26/08/2026
We need to talk about overseas rescue dogs and the rescues bringing them here.
There is something I see far too often in my work as a behaviour professional, and I think it needs to be talked about more openly.
Before anyone jumps on this post, I am not against overseas rescue. There are some absolutely incredible rescues doing phenomenal work. They assess dogs carefully, match them appropriately, prepare adopters for the reality of bringing an overseas dog into their home, provide ongoing support and, importantly, take responsibility if that placement doesn't work out.
But there are also rescues that don't and unfortunately, it is often the dog and the unsuspecting family who pay the price.
I regularly meet families who adopted a dog believing they were getting a relatively straightforward family pet, only to discover that the dog in front of them is terrified, shut down, reactive, unable to cope with strangers, uncomfortable around children or struggling enormously with everyday life.
That doesn't necessarily mean somebody deliberately lied about that dog. The dog you meet in one environment may not be the dog you see several weeks or months later in another.
Think about what some of these dogs experience. They may have lived on the streets, in shelters, kennels or foster environments. They may have experienced trauma we know nothing about. Then they are transported hundreds or thousands of miles, sometimes spending days travelling through different countries, handled by unfamiliar people and surrounded by unfamiliar dogs.
Then suddenly they arrive in a house. Where they face new people, new smells, new sounds, traffic, televisions, hoovers, visitors, children, other dogs, being walked on a lead, being touched. The list is endless.
Everything they have ever known has changed.
A dog who appeared quiet and "easy" in a shelter or immediately after arriving may actually have been completely overwhelmed or shut down. As they begin to decompress, we may start seeing behaviours that simply weren't apparent before. This is exactly why responsible matching matters so much.
A severely fearful dog should not simply be placed into a busy family home with young children because somebody has fallen in love with their photograph.
A first-time dog owner shouldn't unknowingly be handed a dog with complex behavioural needs and then left to figure it out and families should not be made to feel guilty when they eventually admit they can't cope.
I meet people at breaking point. They love their dog and desperately want to help them. But they're also trying to protect their children, manage aggression or reactivity, avoid bites, prevent incidents and somehow continue living a normal family life.
Then when they go back to the rescue that placed the dog with them, the support simply isn't there. The dog is now their problem and this is not how it should be.
If you are bringing dogs into another country and placing them into people's homes, your responsibility should not end when the adoption fee has been paid and the dog has been handed over.
Rescue isn't simply getting a dog out of one country. Rescue should be about what happens to that dog for the rest of their life and this is where I think prospective adopters need to do far more research.
Please don't choose a rescue solely because of a heart-breaking Facebook post or because you feel you need to "save" a particular dog.
Research the organisation and ask difficult questions.
Who assesses the dogs?
What experience or qualifications do those people have?
How are dogs matched to families?
What do they know about the dog's history?
How long has the dog been assessed for?
How are they assessing suitability around children?
What happens if significant behavioural problems emerge after adoption?
What behaviour support is available?
What happens if the placement genuinely isn't safe?
Will they take that dog back?
A reputable rescue shouldn't be offended by those questions. They should welcome them because good rescue organisations don't just want dogs adopted, they want dogs adopted into the right homes and there is a huge difference.
Unfortunately, like every part of the pet industry, rescue has good and bad within it. Having the word "rescue" attached to an organisation does not automatically make its practices ethical.
Good intentions aren't enough and wanting to save dogs isn't enough.
There needs to be knowledge, appropriate assessment, responsible matching, transparency, safeguarding and lifelong backup, because when we get this wrong, everybody suffers.
The family suffers, children can be put at risk, the dog's behaviour can deteriorate further and the dog may be passed from home to home. Then eventually we are left desperately searching for rescue or foster spaces for a dog with complex behavioural needs in a system that is already overflowing.
Sometimes there simply isn't anywhere for that dog to go and tragically, some dogs ultimately lose their lives.
That isn't rescue.
So if you're considering adopting an overseas dog, I'm not telling you not to, I'm asking you to go into it with your eyes open.
Find a genuinely reputable rescue. Ask questions. Don't be pressured by urgency or guilt. Be completely honest about your household, your children, your experience and what you realistically can and cannot manage and understand that the frightened little dog you see in a photograph may arrive carrying far more than their passport and belongings.
They may need time, need professional support, need significant changes to your lifestyle and sometimes they may need far more than an ordinary family home can reasonably provide.
Rescue should never just be about getting a dog adopted. It should be about getting the right dog into the right home with the right support and being there for both of them if things don't go according to plan.
We need to stop measuring rescue success by how many dogs we can bring over and start asking what happens to those dogs once they're here.
