What does a kennel assistant do?
A kennel assistant is an individual who takes responsibility in the daily care of animals like cats and dogs at boarding kennels or veterinary clinics. Primarily, kennel assistants provide care to pets that includes feeding and grooming. They collect and maintain any information involving the pets. It is their job to administer pet's medications under the supervision of vet technicians or veterinarians. The skills necessary for this job include patience, customer service, animal care, teamwork, and communication.
Kennel assistant responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real kennel assistant resumes:
- Manage, and safely operate the MWD explosive program.
- Assist veterinarian in day-to-day animal hospital activities including processing lab work administering medication, performing x-rays, feeding and cleaning patients.
- Insert iv needles into animals to obtain blood samples.
- Keep current all facilities licenses necessary for the euthanasia of animals.
- Maintain sow rotation to ensure insemination dates are correct with farrow dates.
- Job responsibilities also include cleaning kennels, walking dogs, and mowing the shelter's lawn.
- Perform animal grooming duties such as washing and brushing coats, cutting nails, and cleaning ears.
- Perform hygiene-relate duties, such as clipping animals' claws, groom, trim, or clip animals' coats.
- Complete all lawn care assignments (watering, mowing, weeding, planting, mulching) for maintenance of estate grounds.
- Administer oral and iv medications.
- Assist foreman with artificial insemination duties.
- Fed, exercise and dispense pet medication per owners instructions
- Make decisions for euthanasia and perform euthanasia as necessary.
- Document accurate information on pet's physical status and activities.
- Operate autoclaves to sterilize animal caging/Verifying autoclave cycles are running correctly by running ampules.
Kennel assistant skills and personality traits
We calculated that 53% of Kennel Assistants are proficient in PET, Patients, and Animal Hospital. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Manual dexterity, and Physical strength.
We break down the percentage of Kennel Assistants that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- PET, 53%
Monitored Pet care in climate controlled environment.
- Patients, 12%
Assisted veterinarian in day-to-day animal hospital activities including processing lab work administering medication, performing x-rays, feeding and cleaning patients.
- Animal Hospital, 7%
Performed veterinary and kennel assistant duties in animal hospital.
- Cleanliness, 6%
43537-Provided facility maintenance-Provided animal care and cleanliness
- Facility Laundry, 3%
Do facility laundry and clean, organize, maintain, and disinfect animal quarters, such as kennels.
- Animal Handling, 2%
Experience with animal handling and basic medical preparations.
"pet," "patients," and "animal hospital" are among the most common skills that kennel assistants use at work. You can find even more kennel assistant responsibilities below, including:
Communication skills. One of the key soft skills for a kennel assistant to have is communication skills. You can see how this relates to what kennel assistants do because "veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers communicate with pet owners, veterinarians, veterinary technologists and technicians, and other assistants." Additionally, a kennel assistant resume shows how kennel assistants use communication skills: "learned the importance of good communication skills with co-workers and pet owners. "
Manual dexterity. Many kennel assistant duties rely on manual dexterity. "veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers must be adept in both handling animals and using medical instruments and laboratory equipment.," so a kennel assistant will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways kennel assistant responsibilities rely on manual dexterity: "perform dental procedures; ultrasonic cleaning, manual scrapings, extractions, charting, polishing and sealants. "
Physical strength. This is an important skill for kennel assistants to perform their duties. For an example of how kennel assistant responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers must be strong enough to handle, move, and restrain animals." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a kennel assistant: "documented accurate information on pet's physical status and activities. ".
Compassion. kennel assistant responsibilities often require "compassion." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers must treat animals with kindness and show compassion to both the animals and their owners." This resume example shows what kennel assistants do with compassion on a typical day: "informed patients with discharge instructions; maintained compassion, sympathy and professionalism during high-stress situations. "
Detail oriented. A commonly-found skill in kennel assistant job descriptions, "detail oriented" is essential to what kennel assistants do. Kennel assistant responsibilities rely on this skill because "veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers must follow instructions exactly as directed." You can also see how kennel assistant duties rely on detail oriented in this resume example: "followed detailed instructions for each individual pet to ensure that all dietary, health and safety requirements are required. "
The three companies that hire the most kennel assistants are:
- VCA Animal Hospitals53 kennel assistants jobs
- BluePearl Vet25 kennel assistants jobs
- National Veterinary Associates4 kennel assistants jobs
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Compare different kennel assistants
Kennel assistant vs. Laboratory animal caretaker
A laboratory animal caretaker is in charge of monitoring and taking care of animals in a research facility or similar setting, ensuring to handle them properly and humanely. Their responsibilities include feeding the animals, examining them for any diseases or injuries, gathering and preparing samples, and maintaining the cleanliness of work areas. Furthermore, as a laboratory animal caretaker, it is essential to provide research and clerical assistance to staff, all while upholding the laboratory's safety policies and regulations.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between kennel assistants and laboratory animal caretaker. For instance, kennel assistant responsibilities require skills such as "pet," "patients," "animal hospital," and "patrol." Whereas a laboratory animal caretaker is skilled in "ventilation," "safety procedures," "dependability," and "insemination." This is part of what separates the two careers.
Laboratory animal caretakers tend to make the most money working in the government industry, where they earn an average salary of $28,695. In contrast, kennel assistants make the biggest average salary, $28,395, in the health care industry.The education levels that laboratory animal caretakers earn slightly differ from kennel assistants. In particular, laboratory animal caretakers are 0.6% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a kennel assistant. Additionally, they're 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Kennel assistant vs. Research animal attendant
Kennel technicians are employees who work in animal boarding houses, veterinary clinics, and shelters. Primarily, they take care of and maintain animals living in a kennel. They are responsible for the upkeep of animals under their supervision and ensure they are healthy, happy, and clean. Often, they work with cats and dogs, although they may also care for other domestic animals. They should have skills in handling animals, sanitation, cleaning, friendly office help, and primary animal care.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real kennel assistant resumes. While kennel assistant responsibilities can utilize skills like "pet," "patients," "animal hospital," and "patrol," research animal attendants use skills like "sops," "lab animals," "behavioral data," and "laboratory animals."
Research animal attendants earn similar levels of education than kennel assistants in general. They're 3.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Kennel assistant vs. Kennel technician
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, kennel assistants are more likely to have skills like "patients," "patrol," "cleanliness," and "surgical equipment." But a kennel technician is more likely to have skills like "computer system," "shelter animals," "pet care," and "fresh food."
Kennel technicians earn the best pay in the government industry, where they command an average salary of $29,269. Kennel assistants earn the highest pay from the health care industry, with an average salary of $28,395.When it comes to education, kennel technicians tend to earn similar degree levels compared to kennel assistants. In fact, they're 0.1% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.0% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Kennel assistant vs. Veterinarian assistant
Types of kennel assistant
Updated January 8, 2025
