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Location: Pyla Village, Larnaka, Cyprus
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 14,788
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Originally Posted by
Kanie
Are there any nearby dog rescue shelters you could volunteer for maybe an hour or so every weekend, so you get to enjoy being around dogs and learning more about their care, without actually committing to look after a puppy while working full time?
Good luck!
That is an excellent idea! My dog boarding kennels employs volunteer walkers so all the dogs get their daily walks. Many of them people whose work commitments don't allow them to have a dog full time but who still love to be out walking a dog.
I'm not there obviously when they walk my dog (coz I am away) but I've met two people now who've called over to my dog and said they know her because they've walked her for Sharon at Petstop! One of them a St Johns Ambulance employee whose working hours are erratic.
For the first year after I moved to Cornwall my daughter walked neighbours' dogs - in particular a lovely old Labrador who she walked on the beach every day (she'd been promised we would get a dog again once we'd settled in as I wouldn't be working outside the home anymore).
Her devotion to spending time with these dogs and regularly walking them (not just when she 'felt like it') for a year in all seasons decided me she was responsible enough and that was the start of a 10yr love affair between her and the little Cavalier puppy we got. Opted for a dog a 10 yr old could handle and that wasn't at all aggressive and that people would not be afraid of when she was out with it.