You don’t have to be an animal expert to help out at your community’s shelter. You just need to have the time and desire to lend a helping hand. And it doesn’t have to be a lot of time, either. In fact, whatever you do for a living, you’re bound to have skills and talents your local shelter can use.
Dog school, that is. Grab a handful of tasty treats, find a suitable canine and get to class. Helping teach shelter dogs to sit, stay, and walk calmly on a leash or shake paws will make them infinitely more adoptable. Amy Boyd, a canine behavior counselor at the Humane Society and SPCA of Austin.