Sitework – Every Dog Matters

HOW DAILY WORK GOES AT OUR SHELTER

Hi there!

The information on this page is basically our bible for daily execution of work at our shelter.

This page describes the daily workflow, rules (for dog AND human safety!) and procedures at our shelter.

If in any doubt about what to do next OR you have completed expected work and need a new task, please ask the Team Leader for that day. There is always more to do at our shelter.

Communication is EVERYTHING at our shelter and nobody will get mad if you have forgotten how to do something or don’t know about some part of the task.

We do our best to make sure that our shelter is a friendly, co-operative working environment and if that fails sometimes, we try to fix it.

On your first working days with us, you will be paired up with a more experienced worker and together you will work through the tasks, with you ‘shadowing’ them, seeing how things work.

If you have completed a task early and have nothing to do, please spend some time in the yards around Building 11 socialising the dogs there e.g. sitting in their yards and patting them for 15-30 minutes.

The dogs love it, it helps them get used to more people and you will like it too!

MAIN RULES FOR VOLUNTEER WORKERS

The main rules for volunteer workers on our site are:

NO running on the site.

Running triggers overexcitement among the shelter dogs and can cause fights.

Walk quickly but do not run.
NEVER let a dog escape from a yard, when entering or leaving a yard (call loudly for help IMMEDIATELY if this happens).

There are homeless dogs in the area nearby that will not tolerate an unknown dog entering their territory and attack it (we have had our dogs killed in the past this way).
After entering or leaving a yard, ALWAYS shake the gate to make sure that the latch of the gate is SECURE (see gate entry video below).
Do NOT enter a yard with a WARNING sign on the front gate e.g. Caesar in the end yard of Fuzzy Street.
Treats can trigger FIGHTS between dogs. Please do NOT NOT NOT give the dogs treats.
If a dog seems nervous or afraid, do NOT approach them.

Always give a dog that you don’t know the CHOICE to approach you, rather than you deciding to approach them (dogs regard physical distance between them and a potential threat to them as their main way of protecting themselves).

Completely ignoring a nervous dog is the quickest way to make it feel more comfortable with you.
Following the instructions of your Team Leader or permanent staff is EXTREMELY important, for your safety and the safety of our dogs.

WORK STARTS AT 8.30 AM EACH DAY

Whether arriving by train or by car, it is expected that you will be ready to start the day’s work by 8.30 am.

Most workers arrive around 8 am so they can change into our (provided) working clothes and have coffee/tea in the Lunch Room BEFORE starting work at 8.30 am.

At the 8.30 am Morning Meeting, your Team Leader for that day will talk through the expected morning tasks assigned to each person and this is the perfect moment to ask if you are not sure how to do something or need more information.

As you complete each task, you should tick it off in the Task Notebook inside Building 11:

ADD PHOTO HERE

Of course, during each task, if you find that something is broken or missing that prevents task completion, let your Team Leader know immediately and they will manage that.

IMPORTANT: Our permanent Bulgarian staff have their own tasks and schedule for the day and work as a separate team.

The information on this page is for our Workaway and Worldpackers workers only.

Some of our Bulgarian staff do speak some English and can help if you get stuck but generally we work independently of them. They may also ask you for a quick hand with something if needed too so please help them when that happens.

FIRST TASKS (BEFORE MAIN FEEDING)

Based on what tasks have been assigned by your Team Leader in the 8.30 am Morning Meeting in the Lunch Room (container shown below), the main tasks we begin with each day are:

letting out Rusty and Kaya from office container for morning toilet and exercise (NOTE: Dobrin and Rexy MUST be locked inside Building 11 when this happens as Rusty will go after Rexy)
walking dogs from Recovery Rooms in Building 11 (IF our vet team has approved each dog for walks)
cleaning Recovery Rooms in Building 11 (removing poo and mopping the floors)
cleaning the cat cage + replacing water for them (strict protocol on plastic shoe covers is ESSENTIAL for this work to block the transmission of diseases into the cat cage from the rest of the shelter)
sweeping + poo removal on the Roaming street in front of the Office, Lunch Room, Building 11 blue doors and Vet Clinic
sweeping + poo removal inside the main Building 11 area where the tables and cats are AND the corridor in front of Recovery rooms
walking Suzi from the storeroom in Building 11

feeding dogs in small yards in Roaming Area, near the Lunch Room and next to the blue doors for Building 11
feeding Molly and Terry in the ‘Training Area’ (Molly barks at new people so she needs to be fed by someone she knows BUT once Molly trusts you, she is the best dog friend you ever had!)

