Wildlife vs Small Animal (Dog) Internship Advice

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pets2vets

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Hi Everyone! So it turns out my paid kennel assistant job fell through back home. I now have two different summer opportunities: a wildlife internship or a dog behavior internship as possible first veterinary experience. Both are unpaid, both are 8 weeks long, and roughly 30 hours per week. I personally have a love for small animals (esp dogs) but I haven't had experience with wildlife animals before. (I think I want to be a small animal vet in the future).
The wildlife internship is the same as I mentioned in my post before. I would be rehabilitating baby animals (I checked and I will get lots of hands on with the animals!), cleaning cages, feeding. There is no vet there so it is strictly animal experience.
The dog behavior internship is one where I would clean kennels, walk dogs, and work on behavior training with them. It is an animal shelter so there is no vet interaction

What do you guys think would be a better experience for me? and then for the application process?

I really appreciate it. Thank you! :)

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Hi Everyone! So it turns out my paid kennel assistant job fell through back home. I now have two different summer opportunities: a wildlife internship or a dog behavior internship as possible first veterinary experience. Both are unpaid, both are 8 weeks long, and roughly 30 hours per week. I personally have a love for small animals (esp dogs) but I haven't had experience with wildlife animals before. (I think I want to be a small animal vet in the future).
The wildlife internship is the same as I mentioned in my post before. I would be rehabilitating baby animals (I checked and I will get lots of hands on with the animals!), cleaning cages, feeding. There is no vet there so it is strictly animal experience.
The dog behavior internship is one where I would clean kennels, walk dogs, and work on behavior training with them.

What do you guys think would be a better experience for me? and then for the application process?

I really appreciate it. Thank you! :)
Is the dog behavior experience supervised by a vet/considered vet experience? If so, I would take that. You really want to prioritize vet experience as much as possible. Wildlife experience is always good because it is somewhat unique/tends to be a hard area to gain experience, but if the dog behavior internship will help you get small animal experience that will help you get vet experience, then that may be the right path. Basically, if one is direct vet experience, take that, if neither are vet experience, take the one that will most likely help you get vet experience (IMHO).
 
Also consider which opportunity you like best. IMO getting vet experience is great and all, but if you're not super into what the job entails, you won't have fun and won't really be involved in the position i.e. asking questions, picking your supervisor's brains.
 
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if neither gets you vet experience, pick what either might lead to vet experience (though it doesnt sound like theres a lot of future potential for either) or whatever makes you happiest. i doubt having one over the other as animal experience will seriously influence your application. go have fun!
 
Id take the wildlife internship if I were you!

I'm currently interning part time at a rehab center, and it's a blast. I'm supervised by the rehabber working the shift, so it's not vet experience either for me, but I am learning how to give medications, subq fluids, check body condition, and a few other medical related tasks on juvenile birds (I'm on the bird nursery side right now), so I'm definitely learning useful skills! I didn't have any avian related experience, in fact birds kind of terrified me previously, so I jumped at the offer from the rehabber.

Whatever you pick, make sure it's something you'll enjoy!
 
I personally would rather go with the dog behavior internship. I am super into animal behavior and dogs are the love of my life. One of my backup plans is doing the animal behavior masters at CSU. Since neither is vet experience, might as well go for the thing you would most likely enjoy.

As a third option, would you consider driving around town to see if any of the other vets that are around would let you work/shadow/volunteer? I don't know where you're at, so that would be a major influencing point. But if there are a significant number of vets in the area, some might be willing to let you into their clinic.
 
I'll be starting my wildlife rehab internship this upcoming Sunday so of course I'm going to say go with the wildlife one! :p However, it took me literally forever to get a wildlife internship position, and I already have small animal experience with and without veterinary supervision under my belt, so I would definitely suggest prioritizing what you need and what you feel like you would enjoy/benefit/get the most out of!

In either case: congrats, both sound like wonderful opportunities!
 
Thanks for the replies everyone! I am a freshman so this would be my first animal& vet experience so I don't really have anything under my belt yet. Another option that I have is to head home and volunteer at like two vet hospitals. I contacted them but they always say to come stop by when I get home to discuss volunteering. So it is not totally confirmed 100% yet so I might end up not doing anything back home. i'm guessing if I do go home, I won't be volunteering for the whole summer but probably a few weeks.
Is it better to shadow/volunteer briefly at vet hospital during the summer or try to do an internship like the ones listed above?

I also think if I do the wildlife internship, I'll also volunteer at an animal shelter to get small animal experience/hours.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone! I am a freshman so this would be my first animal& vet experience so I don't really have anything under my belt yet. Another option that I have is to head home and volunteer at like two vet hospitals. I contacted them but they always say to come stop by when I get home to discuss volunteering. So it is not totally confirmed 100% yet so I might end up not doing anything back home. i'm guessing if I do go home, I won't be volunteering for the whole summer but probably a few weeks.
Is it better to shadow/volunteer briefly at vet hospital during the summer or try to do an internship like the ones listed above?

I also think if I do the wildlife internship, I'll also volunteer at an animal shelter to get small animal experience/hours.
Why wouldn't you be able to volunteer for more than a few weeks? At any rate, vet experience always trumps animal experience, so volunteering at a hospital would be better than either internship in terms of applying to vet school.
 
Hi Everyone! So it turns out my paid kennel assistant job fell through back home. I now have two different summer opportunities: a wildlife internship or a dog behavior internship as possible first veterinary experience. Both are unpaid, both are 8 weeks long, and roughly 30 hours per week. I personally have a love for small animals (esp dogs) but I haven't had experience with wildlife animals before. (I think I want to be a small animal vet in the future).
The wildlife internship is the same as I mentioned in my post before. I would be rehabilitating baby animals (I checked and I will get lots of hands on with the animals!), cleaning cages, feeding. There is no vet there so it is strictly animal experience.
The dog behavior internship is one where I would clean kennels, walk dogs, and work on behavior training with them. It is an animal shelter so there is no vet interaction

What do you guys think would be a better experience for me? and then for the application process?

I really appreciate it. Thank you! :)

They both sound really cool, and either one could be a stepping stone to future veterinary experience. I would try to find out more about who was leading each experience, and talk to some people who have done them before. Get their take on what the work environment was like, what the leaders were like, and whether or not they were able to get a good letter of reference before they left.

Another thing to consider is how they are connected to local veterinary clinics where you might want to work or shadow in the future. The place where I did wildlife work contracted with local veterinarians to treat their animals. That might give you a chance to meet some of them face to face, and possibly develop a relationship that could lead to a shadowing or job opportunity.
 
My personal opinion is that I would go with the wildlife internship. While the dog behavior one sounds cool (and I'm a small animal person), I personally wanted to do a wildlife or exotic internship just to add some variety to my vet experiences and had a hard time finding one. I ended up finally doing an internship my junior year in another state. I think if you managed to snag one now in a good location, I would take it, and then try to get some shadowing in on the weekend at a hospital. That way you get the best of both worlds, and definitely some vet experience.

However - if you absolutely think you wouldn't enjoy the wildlife internship, then go with the behavior one. Do whatever you'll enjoy more, you do have several more years to gain experience, and both of these seem like neat opportunities :)
 
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