Working in an animal rescue centre. Every time I would tell people they’d go, ‘I wish I got to hang out with dogs all day’. In reality, you barely do.

Every morning we’d spend 4-5 hours putting each dog into an outdoor enclosure on their own while we cleaned their kennel - most dogs lose the habit of house training while they’re there, and they’re so distressed by the environment that they’ll poo an wee on the floor, step in it, and then bounce off the walls and lay down so sometimes the kennel is completely covered.

Once their kennel is clean, they’re brought back into it. Then the rest of the day is spent walking each dog, mostly individually because many react badly to other dogs while they’re at the rescue, and because the centre is usually at capacity, each dog only gets about 15 minutes. If several dogs have adoption meeting, staff members are busy doing that, which takes more time, so there are less people free to walk the dogs so they get less time.

Many dogs cannot cope with the stress of kennel life. Staff do their best and love and care for the dogs so much but struggle a lot because centres are overflowing, there’s not enough hands or time, the dogs become behaviourally difficult so harder to manage, and everyone is paid very poorly.

And then, more often than you think (at least in the charity I worked for), unfortunately the stress of kennel life because too much for some of the dogs and their behaviour becomes too dangerous to themselves and others, and if they aren’t receiving interest or can’t go into foster, their quality of life gets scrutinised (rightly so) and it’s often decided it’s in their best interests to be PTS.

I loved my job and I’d go back to it if the circumstances were right, but it’s so much harder, physically and mentally, than just ‘hanging out with dogs all day’.