Role Title: Volunteer Canine Assistant

Location: Manchester Rehoming Centre

Main contact: Hannah Laidlaw – Volunteer Coordinator

Suggested time Commitment: Minimum 1 shift a week (Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays)

Purpose of the role: To support and assist the Canine Carers to ensure our animal accommodation facilities are cleaned, maintained and in excellent condition. To help provide essential exercise and enrichment activities for the dogs.

Key responsibilities:Work with centre staff to clean kennels and other service areas to Dogs Trust standards to ensure the dogs in our care are comfortable and safe.Provide exercise, socialisation and enrichment to dogs as requested by centre staff.Report any concerns regarding each dog’s health and welfare to centre staff.Adhere to centre protocols for collection of dogs, walking routes and use of exercise compounds.Other kennel-related tasks as requested by Dogs Trust staff, including food prep and ‘poop’ scooping.Undertake basic dog training in accordance with Dogs Trust training methods if required & trained to do so. (Volunteers will be given full training if required).Use centre approved equipment e.g. leads, harnesses, muzzles, etc. when instructed.Complete animal records to confirm exercise and feeding as required.Carry out any laundry as required.Report any faulty or damaged equipment to centre staff.

Required skills & Competencies:Passionate about dogs, dog welfare and experience of handling them.Good level of physical fitness for walking and handling dogs of all shapes, sizes and strengths and other physical duties.Excellent face to face communication skills with the ability to listen.Confident and friendly manner.

Ability to work comfortably in a close-knit team or alone.Conscientious with a can-do attitude.Ability to follow instructions.

What this role will offer you:We will provide you with a main contact who will manage your tasks, answer your questions and help you whilst at events. You will receive event specific training, guidance and support as well as an opportunity to develop your current skills, alongside gaining new ones. We will provide a Dogs Trust volunteer uniform, alongside recognition of the role that you are carrying out in support of Dogs Trust through our Volunteer Merits Scheme.

Please contact (volunteer.manchester@dogstrust.org.uk & 0161 337 3614) for further details about this role and our current availability.

A final word from our CEO

Without our dedicated volunteers we couldn’t hope to achieve as much as we do for the dogs in our care; the support they give is absolutely vital to our work. I hope that everyone who volunteers for us agrees that volunteering with Dogs Trust is a hugely rewarding experience.

Jim Monteith, Interim Chief Executive

Dogs Trust is the UK’s largest dog welfare charity. Through our network of 20 rehoming centres across the UK and one in Ireland we care for almost 17,000 abandoned and unwanted dogs a year. No healthy dog is ever destroyed.