Does dog sitting count as "Animal Experience" on VMCAS?
Started by pika8
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I listed my dog sitting job under animal experience...and hopefully it won't be considered "lame"! The way I see it, it is a situation in which I was paid to provide care to someone else's animals, which distinguishes it from taking care of my own pets. I spent ~2.5 hours a week for two years in college taking care of three large breed dogs, including administering oral medications (which is obviously not too difficult to do, but I still consider it experience with animals). What does everyone else think about listing dog sitting as animal experience?
yes yes yes- put it under animal experience! if you read my previous posts about animal experience you will see that i include every animal experience i've ever had in that section. to cut back on the number of posts on the vmcas i just listed many odd exp. under one category. ex- taking care of wild animals- feeding a bird for a week until the wing healed, fed a baby raccoon overnight until we got it to a shelter, took care of a baby bunny...etc. even the smallest contacts with animals shows that at least you are semi familiar with, in my example, wildlife. and don't forget your own pets! they count, too!
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Posted it under animal experience, especially since most of my "clients" now have animals with medical issues. Not everyone will willingly chase down a cranky howling cat with a towel every twelve hours to administer insulin. One of the vets I work with will only use one of us techs because we can recognize when her blind neurologic pit might be having a seizure and can plan accordingly.
I used all of my pet-sitting experience as animal experience. It's good to show that you have experience with pet owners and pets that are not your own.
i would definitely put all experience-mainly based on some of Sofficats's posts from the past. i put all pet sitting exprience and my own-bird, dog, cat ownership, horseback riding, dad's hobby farm-the works. luckily i also cat sat for a cat breeder for several weeks while she'd go out of town-30+ cats ! now that was some nutty experience, and i want them to know about it!
85 million
j/k... um.... i don't remember. i think i did somethine like 10,000 over 21 years.
I'm pretty sure admissions doesn't really accept experience with your own animal unless you did something spectacular and above & beyond normal pet owning- like competitive riding or other competition.
I agree, and I really don't think most schools put any positive consideration on the fact that people listed being a dog owner for the past 21 years. Unless you showed your pets, bred pets, or they required extensive medical treatment I really don't see the point of listing it. I guess I understand pet sitting, but VMCAS specifically stated at some point not to list your own pets on your application, so I would follow that.
And other schools have said no. I'm sure that no adcom is going to be like wow - this applicant owns one dog and two cats - they're in! They are probably rather like wow, I kind of expected a vet school applicant to own a dog, what a shame I just wasted my valuable time reading a description of how they fed, walked, brushed, and took their dog to the vet.
AMEN!
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Let's just agree to disagree... specifically because I know a vet who was declined his first year around and he was told he needed to add ALL of his animal experience, like pet ownership for example (they literally told him to add pets). Also, yes dogs and cats are very common, but what about other pets that would add to your well rounded animal experience... like horses, cows, pigs, exotics, pocket pets.... so i guess we should mention those but not the 'boring' animals like dogs? that is why i mentioned them all. ok... i'm done debating.... anatomy exam tomorrow!
Good luck! I feel your pain I am studying now ours is next week!
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