Home/garden/doggo helper or construction helper in Alberta

Ghana

5

Wally & Marlene are very wonderful people, they Love and treat you with respect, I learned a lot in this few days with them. Wally is such a great teacher and I was fortunate to work with him. If you love Dogs and this is the right place to be. I was exposed to to so many skills and knowledge that has made me feel strong and confident. They are very knowledgeable and experienced people and every advice they share with you is golden and I am very fortunate to spend time with them.

5 months ago

United Kingdom

5

This place is doggie heaven! I feel really grateful to have spent time at the farm, learning about the dogs, an eco friendly way to live and to have been part of the team. I really enjoyed cooking for everyone and I loved spending time with Marlene. She's a very kind soul that needs help around the house/ cooking and with the dogs. Although I didn't get to work with Wally, he's the most hard working older man I've ever met and so knowledgable. You'd learn more from him in a day than working anywhere else. They deserves/ needs good, fit volunteers that will respect and help them.

6 months ago

Marlene replied

Thank you Holly for your kind words. πŸ™‚. We enjoyed meeting you and learning about some of your past experiences. I was so grateful for your cooking, as it gave me an opportunity to deal with other matters. You learned about our dogs and their feeding, etc.very quickly which really helped out the team.
Wally and I wish you well in your final travels before heading back home..

Australia

5

Wally and Marlene are amazing. They truely welcome you and look after you during your time with them. I was only supposed to be staying a month but will definitely be returning soon. They are such kind people and truly just want to help you and teach you. The dogs are amazing and so loving I will miss my cuddles with them.

7 months ago

Estonia

4

I had some good two months with them. I mostly worked with Wally who's building a second house and he taught me some construction skills. Working with him was great, I got along with him very well and I always enjoyed his jokes. All the dogs they have were amazing and I always loved being around them. If you love dogs then this place is for you

3 months ago

Italy

3

Staying with Marlene and Wally was great, for anyone who loves dogs this place is beautiful. I worked mostly with Wally on his new house wich he's building and was very educative and enjoyble. I had planned to stay like a month but unfortunately i had to go back in my homecity for work but i absolutely recommend this experience to anyone.

4 months ago

Brazil

3

Wally and Marlene are kind and welcoming people. Wally cared about my safety and was always willing to teach and make sure I understood. Tasks were simple. Marlene is a great cook, and we always had meals together. The main issue was the working hours. Work usually runs from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., leaving little time or energy for yourself. The platform says it's 32h/week with 2 days off, but you definitely work more. Days off must be requested in advance, otherwise you also work weekends. This felt more like a full-time job than a 4–5h/day volunteer exchange.

4 months ago

Marlene replied

Sadly misleading comments. Lucas offered to feed dogs on his weekends off (nice) but otherwise did not work at all and was not asked to. Yes, 8:00 AM is work start time, and some days may have been a little longer due to necessity, (cement couldn't be left), but there were breaks and 2 meals and lastly, supper. His work was sporadic, not steady hours, lots of sit time. Yes, we ask for notice of days off so that not everyone is gone at the same time. Lucas worked 3 days and assumed weekend off.

Germany

4

Wally and Marlene are very nice people who care a lot about their volunteers. It's easy to talk to them if you have any issues or concerns and they'll adapt if possible. However, it's important to know that the work hours listed here are not very accurate. You'll definitely be working more than that and not get the set number of free days.

6 months ago

Marlene replied

It was brought to my attention that I should respond to Johanna's comments about the work hours, etc. Johanna was offered days off, but she never wanted to go anywhere so ended up staying at our house. Invariably, she would usually end up helping here and there because she was available. And yes, some days were longer, but there were also days where there wasn't much to do. I think it balanced out reasonably. Johanna was always willing to help .

Australia

5

Wally and Marlene are very welcoming hosts. I planned to stay for 3 weeks but quickly extended as I had such a great experience. They regularly checked in and offered me 2 days off a week to go and explore the city if I wanted to and every Sunday is a day to relax with no set tasks normally. The work hours varied depending on what needed to be done but evened out to 32 hours across the week. Be ready to learn new skills at the construction site and with the dogs and also to be loved by all the dogs. The house is clean and the accommodation is comfortable with great food. Highly recommend!!

