Do You Have the Right Characteristics to Work With Animals?
Are you one of those people who feels happy simply being around animals?
Do you want to work with them?
If your answer is yes, that is just the start of your decision making.
There are many different careers working with animals. You might hear “I want to work with animals,” but when there are so many options out there, it is best to narrow it down and consider which careers or jobs would be most suitable for you.
But before deciding to work with animals, consider whether you have the right personality to work with animals.
Should You Work With Animals?
Firstly, answer two important questions –
- Do you like animals?
- Do you like people?
If you answer yes to the first question, then that is a great starting point. Liking animals, loving them, wanting to care for them and help them is an important aspect of working with animals.
You might think the second question is irrelevant, but working with animals involves working with people –
- Working as part of a team
- Educating people about animals
- Working with customers in a pet shop
- Talking to clients who use your pet service, such as grooming, boarding, dog walking
- Working with clients when you are a pet therapist, dog trainer, dog behaviourist etc.
Characteristics That Are Useful For People Who Want to Work With Animals
Let’s now look at characteristics required by people who want to work with animals.
Communication Skills
Do you have good communication skills? If you were planning to work with humans, then you would focus solely on human communication skills, but to work with animals, you need to develop good communication skills with humans and animals.
Good communication skills enable us to establish a bond with the animal and humans. We need to recognise the non-verbal communication in humans and animals. Animals demonstrate non-verbal communication –
- Growling
- Wagging their tail
- Baring their teeth
- Pawing your lap
Etc.
Whilst you may not understand all animal communication at this stage, a willingness to learn about animal communication is essential to work with animals.
Being able to work with humans is also important –
- Verbally eg. talking to clients, answering the phone etc.
- Written eg. answering emails, writing instructions.
- Non-verbal communication
Empathy
Empathy is also important. Empathy is being able to put yourself into someone else’s shoes, trying to understand how they feel or why they are behaving the way that they do. An empathic person will be better able to appreciate and sense an animal’s –
- Pain
- Stress
- Fear
- Happiness
- Anxiety
Compassion
Compassion is a concern and sympathy for another being. Once we appreciate an animal’s upset or distress, a compassionate person will find ways to help the animal to feel safe and calm down.
Patience
Anyone wanting to work with animals will need to be patient. A compassionate and empathic person will no doubt have the underlying skills to work patiently with animals. Animals cannot tell us what is wrong, so it can take patience and understanding to try to find out what is wrong with an animal.
Love
If we work with animals, we may come across a lot of animals. We may not be able to love every animal individually, but loving animals overall, means that we are –
- Compassionate
- Altruistic (doing something good to help others)
- Caring for animals in need
- Healing
- Helping
- Offering solutions
- Showing love and compassion to the animals we are caring for
Respect
As well as demonstrating love and care for animals, we also need to demonstrate respect and consideration.
Creativity
Creativity is another important characteristic for people wanting to work with animals. Working with animals requires us to be creative and able to communicate without words. Creativity is not just important for working with animals themselves, but also developing your career in animal care. If you intend to set up your own business or develop your career in working with animals, you will also require creativity. For example –
- Determining business opportunities working with animals
- Determining business opportunities in the area in which you live
- Finding new ideas to create products and services to support animals
- Developing your career by undertaking courses and training
Growth Mindset
Building upon the idea of taking courses, to work successfully with animals, you also need a growth mindset.
A person with a fixed mindset will believe that they are born with their intelligence, skills and traits. They do not think that they can change. If they do poorly in a maths exam, they will think it is because they are bad at maths.
A person with a growth mindset will believe that they can change and improve by studying, curiosity and developing their knowledge. If they do poorly in a maths exam, they will believe it is because they didn’t revise enough, or need to study more, so will try to improve their maths knowledge.
Our knowledge about animals changes frequently. It is not that long ago that people believed animals had no feelings. Today, we know far more about animal nutrition, how to stimulate animals in zoos and the home etc.
