At the Peninsula Humane Society, we hold a monthly orientation session for prospective volunteers. Fortunately, many know exactly what they want to do: walk dogs. We call these helpers our Dog TLC volunteers. In addition to providing vital exercise for our resident dogs, they reinforce good walking manners and behaviors, help socialize the dogs, and provide detailed notes for staff and prospective adopters about the dogs’ progress and areas needing improvement, as well as individual quirks and great qualities.
Helpers from All Walks of Life
The volunteers who come to us are as varied as the dogs in our care. Annamarie is newly retired and donates 40+ hours per week, mostly with our little dogs. Her husband says he’ll join her as soon as he retires. Dave works near our new Center for Compassion adoption center and swings by whenever he can to take out our big dogs. Rik owns a business that takes him out of the area for several days at a time, but he logs considerable hours with our dogs when he’s in town. Justyna, a young professional, was between jobs at one point and decided to give more of her time to the dogs. She’s petite, yet walks dogs who weigh almost as much as she does!
Family Fun for Volunteer Teams
Understandably, our insurance carrier is not wild about us pairing shelter dogs from unknown backgrounds with junior-age volunteers. It’s really too bad, since we have so many young people in our community who would love to help. So we found a great solution: volunteer teams comprised of parents with their children.
The minimum age for kids is 13 and we currently have several dozen parent-child teams helping us walk dogs, including Laura with her daughter Maggie, and Chuck with his daughter Sasha. The kids do the actual dog-walking, the parents come along as companions.
Of course, all our Dog TLC volunteers receive training prior to slipping a leash on a dog. Since our Center for Compassion is in a light industrial area with neighbors on both sides and a fairly busy street as our main dog-walking drag, we stress safety and clean-up. In almost three years of operation, we’re incident-free.
“Running Buddies”
Why walk when you can run? This is the mantra for a small number of our Dog TLC volunteers. We’re blessed to have several who are avid runners and we pair them with dogs who love to run. It’s a classic win-win.
Of course, some of our dogs are couch potatoes and love nothing more than curling up in someone’s lap, and we use volunteers for this duty, as well. We don’t have a cute name for this group but we appreciate them just the same.
Location, Location, Location
Many of our volunteers spend their time with dogs at our brand new adoption center, the PHS Center for Compassion in Burlingame. These dogs really need the exercise to stay mentally and physically fit so they look and feel their best when potential adopters come visiting.
Some dogs at our older intake facility are still in their state-mandated holding periods and not yet available for adoption, but they need exercise, too! Fortunately, we have many volunteers who don’t need fancy digs as an incentive for coming to help. Volunteers like Debbie and Jen actually specialize in working with these dogs, many of whom need more than exercise in order to get them ready for adoption. This super group of Dog TLC volunteers helps make dogs more adoptable by implementing training plans developed by our staff.
Love is Color Blind, but Volunteers Aren’t
We have a color system for our dogs and volunteers that keeps things humming. The dogs are categorized as green (easy to handle), yellow (slightly less easy), and purple (a handful) and the volunteers have corresponding colors. Purple-rated volunteers can handle all dogs, while green volunteers focus their efforts on green-rated dogs. Of course, dogs and volunteers can graduate to a less restrictive color over time.
We are very fortunate to have an incredible group of volunteers at Peninsula Humane, but the animals could always use more. To get involved, please contact Brian Probst at 650-340-7022, ext. 328 or bprobst@PHS-SPCA.org.
Scott Delucchi is Sr. Vice President, Community Relations, at the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA. His busy household includes two small children and an Accidoodle adopted from his organization.
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Main article photo by: Peninsula Humane Society