10 months ago

Australia

5

Marlene and Wally are great hosts, very welcoming and adaptive to my changing plans! plus so many cute and cuddly dogs!! I loved that there was a large range of different tasks so you were never bored! And everything was explained perfectly so you were never in doubt or confused about anything! definitely hope to return, and it's such a pretty area! There's also lots of games available to play after the evening meal which i loved, perfect for getting to know the other volunteers! πŸ™ŒπŸΌπŸ«ΆπŸΌ

about 1 year ago

India

1

It was the worst experience. It's a remote place far from the city .The host insisted me to come in a hurry from Montreal to Edmonton.took flight & paid 523 $. they didn't come to pick me up at the airport then I took Uber n paid around 85$ .After that I reached there &had to walk a lot with my 3 bags bcoz this place is 1 Km off the main road.They gave me work to groom the 3 dogs and made me clean the entire backyard area when I just reached.Full of old furniture & dog hair everywher. Next day they told me to leave as they don't need me as Thier dog is not giving birth so they dont need me.

10 months ago

Marlene replied

Well sadly, there is a lot of exaggerations and untruths written here. I will respond as best I can to these comments.
I don't consider our farm being remote as it is only 10 minutes from Beaumont and a 15-minute drive from the airport. Living in the country We of course do not have bus service. That was also explained to him prior to him coming here. We said that he would be responsible for his commuting back and forth to wherever he wanted to go. But if we could get him to the airport to catch a bus sometime we would do that. He commented that that was no problem.
We certainly did not tell him to rush to get from Montreal to here. We told him book your flight when you are ready and we will pick you up.
It is true That we did not pick him up from the airport but I believe that was due to his tardiness in letting us know that he was ready to go. I sent at least two messages to him telling him to let us know when he was picking up his baggage and we would make our way to go and pick him up because it only takes 15 minutes. He responded that he would do that. He mentioned that he had just landed and so I told him to go get his baggage and when he had gathered it to let me know and I would be on my way to get him. I didn't hear from him for quite some time and the problem was that I had an appointment that I had to leave for and I was running out of options to be able to pick him up. I told him that if he did not message me soon I would not be able to get him as I had an appointment that I had to leave for. No response for some time and then finally he messaged back and said that he had gone to Tim Hortons to have some lunch but never bothered to Let me know. So yes he did have to grab an Uber and unfortunately they dropped him down the end of our driveway instead of bringing him right up to our house which I must say is not anywhere near a kilometer long as he stated. At this point I was already gone to my appointment and so he made his way up the driveway with his luggage.
He was shown to his room by other volunteers when he got here and was told to just settle in and then come on back upstairs to join everyone. He never did that. Instead, he just disappeared and went for a walk when he was told that he should let someone know if he is walking because we have many dogs and they get a little disrupted when a stranger comes up to our yard. I was told by the 2 other volunteers that it was at least 2 hours before they asked him to come assist to clean off our deck only, not the entire yard as he stated. His participation was very minimal in helping to clean off our deck for the winter. He mostly stood around and watched.
He was given only one dog to groom to learn how to do it while the other volunteer groomed two. The whole time he kept pulling his shirt up over his nose and mouth while trying to groom the dog. Clearly not interested in being around the dogs.
He was always invited to come up and join in when we were either preparing supper or just hanging out waiting but he never did. He was very recluse and didn't seem to want to associate with anybody.
By this time we knew that he was really not a good fit for us. It seemed that he just wanted a place to stay to eat and sleep. Our dogs are a big part of our life and he was clearly not interested in getting to know them. He complained about having to do a very little amount of work when he arrived here. It was very minimal what he did and this is how we get our new volunteers into the group. We ask people to join in right away to get familiar.

It seemed chad our dogs that were bred were not going to have puppies after all and so we didn't feel the need to keep somebody here That clearly did not seem to want to participate and be part of our group. That is why he was asked to leave. The fact that he gave us a review that is not accurate is very rude.

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