3 things I learnt from volunteering at a Dog rescue shelter 🐕

Since a little bit of context never hurt anybody: I had just graduated college and started my first job back in 2016. Around the same time, I was looking around for animal shelters where i could volunteer and get to spend time with dogs.

Facebook searches showed up 2 legit options: k9 and Stray Dogs Center UAQ (now re-named as Stray Dogs center). I showed up at both over the course of 3 weekends and ultimately made my choice (Stray Dogs Center UAQ) based on a number of factors. Here’s what I’ve learnt over the course of 4 years of volunteering:

1. Dogs can live the minimalist lifestyle ⛱️:

If anybody could beat out minimalists- Its dogs. Literally anything will make a dog happy. They’re not really looking for a fancy house, food or toys. The frayed end of a leash will keep them just as entertained as a 500 AED toy.

If you start randomly running off into the sand dunes, they’ll gladly follow without any hesitation (although one needs to be careful when doing this) or just sit with you and observe what’s happening around.

2. Dog lovers 🐾:

Being a rescue shelter, most of our dogs are mixed breeds. Of-course we do get the occasional pure-breeds but- unsurprisingly- they find homes the quickest.

I’ve seen people come into the shelter and at our adoption day events (back before co-vid settled in) and be genuinely happy with any dog/puppy that they got the chance to foster/adopt. There was no subtle hints and manipulation to try and “score” one of the better looking dogs or the pure-breeds (It should also be noted that we don’t just plonk one of our dogs or puppies into their hands and call it a day. There’s a whole meeting process and follow-ups that happen)

These are people who are genuinely looking to give a dog their forever home with no strings attached.

3. Status Symbol dogs 🐩:

On the flipside, I’ve also seen people come in and try to get only the pure-breeds, because after all, one does run out of things to post on social media i guess.

Personally, I don’t handle the adoption/foster side section of the shelter- there’s a phenomenal team already doing that and hats off to them for managing the absurd requests people come up with.

It’s strange because you see people who were initially like “I don’t think we’re ready” or “We don’t have a garden” but magically, these same people are ready when we put up a husky or a labrador up for adoption.

Throughout the years, I’ve spoken to both types of people. The no-strings attached dog lovers are people who are or seem genuinely happy in their lives and are literally just looking to give a dog a home because they’ve either grown up with one, or they’ve been wanting to for a while and are just recently able to (financially or otherwise)

The status symbol dog people on the other hand also love dogs but they also crave the attention that they would get with a pure-breed status symbol (huskies, Labrador, German shepherd, chihuahuas). It’s not really about the dog- it’s about them. Some of the reasoning they try to come up with (Because they know they’re being extremely shallow and are also trying to rid themselves of the guilt) for only wanting a pure-breed dog is ridiculous and makes you question their intelligence.

To conclude, Dogs are like babies in furry form. One should keep them because you want to, not because you’ve been told to.