You too can win fun-filled shifts at the four-star QCGA kennel. As part of your volunteer package, you'll be working alongside our other dedicated semi-sane volunteers! Other amenities include: wet/soiled crates, sandy floors, shredded linens, dirty dishes and piles of poo. Entertainment includes "Vermin" appearing nightly in the kitchen and our headliner "Barkin' & Rooing" on the main stage. Don't miss their sold-out show! During your stay, be sure to try a tall glass of Maysville's Murky Water, a local favorite. You'll want to volunteer again and again! (Seriously, the greyhounds need help, no experience needed and the greyhounds are greytful for any help you can give!!!) For  more information, contact Nina Brooks for shifts from Friday-Sunday and Deb Heberling for shifts from  Monday through Thursday. 

QCGA is always in need of volunteers to help care for the dogs. The kennel operates 7 days a week, including holidays. The dogs are turned out 4 times a day: 8 am, noon, 6 pm, and 9 pm. Volunteer duties include: handling dogs, checking crates for messes, mopping out soiled crates, washing dishes, doing laundry, vacuuming, filling food dishes, and keeping the outdoor run clean.

We do not have the ideal insurance coverage to allow children under the age of 18 to visit the kennel without being accompanied by an adult. In the same vane, it is not practical to allow children under the age of 18 to be acting in a volunteer capacity.

Turnout for the Fracture Crowd

Some need some help back into their crates

Doing Laundry

Filling Food Dishes

Treasure Hunting!

Your Payment is the Love of  Greytful Hounds!

If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Jennifer Franklin at 563.260.5760.

Special message from Kate Aspengren, QCGA volunteer

Donate your time - volunteer!

Okay, sure. I’d read those notices in every newsletter. You know the ones: the pleas for more help in the kennel, the reminders that the current people can’t do everything by themselves. And I thought, “Gee, I hope somebody volunteers.” I couldn’t imagine what people were waiting for. I mean, the situation seemed serious. Why wasn’t somebody doing something? It took a few times before I realized I couldn’t wait for someone else to do it. I needed to volunteer.

I think most of us think of volunteering as a drain on our already overextended lives. But a couple of years ago I started volunteering at the kennel. Even though it takes me almost an hour to drive there from Iowa City, I go whenever I can. I don’t go because I’m a saint or because anyone begged me to do it. I go because I love every minute of it.

You’ve probably got a greyhound of your own (or two or three or maybe more) or you wouldn’t be reading this. So there’s no point in telling you how wonderful the dogs are. You know that. But if you think spending time with your one or two dogs is great, imagine hanging out with thirty or forty of them!

One of the best parts about volunteering at the kennel is getting to know the individual dogs and their personalities. You know whose barking can be silenced with a few soft words and a treat. You know who will steal the stuffed animals out of other dogs’ crates, who loves to play ball, and who likes to give hugs. And, because you know each of the dogs, you experience absolute delight in every single adoption.

It’s not particularly complicated work. You go there, you help turn the dogs out, you straighten their crates, you scoop poop. Sometimes you vacuum or wash dishes or do laundry. But the best part is you get to spend a lot of time just loving the dogs. And you get a whole lot of love in return.

Here’s the way I figure it. Somebody took care of Flora and Clyde before they came home with me. Someone talked to them and fed them and fluffed up their blankets. Somebody gave them a lot of love. I’m grateful to all of you who did that. But the best way for me to thank the people who got my dogs ready for me is to do the same for someone else’s dog.

You don’t have to go every week. You can set up a schedule to go once or twice a month. You can just go for a couple of hours at a time. But go. Give Jennifer a call at the kennel and get on the schedule. You won’t regret it.