The stereotypical story of the street dog that doesn’t trust people due to abuse and neglect, the dog that starved on the street, that had its life turned around after it got sick or injured on the street and was rescued by a kind person, is far from fiction. It’s sadly a very common event. Second Chance Dog Shelter in Thailand came into being because of exactly this scenario. Adrian started the Shelter so all these dogs he saved had a home, a second chance.

There are now over 80 dogs with us at Second Chance. The number is rising, just this week Adrian was contacted by a tourist to come and rescue a puppy that had been hit by a car. It has a broken leg and will need care, expensive care while it recuperates, then it will have a home at Second Chance.

What we don’t want is the heartwarming rescue and the nursing back to health to be the end of the story. We want the dogs to trust again, to have confidence, to be trained to coexist with people and then to find a home.

So Taipei Dog Training and Second Chance Dog Shelter have come together to build some unique volunteer programs. These programs help the dogs and also educate the volunteers in how to train and rehabilitate street dogs, and if you can train a shelter dog, you can almost certainly train a pet dog.

Why Teach Dog Obedience and Agility ?

There are a number of reasons why we teach these two activities. The structure of obedience is very important for all dogs, and street dogs are no different. The simple act of teaching a dog to walk to heel, it seems minor but it isn’t. If your dog knows where you want him to walk he can do it, if he can walk where he wants he will, and soon you have a dog pulling you everywhere as he takes control of the direction of the walk. Now when a dog pulls you on the walk, the activity is far from relaxing for the person holding the leash, so the dog gets walked less, and when he is walked he’s even more excited and pulls more, and the negative cycle continues. Every aspect of obedience, at least the way we teach it to be used is to give the dog more freedom and opportunities, and a better life. A well behaved dog is taken places. A badly behaved dog is left at home. We want the dogs at Second Chance to be adopted and to go everywhere with their family.

So why teach agility ? well its fun for everyone involved. Training that is fun for the dog and the person is our goal. But equally importantly it’s a great way to build confidence in dogs. Lots of dogs in shelters need a confidence boost. So when the volunteers teach the dogs to jump over barrels, run through a tunnel, charge over an A frame or run the weave poles it helps the dogs confidence and it helps them trust people. And the principles of dog training are the same no matter what activity you are teaching, so the volunteer students learn to teach agility, but the principles can be applied to any problem they may face when training a dog.

Enriching Activities

The volunteers will also help the dogs with real world activities, helping with their socialisation. We don’t want to have dogs that can walk to heel and do a down stay for an hour in our training ground, but then have a total meltdown if a car backfires. So the volunteers will learn about the importance of socialisation and how to do it correctly. These activities will include but not be limited to

Pack Walks

This is a bit of a buzz topic at the moment, but there is real benefits to walking dogs in a group. After all we want the dogs to be calm and collected in all circumstances, and that includes being around other dogs. The pack walk helps this no end. Less confident dogs can feel secure in a group.

Swimming & Surfing

Yes, if you do the volunteer courses with us, you can get to swim and surf with the dogs ! Why ? Its fun, its great exercise for the dogs, and it is another opportunity to get them to do something they may initially be a bit wary of doing, so it helps with their confidence and builds up their trust in people. And what a great way to spend an afternoon in the sun, swimming off the beach with the dogs.

Pet Friendly Cafes

This is another socialising opportunity. It may seem like nothing but teaching a dog to calmly relax at your feet in a busy environment is great socialisation. And if the volunteers teach their own dogs to do it when they return home, their dogs can go with them when they go out to meet friends for coffee.

Thailand

Location Location Location. You won’t get a better location to do a volunteer program in a dog shelter than in Thailand. Great weather, great food and a huge number of activities to do in your free time. Volunteering at a dog shelter In Thailand is a great experience, one of the things you will remember doing for the rest of your life.

Within 30 minutes of the shelter we have elephant sanctuaries, beaches, islands, sailing, parasailing, jet ski ing, bars and night life and restaurants everywhere you look. You won’t get bored, your biggest problem really will be deciding which activities you have time for while you are with us.

The beach we will take the dogs swimming at was voted in the top ten beaches in the world. So you can do a great course, one that we genuinely believe is the best of its kind in the world and you can do it in a great location.

Expanding Our Reach – Partner Shelters

One thing we want our volunteer graduates to be able to do, is to continue to grow on their dog training journey. You can learn so much and specialise in so many areas. It’s my hope that after completing their courses with us that they continue. With that in mind we are reaching out to shelters across Asia to find places that will allow our students to go to when they leave us, to train more shelter dogs. We want our volunteers to become experts in street dog training, to have hands on experience with dogs in multiple shelters, so ideas can be shared and more and more dogs can be helped.

Street Dog Sanctuary in Palawan Philippines

Palawan is an incredibly beautiful island in the Philippines, but it has many dogs in need of help. And just like second chance in Thailand there Is no government help. We first spoke to The Street Dog Sanctuary during the pandemic and they are keen to have graduate volunteers from the volunteer courses at Second Chance in Thailand go and train their shelter dogs. This is a great opportunity for volunteers to experience yet another culture, train more shelter dogs and get great experience. Working in different environments, countries and cultures will be of great benefit to volunteers no matter what they do in the future.

We intend to add more and more shelters to our network, we are close to finalising details with a shelter near Manila. We hope to gain more shelters across Thailand too. We want our volunteers to be able to have phenomenal opportunities when they leave us. To become expert advocates for street dogs in Asia.

How To Volunteer With Second Chance Dog Shelter In Thailand ?

It’s easy click here , check when the next course is running and email us. We can arrange a phone call with you to tell you about the programs in more detail. If there isn’t a course on the dates you want , contact us anyway and we will see how we can help. Take the first step on your dog training journey today, have the experience of a lifetime.