Community at its finest: Geoff celebrates decade at GAWS

GEELONG’S largest animal shelter is saluting its longest-serving volunteer, commemorating his time with a plaque in an area he has spent so much time.

A name synonymous with Geelong Animal Welfare Society (GAWS) itself, Geoff Nayler is celebrating 10 years of volunteering at the Moolap-based shelter, one of only two workers to reach the decade-long milestone and the first volunteer.

“It has always worked well for me to spend my time down here,” Mr Nayler said.

“A couple of personal reasons, I guess. One, I had just sold my farm when I first started at GAWS, so I needed to do something else, and two, when I first started, the dogs were being kept in these pens.

“I wanted to get these dogs out, so I started walking them, around three an hour, 24 to 25 dogs a day, every day, and I’ve always gotten a lot of satisfaction out of that.”

Mr Nayler built his house in Newcomb back in 1966, just a three-minute drive from GAWS, but often went back and forth from his farm in She Oaks, near Meredith.

A long-time lover of kelpies, often owning eight kelpies at any given time, he sold his farm back in 2011.

Shortly after, Mr Nayler handed in a stray dog to GAWS back in 2012. While there, the receptionist spotted a kelpie monogram on his cap and mentioned the shelter was in desperate need of volunteers – Geoff began that day.

“Dogs come from all different directions for all different reasons,” he added.

“That is perhaps one of the main reasons why I have always loved training and socialising dogs.

“It also helped me through a difficult time of my life, losing my wife Fran in 2014. Being here was good thing for me because it kept me busy.

“It’s good in a lot of ways here, we have our good and our bad days, more so good, but it’s the people here that make it all possible.”

A lab x staffy named Jet is one of Geoff’s favourite dogs from the past 10 years at GAWS.

Geoff fostered Jet in 2015 and cared for him, using him daily for five months as a socialisation dog in the GAWS social yards.

GAWS saw fit to honour Mr Nayler’s time with a commemorative plaque on a bench that will sit in the organisation’s social area, the place where he has spent most of his time assisting staff in dog assessment, behaviour correction and conducting K9 social groups.

Mr Nayler is also a musician; plays drums and saxophone, and swims regularly in open water between October and June.

For more information about volunteering at GAWS, head to www.gaws.org.au.