I Want To Start Working With Dogs?

[Kavik]

To work as a trainer for Guide Dogs you need a degree in helping people with vision problems (not sure of the name of degree). I checked that idea out too

I think that is to be an Orientation and Mobility Instructor (which I hear pays more than Guide Dog Trainers). Guide Dog Trainers can be recruited internally or on occasion, through cadetships. But the competition is fierce.

Yeah that is the name of the course! Unless it has changed since I last checked, you needed to be an Orientation and Mobility Instructor to be a Guide Dog Trainer as you have to teach the new owners and transition them to using a Guide Dog as well. And be well versed in other mobility aids such as canes etc. Just being a dog trainer was not enough. You have to be able to deal with the people too.

[RubyStar]

To work as a trainer for Guide Dogs you need a degree in helping people with vision problems (not sure of the name of degree). I checked that idea out too

I think that is to be an Orientation and Mobility Instructor (which I hear pays more than Guide Dog Trainers). Guide Dog Trainers can be recruited internally or on occasion, through cadetships. But the competition is fierce.

Yeah that is the name of the course! Unless it has changed since I last checked, you needed to be an Orientation and Mobility Instructor to be a Guide Dog Trainer as you have to teach the new owners and transition them to using a Guide Dog as well. And be well versed in other mobility aids such as canes etc. Just being a dog trainer was not enough. You have to be able to deal with the people too.

I've looked into it, too, and nope you don't need to have done that qualification to apply for a guide dog trainer cadetship. An O&M instructor from my understanding is different to a Guide Dog trainer. O&M work with people and match the trained dogs up with their new partner (plus of course a whole range of other things!) Guide Dog trainers do just that, train the dogs (and other things too ). Then I think there is a Guide Dog Instructor, which supervises the trainers and probably does a bit of O&M work too? It's all very complicated But maybe someone here who has worked with guide dogs can let us know? :p

Edit: because I wanted to write that a bit clearer!

Edited July 28, 2010 by RubyStar

[Kavik]

Ah, cool. I bet the cadetship doesn't come up very often though!

[Staranais]

I'm sorry, but haven't you been told yet thats vets don't get paid well at all! Except if you are a practice owner (of a very successful practice) or work for a drug company or something. Even specialists don't end up getting that much when you consider how much study they have to do.

The average starting salary in australia is only $38 000 a year. We got told all this in our first year in professional practuce. Probably to weed out the ones only in for money lol!

I notice you are from overseas though, perhaps the pay is a bit better there.

But we don't do it for the money

Perhaps it is different where you live. Over here we typically start our working careers on just over the average wage, and it generally goes steadily upwards from there for the first few years after graduation. The average vet here earns something like $70,000 per year.

Of course that's not as much as many other professionals, but it's still a very comfortable salary, especially when compared to the crappy wages typically paid to kennel attendants & vet nurses & the like. I can't think of many other jobs where you work hands-on with animals & get paid as well as a typical vet.

[aussielover]

Maybe I should move to where you live...

[Staranais]

I can't imagine we get paid that much better than you! What's the average salary for a vet in Aus? I should have pointed out that our average salary is NZ$70,000 - I think that's about Aussie $55,000. :D

I was considering coming to Aus for a while after I graduate at the end of next year, but if the pay is really crappy, perhaps I will go somewhere else instead!

[alpha bet]

Way back in the 70's, I wanted to leave school and had the chance to work as a kennel maid at the Guide Dog Centre. I sooo wanted to do that but my parents said that you could never make a living out of dogs. Stay at school and then get a job that pays well and have dogs as a hobby. And being a good girl I did as parents advised.

I stayed with dogs throughout - training and trailing and then showing and some breeding as well as getting into horses and dressage and jumping as well as earning money and building a house and family.

Working with animals was still always on my mind and part of my plan (hence why I bought acerage) and it took 20 years and then in 1993 started offering dog classes and then in 1998 opened up a boarding kennel. Now I earn a good living but it has taken a lot of planning and input to build up my own business - so my hobby now pays our way and hopefully will offer another 15 years plus of income and fun. I'm one of the luckiest people around, being able to work in my own business doing what I love.

Moral of the story - don't worry too much - do whatever comes your way, the life skills you will learn will always come in handy. If you do set a plan don't be afraid if your goal takes 20 years to begin.

[grabit]

Do Vet Nursing through tafe . You wont regret it.. opened up SO MANY doors for me! It's a two year course with a six month work placement.. you learn so much and people are really willing to take you seriously when you've got your cert 4! It can just be a stepping stone to other things too, alot of the vet nurses I studied with have gone on to do Animal Science at Uni..I was considering that until I got pregnant . But yeah, since completing vet nursing I've worked at clinics, shelters, pet shops, done a ton of volunteering and it was all well worth it. What everyone here says is right though, it's hard to get your foot in the door but once you've got some experience under your belt it's much easier to find something to do in the animal industry .

Sorry but i would disagree with this, (in SA at least) i have done the cert 4 course full time and the practical support offered through tafe is terrible, altough i am working in the industry with a fantastic employer i would advise you to do a cert two to get a foot in the door and then speak to your employer about going through animal industries in Qld.

If i had know the trouble i would have with tafe beforehand i wouldn't have wasted my time or money!

[Skitch]

Do Vet Nursing through tafe . You wont regret it.. opened up SO MANY doors for me! It's a two year course with a six month work placement.. you learn so much and people are really willing to take you seriously when you've got your cert 4! It can just be a stepping stone to other things too, alot of the vet nurses I studied with have gone on to do Animal Science at Uni..I was considering that until I got pregnant . But yeah, since completing vet nursing I've worked at clinics, shelters, pet shops, done a ton of volunteering and it was all well worth it. What everyone here says is right though, it's hard to get your foot in the door but once you've got some experience under your belt it's much easier to find something to do in the animal industry .

Sorry but i would disagree with this, (in SA at least) i have done the cert 4 course full time and the practical support offered through tafe is terrible, altough i am working in the industry with a fantastic employer i would advise you to do a cert two to get a foot in the door and then speak to your employer about going through animal industries in Qld.

If i had know the trouble i would have with tafe beforehand i wouldn't have wasted my time or money!

Really? What sort of trouble did you have and what year did you study in? I was apart of the very first full time group in 2006 (or was it 07?! I'm having the hardest time remembering right now LOL) and had no problems at all.. I loved it and wish I could do it again! Admittedly it is very hard and you have to take alot of the studying into your own hands.. but yeah, no complaints here.

[GSD FAN]

I also recently did the cert 4 course in SA but I only did my first year. I decided that although I really wanted the qualification, that I couldn't do another year of it because it was so full on. I thought it was a great course though with lots of rostered work in the TAFE clinic. ALthough I am still in the industry I am working in a lower level position because there was things I didnt' enjoy doing as a vet nurse, and while it suits me at the moment I am looking for something more fulfilling.