This volunteer role is crucial to the mental and physical wellbeing of the dogs in our care. We rely on our dog walkers to help us to provide both mental and physical stimulation for our dogs. Our dog walkers help us to get the dogs out of the kennel environment for a while, breath in some fresh air and stretch their legs – as well as them getting to sniff around the local areas!
What you will be doing
The main tasks for a dog walker are:-
As part of this role you will need to play with the more energetic dogs, have a cuddle with the more affectionate dogs or simply talk to the more timid dogs to help them become more confident around people and ultimately help them on their journey to being adopted.
We also encourage our volunteers to take photos of our dogs that we may be able to use on our social media or website to get the animals adopted.
At times you may be asked to “buddy-up” with other volunteers or members of staff for some tasks. However, this role may also include working on your own.
Skills, experience and qualities needed
Our dog walking volunteers have to be a minimum of 21 years of age as a matter of health and safety and for insurance purposes.
Ideally our dog walkers will have:-
All of our volunteers need to have an up-to-date Tetanus vaccination in case of any scratches or bites that may occur.
When and where
The volunteer dog walkers work on and off site at the shelter every day usually between the hours of8am to 3pm Monday to Saturday. With the hours being 10am till 3pm on a Sunday and bank holidays.
However, this is flexible so please come and talk to a member of the management team about your volunteering hours!
Support offered
We rely on our volunteers to help to make our shelter a safe and comfortable place for our animals to find their forever home. If there is anything that we can reasonably do to support you – please come and have a chat with a member of the management team.
There will always be members of staff on site when you are here at the shelter. If you ever feel uncomfortable around an animal please let a member of staff know.
What you could get out of it
Our dog walkers will get immense satisfaction that their help is making such a big impact on the lives of many of the local abandoned dogs. As well as gaining valuable hands-on experience working with dogs of all different breeds, ages, sexes and temperaments.
Other relevant information
Please do note that when working with any animals it is possible that injuries may occur – in the form of scratches or bites.
Any and all injuries, no matter the severity MUST be reported to a member of staff and logged in the accident book.
What to do if you’re interested
If you think you would be the right fit for our volunteer dog walking team please contact the shelter on:
We get lots of volunteer applications here at the Destitute Animal Shelter every day and not everyone will be suitable for this role if you do not hear back from us you have been unsuccessful in this instance but please apply again when we are looking for future volunteers.
Job Features
| Job Category | Volunteer |
