Kennel Work????

[Janie9117]

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I have been trying my hardest to get as much animal experience as possible!!! But, I also need to work while I'm in school. If none of the animal hospitals are hiring vet assistant do you guys think kennel work is a good alternative? What will Vet schools think of this??🙄

 

[Lissarae06]

Kennel work is good! It gets you animal experience while getting paid. The vet I used to work at would often hire kennel workers as vet assistants when a job opened up, and the kennel workers would often help out in the clinic if we were short handed. You could also look into shadowing when you were not working in the kennel.

 

[RadRadTerp]

I wasn't able to get hired as a vet assistant until I worked as an animal care tech at a shelter for a year. Once I got that experience, I got more interviews from sending my resumes out to veterinary clinics and eventually landed a veterinary assistant position.

 

[Bisbee]

I also worked at two different shelters, walking dogs, cleaning runs, visiting cats, cleaning cat boxes, etc. Then, when volunteers were needed to help at the twice-monthly spay-neuter clinics (12-hour days, but lots of one-on-one with the veterinarian and vet tech), there I was. This is how I got one of my recommendations, from one of the vets I worked with at the s/n clinics. Shelter work was a great foot in the door for me.

 

[BlackDog618]

I'm currently working as a kennel assistant at an animal hospital and I find I'm able to get a decent amount of hands-on vet work. If the doctors bring a patient back I'll quickly step in to help hold the animal or offer to trim the nails. We also do outback technician appointments and I'm always the first one to go out front and grab them. I've only been there 2 months and I've already learned how to do a few things. I find the more I offer to help, the more they'll show me and let me do. It's definitely a place where you work your way up from the bottom (if you don't have your CVT), and that may be the case with a lot of places you interview. Don't despair! Find a clinic you really like and then just show that you're up or anything. Good luck!

 

[Janie9117]

Thanks for the replies!!!! I sent out a resume for a kennel position earlier today!!

 

[Trematode]

Just to let you know, I have been volunteering for 6 years and I am apparently one of the few that has not been able to land a paid position at a clinic. I got all of my experience through shadowing and volunteering. Good luck. .

 

[Janie9117]

Thanks!!!!

 

[psilovethomas]

I started as a kennel assistant at 15 and was promoted to veterinary assistant a year later. I worked at the same hospital until I graduated from high school at 18, and still work there during breaks. Two veterinarians from that hospital wrote my recommendations. I accumulated over 2500 hours of experience. Even as a kennel assistant, I still got to interact with the vet and vet techs, and was taught restraint, nail trimming, and other simple producers like medicating. I remember during my interview for the position, my boss said "You have to start somewhere!" Good luck.

 

[DVMDream]

I started as a kennel assistant at a small animal hopsital back in June of 2005. I was moved up to veterinary technician 9 months later. I have been working as a veterinary technician with the same company (not the same hospital) ever since. I have over 7000 hours of really good small animal and exotics veterinary experience simply by starting out as a kennel worker. It definitely is not a bad idea and gets you a "foot in the door". Best of luck to you!

 

[tigerkissedqt]

I've been working at a doggy hotel for the past 5 years and it has given me great animal experience! I have also done some volunteer work with kenneling facilities, there is a lot of similar work to be done at those so that would also be good animal experience and may possibly lead to some veterinary opportunities as well.