There are about 30 charities in the UK bringing in dogs from overseas, and we believe that there are several people in the island doing the same thing.

Most imported dogs come from Romania according the UK’s Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Foreign dogs are rescued for the best of reasons but not always with the best results.

Many of these dogs have been free-ranging, with no restrictions, and it takes a great deal of time and patience to help them fit into life as an indoor, family dog.

Another issue relates to the potential risk of a dog brought from overseas harbouring diseases that are not found in the UK, and this could have an impact on dog welfare in general.

Dogs are also able to carry several different zoonotic diseases - i.e. diseases that can spread from animals to humans.

While dog ownership usually has beneficial physical and psychological health benefits, dogs that have unknown histories have a higher risk of carrying, and transmitting, zoonotic diseases such as MRSA, leptospirosis and salmonella.

If you are thinking of rescuing a dog from overseas, it is worth remembering that there are literally thousands of dogs looking for new homes in the UK’s rescue centres, such as the Dogs Trust and the Blue Cross (and, of course, we have many here at Ard Jerkyll).

If you look at the ManxSPCA’s website or visit our kennels, you may not see the dog of your dreams straight away.

Some of the dogs who come to us are not formally advertised for adoption because we have a list of potential adopters looking for that type of dog. We have had several toy dogs gifted in to us recently, always a popular type, and they have all been rehomed without the need to place them on our website or on Facebook.

If you are interested in a particular breed or type of dog, but can’t see one currently in our rescue kennels, please complete a ’home finder questionnaire’ (available on the adoption pages of our website) and hand this into the kennels team. They will then do their best to match you to a suitable dog when one is gifted in to us.

If spaniels are on your list of favourite dogs and you have room in your life for an older dog, then please consider Abby (who is 14) or Ruby (aged 10).

They have lived together for several years but they are happy to be without each other, and they are good with other dogs and people.

They came to us because their previous owner’s circumstances changed and she couldn’t afford to care for them any longer.

They both have health ’niggles’ but they are playful and fun-loving, and they are typical spaniels in that they love everyone and simply want to be man’s best friend.

If you would like to chat to us about our rescue dogs, and all the other animals we have at Ard Jerkyll, then please come and say ’hello’ to some of our team at Pets at Home on Sunday 13th May. The ManxSPCA is one of their charities of the year, and we will be at the store from 10am to 4pm.