VOLUNTEERS

Our Volunteer Program at the The Dog Rose is a full package of wonderful experiences: Lots of love and cuddles at the shelter with our rescue animals, an all Romanian Experience with a home stay and homemade cooking.

ALL-IN-ONE ADVENTURE-HELP-FUN!

We say it is the best Animal Spa Day you can get for CHF 450.- all inclusive 7 days of fantastic volunteer experience organisation and airport transfers.

As a volunteer you will be integrated into the daily routine with our local crew. You get to spend lots of time with our dogs when they are out on the play grounds. They will enjoy socialising with you and learn to trust new people. If needed you will be helping with cleaning playgrounds and compartments or other work at the shelter. 

If you bring special skills like: dog behaviour, training with children and teenagers, photography, handicraft, we will integrate all your skills into your volunteer program. More information on volunteering with us, see below.

PROCESS

STEP 1

Send Application form

After we received your application form we send you a response within 24 hours.

STEP 1

STEP 2

Agree an Interview date

We will meet in a coffee shop or via Skype and discuss volunteering with us. We respond to all your questions.

STEP 2

STEP 3

Time to think about it

You get to think about all the information you were given and let you us know if you want to come.

STEP 3

STEP 4

Send final application form in

Fill in the dates you can come, what your special interests are and all the other information.

STEP 4

STEP 5

Pay the volunteer fee

With the application form please pay the full volunteer fee.

  • CHF 450.- per week with airport transfers
STEP 5

STEP 6

Book travels and hotel

When you are booking your flight from and to Switzerland, please always book a transport crate on the return flight. If we have a dog adopted and ready to travel to Switzerland you can be his flight sponsor. We will support you and provide you with more information to traveling with a dog. We assist you with the hotel booking and other reservations.

STEP 6

STEP 7

Discuss volunteer program details

We will discuss your volunteer program and personalise it to your interests and skills. If you stay for more than a week we will help you to organise some sight seeing in and around Bucharest if you are interested

STEP 7

STEP 8

Start volunteer program

Our team will welcome you at the airport in Bucharest and bring you to the hotel. You will discuss your first day at the shelter.
The first day at the shelter you will be shown around, told about the shelter rules and get to meet our dogs.

STEP 8

STEP 9

Complete tasks of the volunteer program

You will enjoy doing your tasks and have a wonderful time at our shelter with our dogs.

STEP 9

STEP 10

Send feedback report

We will meet with you to talk about your experience and we are happy to have your feedback to learn how to improve the experience at the shelter.

STEP 10

STEP 11

Get a wonderful volunteer certificate

Something to be proud of: our cool volunteer certificate will be sent to you after you return home.

STEP 11

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Price:
CHF 450.- per week with airport transfers

For professionals eg vet that come to help with spaying, dog trainers and similar, we set up a special offer/price

Living Cost:
Cost is depending on the accommodation you choose from our list. Our hotel list click here. A good hotel is about EUR 30-50 a night

Food Cost: It depends what restaurants you choose. Generally it can be said that eating out in Romania is cheap compared to other European cities:
– a meal is about EUR 7-10

We have a set of hotels we recommend in our general volunteer information booklet. If nothing suits your requirements please do not hesitate to contact us.

We have put together a list of nice restaurants we enjoy eating in when visiting the shelter or where recommended to us. Please check out the general volunteer information booklet click here.

Generally the work at the shelter for volunteers starts between 9-10 am. In summer it maybe suitable to start earlier as it is very hot during lunch time and the afternoon and the dogs are not very active then.

The shelter is located in Pioresti. Here is a link to Google Map.

We are happy to host groups or school classes. Please contact Anja at anja@dogrose.ch with more details of your plans.

We recommend you bring robust clothing as when the dogs are excited they love to jump up. We also recommend comfortable (closed-toe) shoes as you will be on your feet for a lot of the day.. Further details you find in the general volunteer booklet

By Car:
It is depending on the rental company you are choosing and the season of the year you are coming. We have had good experiences with www.klassenwagen.ro or www.rentalcars.com

By Train:
If you are staying in Bucharest there is the option to commute by train. The train runs every hour to the shelter. The station to get off is called Crivina.

By Transfer through our staff:
If you are staying on the way of our employees to the shelter, they can take you along.

We recommend the usual vaccination. Romania does not have rabies anymore, but some travel medicine pages recommend the vaccination if you work with animals. All our dogs at the shelter are vaccinated against rabies. For further professional advice please check out your local travel medicine page. Here for Switzerland

When working with living animals there is always the risk that you can be bitten. In general our dogs are really friendly and volunteers will be informed during the instruction at the shelter which dogs have which habits, so you know when meeting them how to interact.

Romania is safe to be on your own. You have to take the same precautions as at home eg. Do not leave your valuables unattended.

It is always good to know a couple of words in the language of the country you are going to, but our volunteer responsible speaks English, so no extended Romanian knowledge required.

A basic knowledge about dogs and their behavior is useful, to understand their reaction. We can recommend you the book ‘Calming Signs’ written by Turid Rugaas.

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