Animal Attendant – LEARN TO VOLUNTEER WITH THE ANIMALS
Campers 11-14 years old (grades 6-8) – LEASIDE location ONLY
CLICK HERE for Summer 2024 program dates & pricing
*Please note our Animal Attendant program takes place at our South Leaside location – 94 Laird Drive
The program is designed for kids who want to volunteer with the animals!
Each year, we receive so many calls from kids who want to volunteer at Pawsitively Pets. To help accommodate all these requests, we started our weekend Animal Attendant Program. With this program being so popular, we will now have it available for a 2-week summer camp program.
The Pawsitively Pets Animal Attendant training program is for children 11 to 14 years old who would like to learn all the key elements of volunteering with our animals.
This program will include the following : Animal Care – includes cage cleaning/maintenance, animal housing/habitats/husbandry, feeding the animals, making homemade pet food, animal enrichment, animal handling instruction and training, animal socialization, animal health/wellness checks – body conditioning/weights/ears/nails/teeth, animal baths/grooming, basic anatomy, species/breeds/lifespan, veterinary care, building confidence and presenting the animals and basic talking points.
Participants will work with over 50 animals over the course of the 2-week program. This program is the foundation for participants to pursue a career with animals, or to volunteer with our animals.
Participants will assist each day in the care and feeding of the animals and this a key learning segment of the program that we do each day to ensure participants are prepared for the responsibility of volunteering.
By the end of the 2-weeks all campers in this program should be ready to volunteer with the animals, be totally comfortable handling, feeding and cleaning all the animals cages and know the basic presentation material for all the animals we have worked with. An informal handling and presentation exam will take place at the end of the program, this is a positive activity meant to inspire campers to retain the information we work on over the camp session. The handling/presentation is not mandatory.
Staff/Leader to camper ratio for Animal Attendant is 1 staff to 10 campers. When working with the animals we will break into teams of 3 or 4 with additional staff present.
All participants will receive a Pawsitively Pets t-shirt.
Campers must be going into grade 5 in September to participate in this program. Please note upon successful completion of this program children are added to a list for volunteer shifts which typically take place a few times a month on a weekend morning between October and April. Emails will be sent out when volunteers shifts are available and qualified participants can book shifts to attend.