As a COAPE student you are encouraged to offer time to your local shelter, should you have one in your vicinity, and this is something I’ve been doing for a while.
Centres remain very busy, and help is welcome in the centres structured to accept it. You need to be over the age of 18, your access to animals will vary by centre policy, and also based on your personal experience.
You can volunteer to do a variety of activities from landscaping, laundry, reception, dog walking, as well as training and behaviour. As a volunteer you will be inducted, and probably asked to commit to a regular session, the centre will invest time and resources in taking volunteers on board, so you can understand why it’s important to commit.
If you are looking to volunteer as a trainer or behaviourist, I recommend approaching the training and behaviour team to have a chat with them first. You will get a sense of how they work, and the methods the centre uses for training. The staff you work with each week will vary and be very busy, but on hand to help with navigating the centre’s safety protocols and procedures.
On my first session I watched a dog intake assessment, the intake assessment yields a plan than sets out the work that will need to be undertaken by the team as all dogs are trained in ‘basics’, including muzzle training. Most have a combination of activity including walks off site, and off lead time in the centre, helping them to walk nicely, to socialise with other dogs (where possible), providing plenty of enrichment activities, and co-operative care.
As a COAPE student whilst volunteering, I was allocated six dogs to work with, two of which became my case studies. Using COAPE’s MHERA™ and ESTA™ framework gave me great tools to work with, I found this approach helped to identify and alleviate the stress of being in kennels. I could see a notable difference from the beginning through to the end of the sessions, the MHERA tools making it easy to record and share successes with staff.
It may seem obvious, but working with a dog in a shelter is very different to working with a client and their dog. Shelter work means you are working one to one with the dog. If you don‘t yet have clients, volunteering will give you great experience and new found ability to describe what you want them to achieve. Even if you have lots of client experience, this is a great opportunity to use your abilities and get back to working with dogs yourself. Win win!
I have learnt a phenomenal amount from working with rescue dogs and have seen firsthand the impact being in a shelter has on their emotional and mental health. Shelter staff do their very best, are caring and dedicated, but if there’s anything we can do as professionals to support them, and the animals in their care, we should.
Jennifer Norman
DipCABT C.C.A.B
COAPE Certified Animal Behaviourist
MHERA Practitioner
IMDT Dog Trainer
