Animal Care and Service Workers
Animal Care and Service Workers
Career Overview
Animal care and service workers care for animals by feeding, grooming, exercising, training, and handling them. They can work with pets, shelter animals, zoo animals, or other animals, depending on their specialty. Technology such as digital records, monitoring systems, and specialized equipment is becoming part of modern animal care.
Education
A high school diploma is usually enough to enter this career, with training provided on the job. Courses or programs in Animal Care, Animal Health, Veterinary Assistance, Grooming, or Dog Training can provide additional preparation.
Future Outlook
The demand for animal care services continues to grow as more people treat pets as part of their families.
Work Environment
Animal care workers may work in animal shelters, veterinary clinics, kennels, pet-care businesses, zoos, aquariums, pet stores, or boarding facilities. The work can be active and physical, with time spent cleaning, lifting, exercising, and handling animals. Some positions include evenings, weekends, and holidays.
Recommended High School Courses
- Biology
- Business
- English
- Animal Science
- Food & Nutrition
- Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
- Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.
- Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Learning Strategies - Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
- Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
- English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
- Category Flexibility - The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Far Vision - The ability to see details at a distance.
- Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Gross Body Coordination - The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Manual Dexterity - The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Multilimb Coordination - The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
- Selective Attention - The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Stamina - The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Trunk Strength - The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without 'giving out' or fatiguing.
- Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Train animals.
- Care for animals.
- Clean facilities or work areas.
- Maintain facilities.
- Monitor health or behavior of people or animals.
- Evaluate capabilities or training needs.
- Administer basic health care or medical treatments.
- Document client health or progress.
- Discuss service options or needs with clients.
- Organize recreational activities or events.
Schools
Cal Poly Pomona
Cal Poly- San Luis Obispo...
Ohio State University-mai...
Purdue University-main Ca...
South Dakota State Univer...
Suny At Cobleskill
Suny College Of Agricultu...
Suny College Of Veterinar...
Texas A & M University- C...
University Of Florida
University Of Georgia
University Of Illinois At...
University Of Minnesota-...
University Of Wisconsin-...
Virginia Tech
Dalhousie University-...
Durham College- Oshawa...
Durham College- Whitby...
Georgian College- Oril...
Northern College- Hail...
Olds College- Main Cam...
Sheridan College Insti...
University Of Alberta
University Of British...
University Of Saskatch...
Approx Salary Expectation
Low End:
$27,000.00 /yr
Avg/Med:
$35,000.00 /yr
High End:
$50,000.00 /yr
References
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.