Please note the following considerations:

1. We ask for a four-month/visit commitment. It is important that our prospective volunteers understand that this is a serious commitment to a challenging and, at times, exhausting volunteer program. Since training you and organizing your visits with each prison are quite involved, we ask that you commit to volunteering for us once a month for the next four months. If you find you love it and have more time, we would be thrilled if you wanted to volunteer more than once a month! But, if you do not maintain the monthly commitment, we are sorry, but we will have to make you inactive. We need to be strict with this guideline, so please take this into consideration before committing to the program.
2. Attend required four-hour training session. Training sessions are held on a Saturday morning, from 11am to 3:00pm. New York City volunteers train at our midtown office; all other New York State volunteers train in Millerton, New York. New Jersey volunteers train in Clinton, New Jersey. At the training, volunteers will learn more about handling the dogs, about the supplies needed, what commands the puppies know, and how to read a dog’s body language, among other valuable tips.
3. Please note that you must take out a puppy within 30 days of being trained, as we feel this is a safety measure for you and for our dogs. Also for your safety and that of our dogs, you must take a puppy out once per month (for overnight sitters) or twice a month (for day sitters) for four months, in order to remain an active volunteer.