog and any bigger than a terrier). She is also a pain off lead with very average recall, we have to be very careful where we let her off (so no where there might be a rabbit or squirrel or a field she can get into) which means she is on the lead 99% of the time. She is actually fine with all dogs off the lead so I wish her recall was better!
I personally think we were just lucky though and im not sure I would risk it again.

Really interesting responses. I hadn't thought much about the behavioural differences when scrolling through available dogs. Now I've been starting to look more seriously and have started to research it it has been very eye-opening.

I don't know if anyone saw the article in the Sunday Times this week about a chap who adopted a dog through Romanian based rescue agency. Sounds as though it has been really difficult. Two years later they can take dog out for a short lead walk but it mostly hides behind sofa. Rescue lady says dog was fine before it came to UK but had been traumatised by the journey and quarantine. Not for the faint hearted.

Absolutely a gamble. I have a Romanian rescue dog who arrived scared and unsocialised, but has been an absolute pleasure to train and settled in beautifully (although I am also a dog trainer, which helps). Equally I have people attending classes with Romanian rescues with severe behavioural issues, including severe bite incidents. I also feel that not all Romanian rescues are completely honest about dogs health or temperament status. They can be wonderful dogs, but if you are going down that route, and are not a super experienced dog owner, I would suggest seeing if they have dogs already on foster in the UK, so you at least have a chance to meet and greet (mine literally arrived off the back of the van, so I had no idea what I was getting).