TEAMBUILDING & VOLUNTEERING
Click HERE to go to specific TEAMBUILDING info.
We are open to volunteers every day of the week, between 11 am and 3 pm.
Heroic volunteers are a vital part of the work of Every Dog Matters EU, home of the largest no-cage, open-yard dog sanctuary in Western Bulgaria (by area, 27,0000 m2).
Apart from some temporary yards for puppies and socialization cases, our smallest yards range from 250 m2 to 760 m2 and our largest yard is 1,500 m2.
The dogs are much much happier for having that space.
If you dread coming to our shelter because of the terrible emotional state of the dogs in ‘normal’ tiny-cage shelters, don’t worry. You will see that our dogs are happy, friendly, very social and play constantly in their large yards (dogs’ willingness to play is a good measure of their emotional health).
Volunteers are very welcome to help our work any day of the week between 11 am and 3 pm by donating:
– time to pat or walk our wonderful doggies including puppies
– old furniture like sofas or chairs for dogs to sleep on
– labor to help rebuild our 50 year-old, semi-broken old agricultural site e.g. buildings, electrics, plumbing, roofing, painting etc
– blankets for our many puppies inside
– food and/or toys for the dogs
We also welcome companies or organizations looking for a teambuilding activity day or afternoon on our site (Coca-Cola is among our previous teambuilding guests). Click here for teambuilding info.
You can get in touch with us via a message on our Facebook page here – thank you in advance!
OUR SANCTUARY SITE RULES?
For your SAFETY and our dogs’ SAFETY, the main rules for volunteers and visitors to our site are:
1. You MUST sign our waiver document BEFORE going anywhere on the site here.
2. NEVER let a dog escape from a yard, when entering or leaving a yard (call loudly for help IMMEDIATELY if this happens) – there are homeless dogs in the area nearby that will not tolerate an unknown dog entering their territory.
After entering or leaving a yard, ALWAYS shake the gate to make sure that the latch of the gate is SECURE.
3. Do NOT enter a yard with a WARNING sign on the front gate.
4. Treats can trigger FIGHTS between dogs. Please do NOT NOT NOT give the dogs treats when other dogs are present.
5. If you are not confident entering a yard or walking a dog on a leash, do NOT enter a yard UNLESS one of our friendly staff is with you.
6. If a dog seems nervous or afraid, do NOT approach them – always give a dog that you don’t know the CHOICE to approach you, rather than you deciding to approach them (dogs regard physical distance between them and a potential threat to them as their main way of protecting themselves).
7. Following the instructions of our sanctuary staff is EXTREMELY important, for your safety and the safety of our dogs.
OUR EXACT LOCATION?
Here is our location, at the very end of the Kostinbrod industrial area (according to Google Maps – Kostinbrod 2230: 42.791612, 23.198925) and the last train stop BEFORE getting to Kostinbrod from Sofia is also quite close (station with the Djiev buildings):
This is the kind of volunteer experience you can expect with our brilliant doggies:
TEAMBUILDING
What happens during a teambuilding day at Every Dog Matters EU?
The program for the day usually follows this approximate format (times and structure may vary, it’s up to you):
10.30 am: Introduction by co-founder Terry Kyle or Foundation Director, Ivanka
10-45-11.45: Tour of the facility and meeting all the dogs
11.45: Group walks with dogs in surrounding farmland
1 pm: Lunch
2-4pm: We split into 3 supervised groups: [1] socialising dogs/puppies in their yards (sitting with them & patting them) [2] walking more dogs or [3] construction/cleaning work
4 pm: Conclusion & sad farewells to the animals
WHAT ABOUT CATERING?
We highly recommend Events Factory BG who have catered for teambuilding at our Kostinbrod site previously.
+359898 49 07 35 (Dimitar)
Please note that catering will be an additional expense for your company as we do not provide catering facilities and there are no food shops in the area – sorry!
