Kennel Attendant

A Kennel Attendant assists with various duties in places that provide boarding for animals. This may be an animal shelter, a veterinary office, or even a “pet hotel” where owners leave their animals for overnight care.

Your day-to-day tasks as a Kennel Attendant include feeding each animal, ensuring a fresh and plentiful water supply, cleaning up waste in the containment areas, taking animals out for exercise and fresh air, monitoring for health or behavioral problems, and administering any necessary medication. You’re also expected to clean and disinfect the individual living areas as well as any common spaces the animals share. Between tasks, you monitor and restock supplies as needed.

Additional duties vary depending on the setting and the level of service agreed upon by management and clients. For example, a Kennel Attendant at a veterinary hospital will likely have specific, detailed instructions for each animal, depending on its condition and treatment.

But your interactions aren’t limited to the animal kingdom. Kennel Attendants should have good customer service skills for interacting with an animal’s owners (or prospective owners), particularly in veterinary hospitals, where the animal’s condition may be worrisome.

While a love of animals is essential to the role, you will need to prepare yourself for less-than-cuddly moments, like dog bites, messy illnesses, and untimely deaths.

You won’t come home smelling like roses, but you’ll have the gratitude of some faithful, new friends.