Animal Careers: Explore Careers In Animal Training or Consider Careers In Animal Health.

"How about careers in animal training? You know about animal training careers or careers in animal health. If our family's experience is like that of other families, animal careers are really needed!"

I was trying not to be too parental as I suggested to my adult son possible animal careers. We were standing in a checkout line at Petco and were looking at a sign listing the jobs at Petco.

The Petco Career Sign listed a number of possible careers in the animal field which caused me to think of several other animal career jobs.

1. careers in animal training
2. an animal career dealing with therapy pets
3. exotic animal careers
4. animal training careers
5. an animal career involving service pets
6. careers in animal health
7. animal science careers
8. animal care careers

My goal was to prompt him to consider animal related careers as employment possibilities, hoping to do so in such a way that the discovery was his, not mine.

Reasons To Probe Animal Related Careers

Both as his Dad and as his career change coach, I see the animal care field as a good fit for him for several reasons:

• He loves animals! Seems obvious that if you are considering careers in animal training, you love animals. I see animal careers as a good fit because he has always enjoyed pets, especially Sadie, his yellow Labrador retriever.
• He understands the need for healthy eating for animals: his commitment to feeding Sadie foods designed for her size and age indicates that an animal nutrition career would fit into this approach to Sadie's pet food diet.

  Besides, Sadie loves to eat and she could help him pay for all that better quality dog food she devours;

• He has taught Sadie to be obedient to his voice commands and sometimes she even considers the possibility of doing so! OK, I want him to consider animal training careers because Sadie desperately needs to be trained in dog obedience herself;
• and finally, there seems to be no shortage of pets. That means careers in the animal field offer viable pet care career opportunities that will continue to grow.

Careers In Animal Health

In my first attempt at this article, I share more about Darrell's health needs. Click on Animal Lovers Careers to see some of the details of Darrell's spinal cord injury.

Possible Animal Career Choices

A career in the animal field would be a natural fit for Darrell, who now lives with us until he can himself, change career, with purpose.

Recently I found several e-mail entries written over the last few years that chronicle his life journey since the spinal cord surgery:

EMAIL #1:I had written this email entry to a few relatives: "Yes, we have moved to a 3 bedroom house to give us a bit more room and sunshine than our dark condo provided."

"We can also have a new dog, which has been recommended as good therapy for Darrell. The landlord had put in wood floors because they had pets when they lived here." EMAIL #2:"We have seen great improvement in his mental outlook since his medications have been adjusted and monitored."

"And we just got a Yellow Lab Puppy for Darrell. That dog is a full time project by herself! But that is just the point--to help Darrell think about more than his tremendous back pain and his painful spinal cord injury."

Yes, in light of his own health concerns, animal health careers would be a good fit for Darrell."

Sadie Is A Four Legged Pet Therapist

Darrell has been helped greatly by Sadie, his four legged therapist, or better said, a pet therapy dog.

An extremely intelligent Yellow Labrador Retriever, Sadie is now a year old and has worked full time to help Darrell improve his mental outlook after his spinal cord surgery. Her job is basically to get him up and to get him out.

Her favorite activity is to take a walk. Just mention the word "walk" and she gets excited! Thus she gets exercise and he gets exercise. I suppose that to her, taking a walk is a big adventure.

If she could make her paws work on a computer keyboard, most likely this would be a favorite site:

YourActivePet.com - Adventure Gear for Your Pet!

Sadie's Opinion On Animal Careers

I have an idea that Sadie, his Yellow Labrador Retriever, could be the key to a new career for Darrell. She is helping us see the possibilities of careers in animal training, the great need animal training careers, and the potential for careers in animal health.

As a therapy dog, Sadie would love to see her master choose any of the many animal careers, but her first choice for him would be an animal nutrition career. (She thinks it would give new meaning to her being a lab dog.)

She is not too keen on animal training careers, leaning more toward animal care careers that would promote her own comfort. But if he were to choose careers in animal training, she thinks snack rewards that would be a part of animal training careers he would explore.

Sadie's Choice: An Animal Nutrition Career

While I love helping others in their change career journey, it is my own children who top the list of people I most desire to provide career change advice.

In this case, Sadie too, wants her master to consider animal lovers careers, especially an animal nutrition career. She added this comment: "After all, a dog has got to eat!"

Her advice to her master is this: "Get me some dog vitamins too! I need dog vitamins to supplement that so called dog food."

She went on: "And if he has to, even animal training careers wouldn't be too bad of a choice. I do love those delicious doggie treats he rewards me with when I accidentally obey his commands."

So there you have it, a Father's advice to an adult son. "Consider animal careers: explore careers in animal training. Let Sadie help you decide. You could probe animal training careers or careers in animal health. I really do believe an animal career would fit you."