Soi Dog Foundation - Phuket Thailand Phuket - Volunteers Base - Free Volunteering and Work Exchange Opportunities.

Location: Phuket, Thailand

Our dog foundation is a charity which helps the homeless, neglected and abused dogs and cats of Thailand, of which there are approximately 1 million nationwide.

Our aim is to set an example for the Asian region on how to humanely reduce the number of unwanted dogs and cats through spaying and neutering, and to better the lives and living conditions of the stray dogs and feral cats of Asia.

Our dog foundation relies heavily on volunteers both in Thailand and overseas to help fulfil our mission.

The primary role of a volunteer at our animal shelter in Phuket is to spend time socialising and walking the dogs (approximately 300) and spending time with the cats. To ensure the ongoing success of our adoption program, it is essential to teach the dogs and cats to trust people and to teach the dogs to walk on a lead.

Almost all of our animals are former street animals who have never been indoors and need to learn to feel comfortable around people. Socialising is especially important for shy animals and those who have been abused. Many adopters say their new companions are really friendly and comfortable with them, even as soon as they arrive from Thailand – this is because of shelter volunteers.

The average Volunteer day starts at 9 am and will involve being assigned a run of approximately 10-15 dogs. These will be “your” dogs to look after for your whole stay and you will find you will build a very strong bond with them after only a few days!

You will spend time with them in their run socialising them and brushing them and then walking your dogs in rotation.

Your run will be made up of a mixture of very boisterous dogs who are itching to have attention and go for walks immediately, right through to very shy and nervous dogs which have been badly abused when living on the street and will not let you touch them and will probably hide away from you.

Over 1-2 weeks, you will see improvements with the shy dogs and they will slowly start to trust you and allow you to start stroking them and then even taking them for walks. It is a really amazing experience to see a dog start to trust again……

If you can stay for 1 month or more, then it is possible for Volunteers to get involved in other more challenging activities such as behavioural assessments for the dogs prior to posting for adoption and also puppy training. We also have an old dog run, shy dog run and “hotel run.” This run is for dogs which have confirmed adopters overseas and need extra socialisation before leaving to make sure they settle in well when they get to their new homes in places such as UK, USA, Canada and Europe.

Volunteers finish at 3-4 pm dependent on weather. We are open Monday to Friday.

There is a very strong volunteer/staff team spirit at our dog shelter – so much so we have volunteers who come back every year and many volunteers who stay for 3- 6 months as they love seeing the difference they make to their dogs!

It is also quite regular that a volunteer will also find adopters for their dogs in their own country so that they can go and visit them when they return home!

Accommodation and Food

Lunch is at midday to 1pm and can be ordered to be delivered to the shelter or there are a couple of nice cheap cafes where many volunteers go to for lunch.

There are all levels of accommodation available near the shelter – nearly all of it on, or very close to a stunning beach.

We pick up and drop off Volunteers when they stay locally to the Shelter.

Additional Information

For more information on Volunteering and where to stay when at our dog rescue centre, please email us and we will send you a Volunteer pack.

There are lots of beautiful beaches to visit on Phuket as well as many island off Phuket by Ferry or longtail/Speedboat.

Phuket caters for very laid back beach bars through to Patong’s heady bar scene or more exclusive beach clubs being the place to be seen.

Lots to do and lots to see!

https://www.soidog.org/