All the volunteers want to have breaks, some dogs don’t get along, everyone wants to sit in the cage with the puppies, the big dogs need more people.
I do shots and paperwork, and the adoption counselors aren’t always there, either one or 2 and their are a lot more adoptions now.
We have red badges for the volunteers that can answer questions.
What can we do to make it smoother?
I mean that want breaks after 5 minutes in the cage.
we do it at a local petco outside
Best answer:
Answer by Kelle
Extend the time so you don’t have so many people there all at once.
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Of course its reasonable for everyone to need a break!
Try to assign a person or two who can relieve people for breaks… or to be that “extra hand” when its needed.
Try to pair up people with tasks that they want to do.. certainly some people would prefer to handle the adult dogs? If not, then make everyone rotate out and take turns with handling the adults and pups.
Try to set up a schedule with the volunteers who you know are going to be there on that adoption day. Allot them a certain amount of time to walk adult dogs, take a break, sit in the puppy pen, etc. That way you don’t have too many people sitting with the puppies at once, or all on break at one time, and someone will always be walking the adult dogs.
Even if you don’t know who exactly is going to be there, just make a generic schedule with “Person 1″, “Person 2″, “Person 3″ etc. and when someone shows up say, “Okay, you’re Person 1, follow Person 1′s schedule for walking adult dogs, playing with puppies, and taking breaks.”
Show them their schedule at the beginning of their day and ask them to please stick to it as best as they can. Obviously they are volunteers and not employees so you can’t make them do anything they don’t want to, but tell them that you’re trying to make the day run as smoothly as possible and that it would REALLY help you if they could be where they’re supposed to be, when they’re supposed to be there. I’m sure if they’re there to help they’ll be happy to oblige, at least partly if not fully.
Is there any way you can train more people to be adoption counselors? The more of them you have, the faster you can get things done. At a place I used to volunteer at we had “trainees” who would shadow adoption counselors for a few weeks to learn the ropes, then once they knew the ins and outs of adoption counseling (what questions to ask, how to gauge potential families, etc.) they were allowed to counsel on their own. Something like that might help you get more people out there counseling potential adoptive parents on adoption days.
Good luck!
Do you have people that email or call about meeting a specific dog? Maybe you could make appts for those people to meet with the dog and go through the application/adoption process during the event. Make sure one volunteer and an adoption counselor is ready and available to those with the appts and a couple others available to help those that don’t.
Sounds like you need not only more adoption counselors, but more reliable volunteers to serve as adoption counselors..
Is each dog in a separate crate or do you have all the dogs together? Separate crates may be easier to deal with, especially for the dogs that aren’t getting along.
Where are the adoption events held? At the shelter or a specific place each time? Either way, maybe you could reserve a place away from the chaos to people to meet and greet with the animals…?
I know the rescue group I work with does a lot of pet adoptions at petsmart and this local store is fairly small, so when someone comes and wants to meet a dog, a volunteer will go with the person to take the dog for a walk and play with it, etc. They also don’t bring more dogs than they can handle based on the volunteers they will have for that day.
Thank you for volunteering to do this.
My local SPCA has events scheduled at certain times. Usually in the morning its interview to see if people want to adopt a dog. Mid afternoon they either do a dog show where the public votes on the cutest dog or do a 5K I believe which goes on till the end. While the 5K is going on, there are a few people doing shots and papers (for license) and our adoption counselors are the ones that bring out dogs (so they HAVE to be there or they have the guilt trip of not having their dog seen).
They also don’t bring out puppies. The dogs they bring out are usually at least 2 years old (most being around 5).
They do have pop quiz which is answering questions.
They have two a year in one of the largest parks in the city.
As far as I know the volunteers know that this is full time work and to take a break they better have a buddy to do part time for them.
So my advice. Check and see what other SPCAs around the country are doing. We have two very close together and I’m pretty sure they work around their schedule.
They are Placer SPCA
and Sacramento SPCA
but we have a nearby one called Yolo
good luck