Exploring the Experiences of Volunteer Assistance Dog Puppy Raisers from the Same Program at Two Australian University Campuses
Abstract
:Simple Summary
Abstract
1. Introduction
1.1. Puppy-Raising Programs
1.2. Potential Application of the Functional Approach to Volunteerism Framework to Understanding PRs’ Motivations
1.3. The Current Study
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Participants
2.2. Materials
2.3. Procedures
2.4. Data Analysis
2.4.1. Inductive Thematic Analysis
2.4.2. Deductive Qualitative Analysis
3. Findings
3.1. Expectations as a PR
3.2. Organisational and Environmental Support and Suitability
3.3. Intensity of PRs Workload
3.4. Practical Support
3.5. The Functional Approach to Volunteerism
3.5.1. Values
3.5.2. Enhancement
3.5.3. Social
3.5.4. Understanding
3.5.5. Career
3.5.6. Protective
4. Discussion
4.1. Key Findings
Understanding PRs Motivation through the Functional Approach to Volunteerism
4.2. Limitations and Future Directions
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Participant | Interview Number | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
B1 | Pre | W1 * | W5 * | W16 | W23 | W31 | - | - | - | W35 |
B2 | Pre | W1 * | W8 | W12 | W21 * | W28 | W32 | - | - | W51 |
B3 | Pre | W1 * | W14 | W20 * | W27 | W31 | W40 | - | - | - |
B4 | Pre | W1 * | W4 | W8 | W22 | W26 * | W33 | - | - | W37 |
B5 | Pre | W2 * | W4 * | W20 | W27 | W34 | W44 | - | - | W59 |
B6 | Pre | W1 * | W4 | W8 | W23 | W32 | W40 * | - | - | W56 |
B7 | Pre | W1 * | W4 | W9 | W12 | W21 | W28 | W35 * | - | - |
B8 | Pre | W1 * | W4 | W8 | W16 * | W22 | W29 | W39 | W46 | W50 |
U1 | Pre | W4 | W19 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
U2 | Pre | W4 | W25 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
U3 | Pre | W5 | W24 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
U4 | Pre | W5 | W27 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
U5 | Pre | W4 | W30 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
U6 | Pre | W7 | W30 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
U7 | Pre | W5 | W31 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
U8 | Pre | W7 | W25 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Main Theme | Sub-Theme | Explanation of Sub-Theme | Illustrative Quotes |
---|---|---|---|
Expectations as a PR | Expectation of challenges | Challenges that PRs expected to encounter when raising their puppies | “A few times where they’re a bit annoying, keep barking and all that stuff, but that’s the point of training them, so it makes them better dogs. It’s not always a good time, but most of the time it outweighs the bad.” (B4) |
Organisational expectations | The kinds of support PRs expected to be receiving from the organisation | “Basically, just to help the dog and just connect me to the dog to be able to raise it in the best way possible for when it does leave me. That’s what I would expect.” (U7) | |
Household and work expectations | Support that PRs expected to be receiving from their household members and work colleagues | “My housemate is interested in helping out as well, so that’s going to be a help, not a hindrance.” (B2) | |
Organisational and Environmental Support and Suitability | Organisation informational support | The effectiveness of informational support that helps PRs live with and raise their puppy | “[An organisation trainer] was the one that has been giving me advice on how to manage [puppy’s] anxiety. She’s been very helpful because it was her suggestion to use the crate in the office more, it’s been really helpful.” (U5) |
Organisation training support | The effectiveness of training support that PRs received from the program | “[PRs puppy] went backwards quite significantly because [an organisation trainer] made me give her treats for things that I considered really bad behaviour by [puppy], but she kept telling me that she knew best. That was a bit disappointing.” (U4) | |
Puppies influencing raisers | PRs are affected by puppies’ behavioural outcomes | “She is a good dog, it’s just it can be difficult and stressful too, because you’re like I mustn’t be very good with what I’m doing if I can’t get her to drop this shoe, something like that.” (B8) | |
Home, work, and community suitability | PRs’ home and work environment helped and hindered PRs’ ability to effectively train their puppies | “Where I live is pretty good in terms of different locations. I can take her to places that I know will be quiet or I can take it to places that I know will be really busy…the campus and where I live has been pretty good for all that.” (U6) | |
Intensity of PRs Workload | Acceptance of difficulty | PRs learnt to accept some of the difficulties of being a PR | “We talked to the trainers about how to manage this. Some things just take time and there might not be a specific intervention that will immediately solve the problem. It’s like, well, I’m doing the right thing. I just have to keep doing it.” (U2) |
Conflicting demands | PRs led busy lives and struggled to dedicate sufficient time to training their puppies | “To be honest like it’s quite a big thing on top of a big load. I work four days a week, have a pretty big family, quite an intense job and so it’s a big project on top of that.” (U3) | |
Need more support | PRs needed more support to benefit both themselves and their puppies | “I wouldn’t mind a socialiser or two. I wouldn’t mind a break every now and then. It’s a lot having a puppy 24/7.” (U5) | |
Practical Support | Socialisers | Socialisers helped and hindered the PRs and their puppies | “I think for the socialisers to be effective, not only do they need to be taking the dog out once a week, or whatever, they need to be going to the training. Without those things, they’re not really effective or helpful.” (U2) |
Peers | PRs interacting with each other benefitted the PRs and their puppies | “The interactions are really important between me and the other puppy raisers and [puppy] and other dogs… because it’s just another thing that they could be exposed to. The more we expose them, the better they will be.” (B8) | |
Household and work | PRs household members and work environments help them look after and train their puppy | “By having my staff come to the training… they’re trained, and everybody’s familiar with what needs to be done so they can practice [the puppy’s] training.” (B5) | |
Motivations to Participate | Values | PRs were able express their altruistic and humanitarian values | “I would love to help train these puppies. Sorry, that’s so strange. I just would love to train the puppies. I would get such satisfaction out of training them for a good cause.” (B4) |
Enhancement | PRs were able to serve the aspect of their ego centred on personal growth and positive development. | “[An organisation trainer] says, ‘I’m the expert but I can tell you that you’re doing a good job’, you feel very good about yourself. You feel very good about the relationship because you’re not anxious and you’re not letting each other down.” (B1) | |
Social | PRs were able to develop new relationships within and outside their raising group | “It’s like a real community when we meet up together on the Friday and we talk about any problems we’ve had or if someone’s dog has gone to the toilet in the shopping centre, we all kind of laugh about it and give them sympathy.” (B2) | |
Understanding | PRs were able to enhance their puppy-raising knowledge | “It’s been really interesting learning all the training stuff as well, so all the different techniques.” (U6) | |
Career | PRs were able to progress their career by being a raiser in the program | “Then I really hope the program works out for me if I get into it, because as I said it would be perfect for my career in the future.” (B8) |
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Morwood, S.; Mai, D.; Bennett, P.C.; Benton, P.; Howell, T.J. Exploring the Experiences of Volunteer Assistance Dog Puppy Raisers from the Same Program at Two Australian University Campuses. Animals 2023, 13, 1482. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13091482
Morwood S, Mai D, Bennett PC, Benton P, Howell TJ. Exploring the Experiences of Volunteer Assistance Dog Puppy Raisers from the Same Program at Two Australian University Campuses. Animals. 2023; 13(9):1482. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13091482
Chicago/Turabian StyleMorwood, Sam, Dac Mai, Pauleen C. Bennett, Pree Benton, and Tiffani J. Howell. 2023. "Exploring the Experiences of Volunteer Assistance Dog Puppy Raisers from the Same Program at Two Australian University Campuses" Animals 13, no. 9: 1482. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13091482