We are always looking for new team members!
There are many ways you can lend a hand with helping our dogs. We would love to have you join us. Email sspadogs@gmail.com to inquire about opportunities.
Following is a list of roles our volunteers fill, but feel free to suggest something along the lines of your own interests if you don’t see it here:
Dog Day Out: Take a Stockton shelter dog out for a day and brighten their lives. Fill out the questionnaire.
Dog Walkers: Our dog walkers participate in exercising, training, and providing kennel enrichment and love to dogs throughout the week and on weekends at and around the Stockton shelter. Want to help your region’s dogs in need and get some exercise at the same time? Enjoy being a hero to some truly awesome dogs? Then dog walking is 
the job for you.
Playgroup Participants: These volunteers help facilitate the operation of playgroups by monitoring dog groups, adding and removing dogs from groups as directed by the leader, and providing exercise and enrichment to dogs as needed before or after group time. Playgroups are critical to maintaining dog-social dogs’ mental health and well-being.
Adoption Counselors: For those who enjoy talking to the public and are willing and able to help educate people about our pets as well as responsible pet ownership, adoption counseling is an area where we could really use more volunteers – and it’s an opportunity to make a big impact on adoption rates! Counselors provide accurate information to adopters and adhere to our philosophy that all dogs (and animals) are individuals in helping families choose pets. Interested in adoption counseling? We’d love to hear from you.
Photographers and Photography Assistants: Our photography team provides attractive photographs of dogs in order to show off their personalities and attract the attention of adopters. Assistants handle the dogs for the photographer and generally have lots of messy, slobbery fun. Whether you have a talent for photography or would like to be involved by helping as an assistant, we would be happy to have your help.
Videographers: Our dog walkers and playgroup participants take video whenever possible to be featured on dog web pages in order to attract adopters. Videos show the dogs’ play style and social skills, thereby helping families select the right fit for their lifestyle and current resident pets. However, we would be happy to have a few dedicated videographers as well, if you have a special interest in this area.
Web Team: Our web team performs a variety of tasks, such as writing bios, supporting and
expanding our social media platforms (mainly Facebook and Instagram), building web pages, writing, editing, providing content, wrangling WordPress, responding to email and doing online adoption counseling. Much of this volunteer work can be done from home, for those who are unable to help in person at the shelter.
Foster Care Providers: Our foster providers have one of the most rewarding tasks in the world. They provide care and housing to dogs, kittens and rabbits in need of time outside the shelter. In the process, they get to see the pets blossom and become their best selves in preparation for their forever homes.
Other Ways to Help: There are many short-term projects and special events for which volunteers are needed. We also have jobs such as creating flyers, lending a hand with online tasks or … you name it! Bring us your ideas, energy and enthusiasm – we’re always happy to hear from you about a project you’d like to jumpstart.
Sound like fun to 
be a part of SSPA? It totally is! And it’s some of the most rewarding fun you can have since you’ll be bettering the lives of the pets in our program.
For on-site volunteer work, a series of training sessions will get you familiar with the facility and its policies and procedures, as well as basic dog handling. After completion of training, volunteers are able to walk dogs on a flexible schedule, throughout the week. For other types of volunteer work, there are a variety of ways to get started, so please contact us with your questions and ideas.
Contact us today at sspadogs@gmail.com if you’re interested in volunteering or have questions.
Some college students recently visited with us to learn about SSPA and create a video about volunteering with us. Check out their video: