Today we want to put the spotlight on two very important volunteer roles – a human and dog combo!
Many of our dogs, especially the ex racing greyhounds, may have never have experienced other breeds of dogs before. It’s important that we understand how they react to them, and the only way we can do this is by carefully introducing them to other breeds…and we are a little short of terriers in our kennels!
Small dogs are particularly relevant, as they may be mistaken for a hare that has been chased around a track, but it is important to understand how our hounds cope with other breeds too. This allows us to assess whether they could be homed with a non-sighthound, or even how they might react to one when out on a walk.
Therefore we rely on some wonderful human volunteers bringing their doggy volunteers to work our experienced kennel team, enabling us to test our hounds compatibility with other breeds of dog. Not only do we assess our hounds initial reaction to seeing another dog, the doggy volunteer works with the dog in question on an ongoing basis to help them understand that all not dogs have long pointy noses, and long legs!
You will see the results of this testing on the their profiles. In fact, we recently put out a request for volunteer help in this regard, and we were overwhelmed with the response. Here is new recruit Bryn and his amazing mum (who was a little camera shy!), with homeless hound Charlie. Charlie hasn’t come straight from the track, and with the amazing work Bryn has done, Charlie has been assessed as no longer needing a muzzle in his company.
These volunteers really are invaluable to the rehabilitation and subsequent rehoming of dogs in our care and we can’t thank them enough. 🙏
Could you be a trustee? **Now closed**