Sophie (the dog) of romania

[hash tag]

I gather she is hot on twitter and is supposed to be the feel good story of the year, but is it.
From what I gather she has been with her family quite a while now and is still very shy, nervous, anxious, depressed.
Do people think she will come round?

BBC Radio Cornwall - James Churchfield, 05/01/2023, When Rory met Sophie from Romania

The story of Rory Cellan-Jones and his new dog is being followed by millions of people.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[moomoo]

I follow her owner just to see her progress. She’s such a brave girl. I think she’ll come round eventually.

 

[hash tag]

I hope so but the last picture I was shown did not look much better

 

[weltweit]

I think she is making progress week on week, She certainly seems to spend less time behind the sofa, coming out and going in the garden for example.

It is nice to see an innocent tale of doggie doos and doggie gets her confidence on twitter.

 

[weltweit]

 

[moomoo]

I’m already totally emotionally invested in her progress

 

[hash tag]

I think she is making progress week on week, She certainly seems to spend less time behind the sofa, coming out and going in the garden for example.

It is nice to see an innocent tale of doggie doos and doggie gets her confidence on twitter.

She hasn't looked happy or comfortable

 

[weltweit]

She hasn't looked happy or comfortable

I think she has looked a lot more happy and comfortable than in the first posts about her.

bit by bit

 

[weltweit]

To be fair, I don't expect Sophie to be able to do this

 

[WouldBe]

Must be some sort of cat hybrid.

 

[moose]

I've seen a few awful stories about people adopting traumatised dogs from Romania, Ukraine, etc, and it not working out at all, meaning the dogs end up back in shelters. Fingers crossed for this one.

 

[hash tag]

I've seen a few awful stories about people adopting traumatised dogs from Romania, Ukraine, etc, and it not working out at all, meaning the dogs end up back in shelters. Fingers crossed for this one.

Are there not enough dogs in this country waiting to be rehomed without importing them?
A quick look a Battersea shows they have quite a few dogs of all different shapes and sizes.
There are half a dozen dogs on there I would probably adopt in an instant.

 

[The39thStep]

Are there not enough dogs in this country waiting to be rehomed without importing them?
A quick look a Battersea shows they have quite a few dogs of all different shapes and sizes.
There are half a dozen dogs on there I would probably adopt in an instant.

My son knows this woman who took two dogs from either Romania or some other place and he thinks its a niche statement sort of thing.

 

[hash tag]

My son knows this woman who took two dogs from either Romania or some other place and he thinks its a niche statement sort of thing.

ie trendy and fashionable

 

[The39thStep]

ie trendy and fashionable

Worthy.

 

[hash tag]

Worthy.

Aren't I good because I have done something so worthwhile. For once ( in a way that is very visible ).

 

[pogofish]

As well as Sophie from Romania, I have discovered Finn the kitten:

https://twitter.com/weskrantz?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

So lots and lots of cute animal action to waste time on at work!

 

[Cloo]

I hope it all works out. I know someone who was a very experienced dog owner and had to give up on Romanian dog, it was just too reactive and also her (now ex) husband wasn't prepared to put in the effort and kept doing things with it that she'd told him not to, like walking it on a path with lots of runners. She was gutted but they couldn't get the poor thing settled.

 

[tommers]

our dog is the daughter of a dog rescued from Egypt. When the mum arrived she was pregnant with 9 puppies, and the charity didn't realise We took one of them as we had small children and they said that we should get a puppy so that there was no risk of dangerous behaviour.

We socialised her, took her to puppy classes, dog group in the local park etc. She's improved, she's 4 now, but still won't walk very far unless there is a pack of us (i.e. at least 2), she struggles to get into the car (i.e. to the point where she threw up with nervousness when she was little). If anybody comes to the house then she will bark for at least 15 minutes. We haven't been abroad together since we've had her cos we don't know how she would deal with kennels. It's very limiting and that's with a dog who was the daughter of a rescue, not even the rescue dog herself (apparently she's fine!). For example, local dog owners avoid us as she will growl and bark at their dogs (especially if we are close to our house, if we are at the beach then she's fine).

So, be careful is my advice. We've seriously thought about giving her back to the charity but in the end we didn't, but she doesn't behave in the same way as a normal dog. Co-incidentally, she is also called Sophie.

 

[moomoo]

My daughter had a Romanian rescue dog but had to find another family for him after he kept following one of the kids around nipping him. He was a big dog as well. Such a shame. He was an absolutely beautiful dog and she worked really hard with him but in the end it was too much and the little lad was terrified of him. She’d done all the research possible but it just didn’t work out.