MAIN FEEDING & WATERING

The Main Feeding at the shelter is the BIG important task of the day where exact steps MUST be followed.

Food aggression is very common with shelter dogs so many of the dogs MUST be leashed BEFORE feeding can begin (our dogs LOVE people but can get triggered with other dogs about food).

For example, on Derek Street, all of the dogs that need to be leashed (not all need it) MUST be leashed before feeding begins on that street.

On other sections such as Main Street and Fuzzy Street, several yards ahead are leashed, then feeding starts back in the yards that were already leashed.

It is CRITICAL to remain in yards UNTIL all dogs have finished eating BEFORE moving on to the next yard.

Some dogs are fast eaters and some are slow eaters.

Some won’t finish the food, even if hand fed.

At first, you will be paired up with a more experienced worker so that you fully understand the Main Feeding process.

To summarize Main Feeding:

leashing first, for several yards ahead
feeding in separate bowls brought in from outside the front of each yard
replacing water and cleaning the inside of the water bucket with a scrubbing brush
checking if the kennels and winter house have enough hay (especially in winter) and aren’t damaged in any way (e.g. missing wood panels, knocked over etc)
removing any rubbish or item that might be dangerous for dogs (e.g. sharp metal or wood with nails sticking out of it)
making sure that dogs in adjacent yards have finished eating before unleashing dogs in your current yard
removing all food bowls in your current yard
unleashing all dogs in your current yard
leaving empty food bowls outside that yard
moving on to the next yard to repeat the same process there

WHAT TO CHECK WHEN IN YARDS FOR FEEDING

does each kennel and winter house have enough hay?
do kennels and their winter house look OK and not damaged or broken in some way (overnight, anything can happen!)?
do the wooden pallets or metal barriers on fences between yards look OK or there is fresh damage that needs repair (which can get added to afternoon tasks)?
does any fence or gate seem damaged that needs repair (e.g. a dog can get his whole head through the fence, into another yard – dangerous! – or outside his yard)?

LUNCH

Legally and technically, workers in Bulgaria get 30 minutes for lunch plus a 15 minute morning break and a 15 minute afternoon break.

HOWEVER

We have found that a morning break is unnecessary as work starts at 8.30 am and Main Feeding is normally done by roughly 11.30 am, depending on the number of available workers each day.

We usually go to lunch when the Main Feeding is finished.

Therefore, we find that a 45 minute lunch break WITHOUT a morning break works well and if needed, workers can take a 15 minute afternoon break between tasks, assuming that the daily Team Leader is aware of that and has approved it.

At the end of the lunch break, your Team Leader will assign tasks for the afternoon, especially new issues that were noticed during the morning work, such as fences needing repair or various other odd jobs around the site.

IMPORTANT: it is NOT possible to buy food around the shelter so you MUST bring it with you from home OR buy some at Central Station when passing through there in the morning on the way to work (banitsa – yummy!):

AFTERNOON TASKS

The afternoon work after lunch tends to have a slower tempo than the morning tasks but afternoon work gives us a chance to execute various mini projects and tasks around the site e.g.

walking specific dogs (including 2nd walk for Recovery dogs near end of day)
walking Suzi near end of day
repairing any yard issues spotted during feeding (e.g. broken/missing fence pallets, kennels missing roofs or not upright, fence panels coming loose, rubbish for removal in yards or streets in shelter, items needing to be stored in Building 10 such as unused tires, kennels in streets, not yards or fence wire laying on ground)

FINISHING TIME BY 4.30 PM

Usually, all of the above work is completed by 4.30 pm and the site can be locked up by Bulgarian staff or the Team Leader.

If you are travelling back to Flora Park by train, you MUST be at the Kostinbrod station by 4.50 pm (it is a 10-15 minute walk from our shelter to the station).

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS?

These are the most common questions that we get asked by new workers but if you have others, please direct them to your Team Leader, Terry or Yuliya.