How To Become A Pet Care Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a pet care specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Beth Stultz-Hairston,

Dr. Chase Runyan

The Pet Care Specialist is a position found in animal care locations, such as kennels, veterinary clinics and offices, and laboratories. They are generally tasked with providing care for animals and dealing with a variety of other tasks related, most of them clerical or customer service related.

The Specialists' duties can vary quite a bit. They generally have to feed and clean animals and their whereabouts and make sure that they go uninjured and are otherwise in the best of health and will have to deal with other employees, customers, and other people. Depending on their workplace, they have different secondary tasks, such as performing physical examinations, taking care of postoperative animals, taking samples, and performing various tests.

Generally, a person looking to work as a Pet Care Specialist needs to have a high school diploma or a GED. Previous general experience working as a specialist or experience with certain animals or breeds might be preferred. Certification for some types of Specialists exists, mostly for veterinary assistants and laboratories, and can provide an advantage.

What general advice would you give to a pet care specialist?

Beth Stultz-Hairston

President, Pet Sitters International

While the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted professional pet-sitting and dog-walking companies, as it has a variety of other small businesses, we expect an influx of new job requests to come in once travel resumes and more pet owners return to the office (especially since so many people have adopted pets during this time!). For those who want to start their own pet-sitting companies, now is the perfect time to take steps to prepare to launch their businesses (e.g. learn more about the industry, research local competition, select a business name, get liability insurance, etc.). For pet lovers who desire to work for another pet-sitting company, instead of starting their own, it will be important for them to highlight not only their pet-behavior knowledge and pet experience on resumes and in interviews, but their flexibility and attention to detail as well, as companies are instituting new health and safety precautions to ensure pet-sitting services can be provided as safely as possible in the COVID-19 age.

ScorePet Care SpecialistUS Average

Salary

2.4

Avg. Salary $31,162

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.7

Growth rate 28%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

1.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.48%

Asian 2.64%

Black or African American 4.30%

Hispanic or Latino 18.22%

Unknown 6.43%

White 67.93%

Gender

female 74.49%

male 25.51%

Age - 29

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 29

Stress level

6.7

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.0

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

8.1

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a pet care specialist

Explore pet care specialist education requirements

Most common pet care specialist degrees

Bachelor's

38.4 %

High School Diploma

30.2 %

Associate

22.3 %

Start to develop specific pet care specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
PET	64.12%
Health Issues	27.02%
Customer Service	2.55%
Work Ethic	1.49%
CPR	0.82%

Complete relevant pet care specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New pet care specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a pet care specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real pet care specialist resumes.

Research pet care specialist duties and responsibilities

Achieve detailed grooming including skin, ear, nail care, coat clips and dental care.
Interact on a professional level with other pet food company representatives and honor their interaction with customers.
Handle cash and perform all transactions at customer checkout -inform customers on exceptional pet care while offering excellent customer service
Perform euthanasia once lab exercises are complete.

Prepare your pet care specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your pet care specialist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a pet care specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable pet care specialist resume templates

Build a professional pet care specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your pet care specialist resume.

Apply for pet care specialist jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a pet care specialist job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do pet care specialists rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Pet care specialist reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2020

Cons

Dogs in homes

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2020

Cons

Wild non trained. Once a lifetime into groomers..biters. wiggly , jumpers., Barker's non stop clients who can't understand why you take so long or understand why we do some of things we have to do.

Pros

Repeat clients with well behaved and cute pets.

A zippia user wrote a review on Nov 2019