London, ON

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

Weekend Dog Walkers

On Saturday and Sunday afternoons or evenings, about a dozen volunteers walk our dogs who don’t have foster homes to give them exercise and help them burn off energy. Walks are either neighbourhood walks or woods walks on our property. It’s a great activity for  individuals or groups of friends or collegues. If you have your own group of 7 or 8, we can schedule additional walks on other days or evenings as well.

Vacation Foster Homes

Vacation homes provide loving and relaxing homes for our dogs in training that don’t have regular foster homes, for times when our trainers are busy with client placements or away at conferences, or when a dog simply needs some special attention and time away from the pack.  Vacation stays can be as short as a 2 day weekend or as long as a week or two. It’s a great way to get your “dog fix” without the full time commitment of a dog.

Grooming

Help keep our goldens looking...well...“Golden”! Our dogs love to be brushed and there’s ear cleaning and tooth brushing too. Gotta love chicken flavoured toothpaste!

Play Yard Patrol

Volunteers who are able to dedicate more time and a regular commitment of at least twice a week can help in the play yards. We will teach you about pack behaviour, dog body language and a lot of other useful tips to help keep our pack exercised, socialized and safe.  This job involves rotating dogs in yards, monitoring safe play, throwing balls and yes...picking up poop!  This is a great job for those hardy souls who don’t mind the snow, rain, mud and heat and who have a an entire wardrobe of old cloths.

Cleaning and Maintenance

These volunteers are worth their weight in GOLD! They are foundational to everything else we do and keeping our dogs’ environment and training spaces clean, safe and healthy is of paramount importance. Some tasks include cleaning training room floors, crates, wiping grooming tables, kennel run fence repair, painting and general repairs, wheelchair maintenance and repair, lawn mowing, snow removal in laneways and kennel yards, electrical repair, dog yard general maintenance, etc.  Great for those handy men and woman who love to tinker away time.

Fundraising and Special Events

We’re always looking for volunteers with a passion for fundraising.  Work with our staff to brainstorm ideas and then help carry out various fundraising activities and events.  These volunteers may also be assigned to specific clients to work with them to help raise the funds specifically for their service dog.  Must be a people person, have good communication skills and a positive upbeat attitude!

Community Education/Public Relations

Great opportunity for retired teachers or advocates for people with disabilities.  Help us build awareness in the community about Golden Opportunity Assistance Dogs and the various types of disabilities we service and the important role these amazing dogs play in the lives disabled individuals.  There is also a huge need to educate the public about proper etiquette when meeting a person with a service dog so as not to distract the dog from the job it is doing. As with fundraising volunteers, you must be a people person, have excellent communication skills and a positive upbeat attitude.

Marketing

Do you know how to “get the message out to the masses” in creative and fun ways?
We’re looking for volunteers to help in the following areas:

Website design and maintenance
Graphic design (brochure and print media and printing)
Photography
Videography

Administrative

There are times when we need assistance with mailings, data entry and research.  These do not involve regular commitments
but are typically time sensitive when the needs arise. If you are interested in donating a few hours once in a while
and love administrative work, let us know and we’ll keep you in mind for when we need you most!