Blog 25: Typical Day of Work

There are only two shifts per day at Paws & Pals. There is a 6:45 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and a 2:00 p.m. to close. (At least 7:00 p.m.) Since I can only work morning shifts on the weekends, I’ll describe a typical Sunday morning shift. When we arrive in the morning, we let all of the dogs outside for a two hour play period. One of the staff members goes outside with the dogs while the other stays inside to clean the dogs’ rooms. We sweep and mop them out, dump their water and empty their food bowls. Then we poor them fresh water and start preparing breakfast for the dogs. Later on, we bring the dogs back inside and put them in their rooms. We feed them breakfast and give the ones that need medications their meds and then it is our break time. After break, we deep clean rooms that need to be done and wash dishes. Also, on Sundays, we gather up the belongings of dogs that are leaving that day. At 11ish they go outside again for their second two hour play period. The person inside once again fills their waters and then does other various cleaning activities inside. When the dogs come back in, we feed the dogs that need lunch and we typically end our shift with a break.

On Monday nights, the shift is somewhat different. Since many dogs check out on Sundays, Monday is a big cleaning day. Typically, when I arrive at work at about 2:15 and I go and see who is there for daycare. I make sure I know everyone who is there and if not, I ask. I then usually deep clean rooms for the majority of my shift. I also spend time petting the daycare dogs and bringing them up front when they are getting picked up. At about 4 o’clock, I start making the boarding dogs’ dinners. They get fed and then it’s back to cleaning. I take my dinner break at 5:30 and let the boarding dogs outside at 6. One person goes outside with them until 7:15 p.m. The other person stays inside and sweeps the isles, does dishes, laundry and fills up waters for the dogs. We then bring the dogs inside and put them in their rooms and turn on classical music for them. Then the isles need to be mopped. After that we make sure everything is picked up and we clock out.