 

[tommers]

You're taking what is, essentially, a non-domesticated animal into your home. You see a dog and think it's like other dogs but it's not, cos they are not used to people being friends. If they are a street dog then their instincts are to stay the fuck away from people and run in a pack of other dogs. Not go for a walk with humans.

"Normal" dogs have centuries of acclimatisation and breeding behind their behaviour, street dogs are taught that humans are dangerous and that you should be very very nervous about everything around you.

Oh, and somebody tranquillised you and stuck you in a crate in an airplane. That always calms them down.

 

[hash tag]

You're taking what is, essentially, a non-domesticated animal into your home. You see a dog and think it's like other dogs but it's not, cos they are not used to people being friends. If they are a street dog then their instincts are to stay the fuck away from people and run in a pack of other dogs. Not go for a walk with humans.

"Normal" dogs have centuries of acclimatisation and breeding behind their behaviour, street dogs are taught that humans are dangerous and that you should be very very nervous about everything around you.

Oh, and somebody tranquillised you and stuck you in a crate in an airplane. That always calms them down.

I think it was on you and yours they recounted the tale of a dog shipped from somewhere like Greece to Northern Europe. In the back of a van, taking several days

 

[Hollis]

Are there not enough dogs in this country waiting to be rehomed without importing them?
A quick look a Battersea shows they have quite a few dogs of all different shapes and sizes.
There are half a dozen dogs on there I would probably adopt in an instant.

This came up in the twitter posts - and their response was that they tried adopting but for some reason it's difficult.. have to jump through hoops..

What I'm not clear if how much are the dogs traumatised from the journey v from back home. I'm sure they'd said they'd chosen her because she seemed friendly/lively..

Anyway - she seems to be making good progress.

 

[hash tag]

There was a whole programme devoted to adopting dogs on R4, I think it was you and yours. Some spoke of difficulties of adopting, some said how easy it was. There was talk of someone ending up with a dog that proved too difficult for her. Someone of 70 said she was turned down on age grounds. The heartwarming bit was towards the end. A bloke adopting unadoptable dogs, like those owned by gangs and dealers.
Here you go BBC Radio 4 - You and Yours, Call You and Yours: What's your experience of taking on a rescue dog?

 

[planetgeli]

My sister takes 3 legged cats and traumatised dogs from Spain, Egypt wherever. Who gives a fuck where they are from.

Animal nationalism??? Wtaf?

 

[Gromit]

Are there not enough dogs in this country waiting to be rehomed without importing them?
A quick look a Battersea shows they have quite a few dogs of all different shapes and sizes.
There are half a dozen dogs on there I would probably adopt in an instant.

 

[hash tag]

I'm told RKJ has called in a behavioural expert now.

 

[scifisam]

Are there not enough dogs in this country waiting to be rehomed without importing them?
A quick look a Battersea shows they have quite a few dogs of all different shapes and sizes.
There are half a dozen dogs on there I would probably adopt in an instant.

No there aren't enough. Have a look at Battersea properly and close to 100% of the dogs won't be suitable to live with cats, other dogs, or children, or will require owners who never leave the house and live in a rural or semi-rural location. The three or four dogs that don't have those criteria will be reserved already.

 

[weltweit]

My feeling a bit is that Rory needs to become a more doggie person. Sophie goes into the garden, rather than going out with her and attempting to play with her he stays inside and videos her through the window. And when he has a chance to stroke Sophie his attempt is not the attempt of a dog lover used to stroking dogs, he holds back reaches with a finger or two (because he has his camera in hand also) when she needs a proper two handed stroke.

She is getting better, more relaxed, now it is Rory's turn to get with the program.

 

[Epona]

No there aren't enough. Have a look at Battersea properly and close to 100% of the dogs won't be suitable to live with cats, other dogs, or children, or will require owners who never leave the house and live in a rural or semi-rural location. The three or four dogs that don't have those criteria will be reserved already.

Aye I think there are fewer possible issues with adopting a cat from a shelter, but several shelters wouldn't let us have cats from them. This is how we ended up getting pedigree cats (who had/are having brilliant lives with us) because despite there being an overload in shelters, we couldn't adopt one due to our flat not being deemed suitable (upstairs flat with no direct cat flap access to outside).
If that sounds a little bitter, that would not be a wholly inappropriate reading of my feelings on the situation.

I think with dogs there are more potential problems perhaps wrt behaviour etc. but yeah just because there are loads in shelters/rescues does not mean anyone can turn up and adopt them into a suitable situation.