From Dog Washer to Animal Attendant at RSPCA WA: Becc’s experience studying Animal Care

My very first job, I was a dog washer at Hillarys Dog Beach. I made really great connections with the animals there, and then that just kind of sparked me doing a lot more and just being more involved with animals. And it really triggered me to actually apply to be a volunteer with RSPCA. So I volunteered with RSPCA for about six months before I actually did the AVT course.

My favourite part of the course is definitely being able to be practically in the space, doing the daily routines, the husbandry tasks that we need to get through, and just spending the time with the animals. That’s been the most rewarding part. You really feel like you’re making a difference when you’re actually in the space. And yes, you’re learning, but you do realise that you are actually being a big part of these animals day to day lives. And yeah, it’s really rewarding.

I applied for the animal attendant position, one of my lecturers, she sent through an email saying that they were looking for more people to come on board pretty much that day. I was like, look, yep, I’ve been volunteering for long enough. I was ready to be in it, so I just put my application through. It was really, really simple because they already know you here. Got the job like a week and a half later, which was really great. A lot of training to start off with. But now I’ve settled into the role you’re pretty much doing everything that you were doing as a student, but also your tasks get extended towards the end of the day. So you’re feeding, cleaning, and then after that, you’re spending time spending, enrichment, making sure that maybe frozen enrichment, making sure everything’s clean, really working as a team, that’s a lot of what we do here. It’s a lot of teamwork, it really makes the dream work.

Honestly, I feel like this course really does prepare you, especially the very start. You go straight to your PPE, and here at the shelter we get a lot of different things coming through. So it was really great to kind of be armed with that knowledge straight off the bat so that when it did come up in the workplace, I was like, cool, I know how to don and doff everything. I’m sorted, I’m ready to go. So it’s been really nice to kind of have that basic knowledge. And a lot of the knowledge that you’re getting, you’re actually putting into practice when you’re in the kennels and you’re doing things.

After I complete this course, I’m hoping to stay at RSPCA or go on to animal behaviour, see what happens.

I definitely want to stay in the animal services area and just I really enjoy the whole shelter life, honestly. So I’d love to just stay on, see what I can do, maybe in the future vet nursing. But at the moment I’m very happy where I am.