Dogs4Jobs is a charity that aims to help rehome working dogs from struggling farms.
There’s one thing that working dogs are famous for: their love for their job. However, sometimes things happen and the dogs find themselves needing a new purpose.
And Dogs4Jobs is here to do just that. Dogs4Jobs is a charity that helps to rehome previous working dogs. Their motto is: “A dog for every job and a job for every dog”.
Dogs4Jobs is the creation of Peri Chappell from Deniliquin, New South Wales. The dogs that are taken in by the charity are placed into the care of foster volunteers until they are ready to be adopted.
Since their founding in November 2019, the program has been so successful that Dogs4Jobs now operates across Australia, with over 100 volunteers helping out.
Their clients are mainly farmers who have encountered significant hardship from weather events such as droughts and floods.
Peri Chappell founded Dogs4Jobs in November 2019 to help rehome working dogs. Credit: The Art of Zowie Photography
Helping Out A Farming Couple
Recently, Dogs4Jobs had to help out a farming couple who weren’t sure what to do about their working dogs. According to Chappell, the couple were severly impacted by the drought and have been struggling ever since. The couple had lost most of their cattle and sheep.
They found out about the Dogs4Jobs program after noticing an article about it in an old newspaper while shearing their sheep. They reached out to the charity shortly after.
Ms Chappell travelled to their farm with a dog trailer and ended up receiving 13 dogs in total from the couple. The youngest was just a year old, while the oldest was 13 years old.
The couple told Chappell that none of the dogs have ever been outside of their property. Some of the dogs have never been handled or caught either.
Now, just six months on since Chappell took the dogs, some of them are ready for adoption into new families.
It isn’t just severe weather events that cause people to have to give up their pets. Nearly half of the dogs that come into the care of Dogs4Jobs were dogs from suburban homes. They were given to Dogs4Jobs as their owners had housing troubles, trouble gaining employment, or simply did not have the time or energy for a working dog.
Dogs4Jobs aims to help rehome previous working dogs when their original circumstances have changed.
Dogs4Jobs Services
On top of rehoming services, Dogs4Jobs also provides support, training, and education for dog owners. They also provide temporary care if required.
Not all dogs in the program are rehomed in townships. According to Ms Chappell, there are plenty of farmers that contact Dogs4Jobs asking if they have any dogs that would suit cattle or sheep.
The farmers were also happy to take on young pups as well if the pup came from working parents.
Ms Chappell is encouraging more farmers to take part in the adoption process. After all, they provide the rehomed dogs with a new sense of purpose, as well as a loving home.
