Go Back   Pet forum for dogs cats and humans - Pets.ca > Discussion Groups - mainly cats and dogs > General Forum for cats and dogs

 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
  #1  
Old December 6th, 2011, 05:48 PM
violagirl violagirl is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Canada
Posts: 90
Volunteering at Local Rescue

I decided instead of going to the gym during my lunch hour, I will walk dogs at the local SPCA. Volunteer orientation was last night and today was my first day!

A couple of things surprised me.

Fortunately, I was dressed in old clothes, but I forgot a dog who is cooped up in a kennel where they poop on the floor will be excited and jumpy...AND poopy. I may go to local thrift store and try to find some scrubs.

Another thing that surprised me was my reaction to the dogs. The reason I haven't volunteered in the past was because I didn't feel like I could be there and not want to take them all home with me.

When I was walking them, I felt oddly dispassionate. There wasn't really a connection. Now the dogs I walked were former strays, so maybe that made a difference, but I am used to my dogs always looking to me for direction, reassurance, treats, pats, waiting on my every word. And these ones were single-mindedly sniffing and walking occasionally when i'd stop because they were pulling they would notice me but it was generally quite businesslike.

It was like I was kind of superfluous to their walk. Which probably was the reason i didn't really feel a big emotional connection to them like I thought I would.

Since I plan to be volunteering 3-4 times a week, should I concentrate on building relationships with a few dogs so that they will learn better and so be better able to score a new home or is it better just to do the dogwalking triage of who has/hasn't been walked yet this week and go from there?

Also any tips and tricks about working with rescue dogs would be good.
Reply With Quote
 

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off


Forum Terms of Use

  • All Bulletin Board Posts are for personal/non-commercial use only.
  • Self-promotion and/or promotion in general is prohibited.
  • Debate is healthy but profane and deliberately rude posts will be deleted.
  • Posters not following the rules will be banned at the Admins' discretion.
  • Read the Full Forum Rules

Forum Details

  • Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8
    Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
    vBulletin Optimisation by vB Optimise (Reduced on this page: MySQL 0%).
  • All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:45 AM.