Dog Handling at Events

Dog Star Rescue holds adoption events each week and each dog that attends needs a dog handler. Being a dog handler is a great opportunity to spend a few hours with a rescue dog, talk to potential adopters about your assigned dog, and make sure that your dog has a great afternoon full of positive interactions and interest from adopters.

Event Planning

Do you have great organizational skills and like to put on events? We are always looking for dedicated volunteers to help organize the many adoption events we have every year that allow us to connect our dogs to their forever homes.

Fostering

As a foster-based rescue, we are always looking for foster homes for our dogs. Fostering a dog saves two lives: the one of the dog you are fostering and the one of the dogs we can now take into the rescue because we have a slot available. The more fosters we have, the more dogs we can save! Learn more about our foster program and when you’re ready, submit a foster application!

Screening

Ensuring that the right family adopts the right dog involves a lot of emails and phone calls. We need to conduct vet checks, reference checks, phone interviews and confirm property ownership or rental details. If you like getting to know new people over the phone, we could use your help and can train you to assist our adoption screeners.

Intake

Our intake team is a great opportunity for detail oriented and computer savvy volunteers who would like to help us from the comfort of home. Tasks include data entry into a shelter software system and writing short biographies for our new arrivals.

Retail

We are looking for creative people with a flare for graphic design that can help us design t-shirts and other merchandise to promote our rescue and raise funds for our operations. Tasks include sourcing and overseeing our volunteer and alumni swag orders.

Kennel

While we are a foster-based rescue, a few dogs temporarily stay in our kennels at our headquarters if we are unable to get them a foster. Our kennel volunteers help care for these dogs by taking them on walks, feeding them, and supporting their socialization and training. Kennel volunteers may also work on overall kennel maintenance. If you live close to Bloomfield, CT, this is a great opportunity to make a huge impact on these dogs.

Transport

Many of our dogs come up from the south on group transport vehicles and need rides to their foster homes or to a kennel for temporary boarding. In addition, rides are sometimes needed to and from adoption events or to meet and greets with potential adopters. If you have a car, a valid driver’s license and can safely transport a dog in your car, dog transport may be for you!

Behavior

Our behavior team is a group of volunteers focused on dog training and getting our dogs ready to transition into their fosters and their forever homes. If you have any experience with dog training and can help our dogs learn good manners and improve unwanted behaviors, the behavior team would be a great fit for you.

Fundraising

As a non-profit organization, every penny we raise goes toward our dogs. While the dog adoption fee is designed to cover basic expenses, we require additional funding to grow and provide the extra care many of our dogs need. We conduct many events annually and also welcome corporate donors to support our fundraising efforts. We welcome volunteers with experience in fundraising and grant writing or an interest in learning the ropes.

Information Technology

Our IT team manages our shelter from both a hardware and software perspective. If you are that "Techie" in your family, or If you have professional experience with IT and would like to get involved, we would love your help!

Communications

Dog Star Rescue has grown significantly since we started and part of that is due to our publicity and marketing efforts. We are always working hard to increase the visibility of our rescue and available dogs, and to attract more fosters and volunteers to our organization. We are always looking for volunteers who have experience in publicity, marketing and photography to continue to support our growth and name recognition.

Medical

Our medical team helps ensure that our dogs are happy and healthy as they arrive at our facility. They are also available to answer questions from our volunteers regarding any health issues that arise about dogs that are cared for by the rescue. If you have prior medical or veterinary experience, we would love to have you on the team.

Volunteer

Our volunteer team works on improving the overall volunteer experience at Dog Star. We manage the volunteer orientation and onboarding experiences and run recognition programs for our volunteers. If you’d like to work to make our rescue a better place for our dedicated volunteers, the volunteer team is for you!