This is a belated reply, but hopefully still useful to some folks! At our shelter, we allow children 10-15 years old to volunteer with a parent/guardian/etc. The ADULT is required to be the one leashing, harnessing, and getting the dog out of their kennel. The adult is also required to hold the leash on walks, etc. These family volunteers are only allowed to train for Level 1 volunteering with our dogs, and would only be allowed to move up a Level with our Canine Enrichment Coordinator's approval.
Volunteers ages 16/17 are allowed to volunteer as an Individual "Adult" volunteer, with parent signature on waiver(s). We decided that since they are trusted to drive a car at that age, they can be trusted to volunteer as well. This is not a common policy in our area, so we're pretty popular with that age group for volunteering and honestly they're some of our best volunteers!
Our volunteers are also required to watch Open Paw training, go through Fear Free training, and do an in-person training before they can handle dogs alone. Some people are deterred by the work upfront, but a lot of our volunteers have given us positive feedback on making them feel confident in their role.
I run the Volunteer program from the Roanoke Valley SPCA in Virginia.
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Erin Dams
Roanoke Valley SPCA
5403396550
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-10-2019 07:24 AM
From: Michelle Reardon
Subject: Kids and Volunteer Programs
Hello! Just curious as to what everyone's policies are when it comes to kids and their organization's volunteer program when it comes to interactions with shelter dogs. We currently allow kids age 13-15 to volunteer with a parent/legal guardian but the parent must be the handler of the dog at all times and both the parent and child must attend orientation. Kids age 16+ can handle the dogs on their own once they complete orientation and have approval from a volunteer coordinator. We recently had an incident where a 14 year old was volunteering with her mother and while attempting to put a collar on one of our dogs the 14 year old was bitten on the face. This has prompted a lot of discussion on what rules should be in place for kids volunteering with the dogs and as well whether kids should be allowed to interact with the dogs at all. While some parents are cautious and do a good job supervising their kids unfortunately not all are.
Thank you for your input!
#volunteerprogram
#kids
#dogbite
#OrganizationalManagement