First Day as a Volunteer Walker

After going through the local shelter's volunteer orientation at the end of August, a dog walker training session last Sunday, I finally was able to sign up for my first volunteer shift today :D. There are multiple skill levels for different difficulties of dogs - I am at the lowest level (seeing as I just started) and can only walk dogs that don't have a plethora of behavioral issues (all, senior, or advanced skill levels - I am 'all', meaning anyone should be able to walk them who has had the basic training). Sadly, the 'all' designation is becoming increasingly rare. The majority of dogs that are coming into the shelter come from the southern states (North Carolina mostly for the shelter I am volunteering at), and it seems most of them come in needing work. They currently only have 2 dogs that I can walk. I had a 2 hour shift, and 2 dogs, so they each got an hour walk! Pictured is Molly, she was very friendly and we were making some progress on her pulling during our walk. There are lots of wooded trails around the shelter (that is owned by them) that we were able to go for a sniff on. The second pup I walked, Aphrodite, was so scared. She apparently hadn't had a poo or eaten all day =\ I was able to get her to poop on our walk and she seemed to come out of her shell a little bit. I am really hoping that there are more shifts put up so I can volunteer some more!

I also need to catch up on blips ... I have been totally out of my habit as of late. I'll try and catch up over the weekend, but at the very least I will keep going from here!