As this knowledge is frequently updated, anyone working with animals needs to ensure that they update their knowledge too.
So when working with animals, a person with a growth mindset will try to –
- Improve their knowledge
- Train
- Expand the areas of the animal care industry they work with
- Understand more about different animals and their needs
- Try to support the needs of diverse animals and their owners
- A dedication to hard work.
A person with a growth mindset will also usually have a plan on how to improve and develop their career. People who have a growth mindset are often lifelong learners. They are people with –
- The ability to change
- Adaptable to change
- Aim to continuously improve
So you have decided you want to work with animals. You now need to consider –
Right Skills
Do you have the right skills to work with animals? One way to develop these skills is through interacting with animals. You might do this by –
- Having pets
- Doing voluntary work to gain experience working with animals
Right Knowledge
To get a job working with animals, you will require different levels of knowledge.
You might apply for a job as a trainee or junior.
If you intend to apply for other jobs, you may be required to have certain experience and qualifications.
The training and development you need to work with animals will depend on the area in which you want to work. Let’s look more at deciding what training you need to work with animals.
What Job With Animals Would Suit You Best?
There are so many different careers working with animals, it is important to consider what areas of animal care would interest you the most. Try answering these questions to see which career would suit you the best.
Do You prefer to work indoors/outdoors or a mix of both?
The first thing to consider is whether you want to work indoors or outdoors. Some careers with animals require you to work in and outdoors, but in many animal related careers, you will find you spend the majority of your time either indoors or outdoors.
Let’s look at some examples –
Working Outdoors
If you want to work outdoors, there are many different career options, such as –
- Working in safari parks, nature parks, petting zoos
- Dog walking
- Zookeeper/Animal Keeper
- Conservationist
Working Indoors
If you prefer to work indoors, consider jobs such as –
- Animal grooming
- Pet stores
- Veterinarian and veterinary nurses
- Animal boarding
A bit of Both
If you would like a mixture of both, why not consider –
- Animal rescue services
- Working in stables
- Education
These are just a few examples. There are obviously many more careers working with animals.
What type of animals do you want to work with?
There are many different animals out there. Some people love lizards and snakes, others like small animals, whilst others want to work with wild animals. Consider, do you want to work with –
- Small animals
- Domesticated animals, such as dogs, cats
- Horses
- Captive animals, such as in a zoo
- Wild animals
Etc.
What Type of Job do you want?
Consider –
- Do you want to offer day to day support to animals, such as dog walking, dog boarding, cat boarding?
- Do you want to work in retail, such as pet stores?
- Would you like to develop products for animals, such as food, leads, effective stimulation for zoo animals?
- Do you want to work with wild animals or domesticated animals?
- Do you want to work with small animals or larger animals?
- Are you willing to travel to another country to work with animals?
- Do you want to work with animals who need to be rehomed or rescued?
- Do you want to work with animals who are ill or in pain?
Once you have answered these questions, you should hopefully have decided –
- The type of animals you want to work with
- Whether you want to work indoors or outdoors
- The type of career with animals you want
- The type of job you want
Now consider, what training do you require to work with animals.
What Training Do You Require?
How long are you willing to train for? Some jobs working with animals require longer training than others. For example, a veterinarian may need to train for five to seven years. A dog groomer may need to train for a few months or a year.
We previously mentioned that working with animals requires you have a growth mindset. This means that you are willing to continue to undertake training throughout your career.
So, consider –
- How long do you want to study for?
- Do you want to study at university, college or by distance learning?
To determine the training you require –
- Undertake research into the training required to do the job you are interested in.
- Do you need experience to do the job, such as voluntary work?
Training Online
If you are interested in training online for your career with animals, we offer a range of courses related to animal care jobs that you can study online or by e-learning.
All of our courses are self-paced. You can start at any time to suit you and work at your own pace.
We offer courses such as –
And much more.
If you have any questions about our courses or would like advice on which course is the most suitable for you, please click here to contact a tutor.