New dog rescue aims to bring unwanted Dachshunds from Asia to BC
A new non-profit dog rescue is focused on finding homes in Vancouver for Dachshunds and “long-bodied” dogs that have been abandoned in Asia.
Hello Doxie Rescue Society co-founders Amina Ayub and Hillary Connelly launched the non-profit on Valentine’s Day this year, and both are proud fur mamas to Dachshunds they adopted after they were flown in from Taiwan through a rescue located in Vancouver.
In a phone interview with Daily Hive, Ayub said when she adopted her dog, she learned there was a need to find these animals homes because many are surrendered throughout the world.
“We’ve been wanting to get involved in dog rescue for a long time, but we have never really had kind of the opportunity to go full force into it, and given COVID and the fact that you can’t really do much right now, we figured now was a good time to put most of our spare energy into that,” Ayub says.
Hello Doxie Rescue then partnered with the same rescuer she and Connelly adopted their dogs from.
“We chose Taiwan basically because our dogs are from this individual and the amount of medical care that is given to the dogs that are being rescued by her is absolutely amazing,” Ayub says.
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Ayub says the dogs get a full medical exam, vaccinations, blood work, x-rays, and dental work while overseas to rule out any underlying medical conditions before they fly — and if treatment is needed, it’s done before they board the plane.
“We are only flying dogs over to Canada that our rescuer, or other rescues, are unable to adopt out there, so we have no desire to take dogs out of Taiwan or Korea who can find homes there,” Ayub says, adding “there are a lot of organizations in Asia that are doing amazing things and homing animals locally as well.”
Hello Doxie’s focus is breed specific rescue, Ayub says, because they have knowledge about these dogs with long bodies and short legs.
“There’s a lot of research that goes into it that a lot of the times potential families don’t do because they are so cute,” Ayub says.
“People just look at them, think ‘this is a dog that I want for my home,’ but there’s a lot of behavioural and physical requirements that are worth looking into before adopting, or purchasing if you wish to go down that path with a breeder.”
Some behavioural issues Ayub says this breed has includes being stubborn to train, “and a lot of the times that’s why they’re being re-homed, so because of potty-training issues.”
Ayub says these dogs should not be jumping up and down from high furniture, or large flights of stairs, because they have issues with their spines.
“These dogs end up in shelters overseas, and even locally, just due to the fact the families are having either training issues with them not listening or they’ve injured their spine and they can’t afford the surgery,” Ayub she says, adding it’s a challenge to get these dogs to listen to you, “they like to run the house.”
(Hello Doxie Rescue Society/Facebook)
While this breed can have challenges, there’s so many paws-itive traits they have as well.
“They are super bonded animals,” Ayub says, “they’re very quickly bonded once they trust you. They are super smart, even though they are stubborn to train, they’re smart in their own ways, they are playful, they love to dig,” and she says they are very alert, and have a sharp sense of smell and hearing.
“They’re very fun dogs to have,” she says.
Ayub says Dachshunds are great for apartment living because they don’t require a lot of space and there’s no stairs, for people who don’t go for long walks or hikes because they don’t require too much exercise to stay at a healthy weight, and for those who are home a lot.
Now, Hello Doxie is working to build a list of applicants who want to adopt Dachshunds from overseas.
“We are vetting for homes that fit the breed requirements with people who understand the breed or have done the recommended research and know what they’re getting themselves into — that’s a big thing for our rescue is the educational component,” Ayub says.
Once you fill out an application form online, the group will hold a first round interview through a video call, a virtual home check, then applicants will be added to a wait list if approved for the Dachshund and long-bodied dogs. Once a dog is found overseas that fits with a family on the wait list, Hello Doxie will reach out about further steps if a match.
Ayub says she has some dogs that have been adopted in Vancouver, but the little ones are stuck in Taiwan, due to travel restrictions with COVID, including the hotel quarantines when they land in Canada.
To get the dogs from Taiwan to Canada, Ayub says she’s been having to arrange them to be transported through cargo instead of flight volunteers, “because we also don’t want our dogs sitting across the globe for months and months and months.”
Ayub says to fly a dog to Canada with a flight volunteer from Taiwan, it’s approximately $500 CAD, and to fly a little one through cargo from Taiwan and Korea, it’s about $2,900 CAD.
“There’s a cost benefit to it, cost is that cargo costs are three, four times the price of flying the dogs over with a flight volunteer, but the benefit of it is the dogs will get here faster and be in their home and be able to settle down — that’s our main goal is we want the dogs to not be homeless overseas, we want them to be with in their families,” Ayub says.
The travel fees are included in the adoption fee, and Ayub adds that if an individual can not afford to pay the cargo fee, it doesn’t mean they can not get the dog they were matched with.
Ayub says if you know anyone travelling to Vancouver from Asia to contact Hello Doxie Rescue so they can arrange a dog to come back as well at no expense to the traveller, “everything is paid for by us so there’s no cost to the passengers and pretty much next to no work that they have to do.” Ayub says the dog flies underneath the plane, and does not sit with the passenger.
Hello Doxie also supports local rescue to see if it can help with outreach or foster homes for the animals, and is looking to expand to Korea and Japan through more shelter partnerships.
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