Work in a Kennel

Pathway Summary
Pathway Details
Fees & How to Enrol

This pathway is designed to provide you with the knowledge you’ll need to forge a rewarding career in canine boarding. By combining our kennel and cattery course with canine psychology and first aid, this pathway ensures you’ll be aware of best practice canine care techniques, and how to implement them when working in a kennel environment. The following four areas of study are included:

  • Caring for Animals in Kennels and Catteries
  • Canine First Aid
  • Introduction to Canine Psychology
  • Health, Safety, Legal and Associated Issues – FREE with this pathway

You’ll receive your first unit as soon as you enrol, so you can start whenever you want, and progress through the course at your own pace, studying when and where you choose.

Level: QLS Level 2 Fees:

£645 £451.50
Pay 12 monthly payments of £55.41 £39.29

***Saving you compared with taking these courses individually***

Entry Requirements

Your practical competencies need to be assessed for this pathway through a minimum of 30 hours’ working within kennels – this can be in a voluntary capacity. We can suggest and help you identify possible placements.

Our Support Promise

You can phone or email your tutor at any point during your course – to ask questions, for advice, encouragement or to draw on their wealth of knowledge.

You can also contact the support team who are here to help you Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

What You’ll Learn

Caring for Animals in Kennels and Catteries

Unit 1 

  • Record keeping
  • Law relating to small animals
  • Customer service
  • Hygiene
  • Health and safety
  • First aid

Unit 2 

  • Anatomy of the dog and cat
  • Skeleton, musculature, growth, skin, coat, senses, blood, lymphatic, nervous, urino-genital and digestive systems

Unit 3 

  • Nutrition
  • Diets
  • Feeding for pregnancy, at weaning and for geriatrics
  • Stock control

Unit 4 

  • Health
  • Basic animal nursing and first aid
  • Use of drugs
  • Diseases
  • Infections
  • Vaccination
  • Parasites
  • Veterinary attention
  • Care of older animals

Unit 5 

  • Kennel routines
  • Grooming
  • Special needs and requirements of: quarantine, rescue, welfare, showing, breeding, veterinary, hunting and other specialist centres

Unit 6

  • Animal welfare issues
  • Human support dog work and organisations
  • Job applications and conditions of employment: first aid (human)

A Student Training Programme will be sent with your first two units. This will contain your course outline, and is designed to ensure that practical elements are assessed and completed to the required standards. Workplace managers, supervisors or proprietors can assess occupational competencies in the workplace.

A Special Study and an Evolution Study must be completed during this course

Canine First Aid

Unit 1

  • First Aid
  • Haemorrhage
  • Collapse unconsciousness or coma
  • Wounds
  • Shock
  • Fracture and dislocations
  • Fits
  • Poisons
  • Burns and scalds
  • Foreign bodies
  • Hyperthermia and hypothermia
  • Birth
  • Eclampsia
  • Clinical signs
  • Vomiting and diarrhoea
  • Running eyes

Introduction to Canine Psychology

Unit 1 

Relationships:

  • Natural behaviours
  • Pack rules – the modern view
  • Early learning
  • Fun and games

Unit 2 

Food and exercise:

  • What the dog needs
  • Different feeding methods
  • A little about labels
  • When and how to make changes in the diet
  • The value of exercise

Unit 3

Building the bond:

  • Early influences
  • The stages of puppyhood
  • Coping with the juvenile and adolescent dog
  • Training for everyday life
  • The special needs of the rescue dog

Unit 4

Problem behaviour:

  • What is problem behaviour?
  • Health effects on behaviour
  • Owner error
  • The question of punishment
  • Some ways of putting things right

You will also complete a Special Study on a topic of your choice, relevant to the course.

Health, Safety, Legal and Associated Issues

Unit 1

  • Customer Service and Care
  • Client Distress
  • Personal Safety
  • Health and Safety
  • Prevention of Ill Health and Accidents
  • Risk Assessment
  • First Aid
  • Legal Issues
  • Environmental Issues
  • Insurance

Certification

On successful completion of this course you’ll receive the Certificate of Achievement at QLS Level 2 from Quality Licence Scheme when you complete this course**.

Quality Licence Scheme endorsement involves robust and rigorous quality audits by external auditors to ensure quality is continually met. A review of courses is carried out as part of the endorsement process.

You will also receive the Animal Care College Certificate* in Work in a Kennel, graded to show the standard you have reached. There are no exams.

* The Animal Care College Certificate will be issued once you have successfully completed your course and finished your course payments.

** QLS registration fees included.

Study Length

There are no deadlines for this pathway. Simply study in the comfort of your own home, and in your own time.

Distance learning is designed to be flexible, but as a guide, students who can spend 4-6 hours a week studying tend to complete a single unit within a month.

What's Next

This pathway can help you progress in your career in the animal care sector.

Once it’s completed, you may wish to further your study. If that’s the case, we’d suggest:

If you are looking to set up your own business then you should consider obtaining insurance cover. Further information is available on request.

You can get in touch with one of our tutors, or contact our support team from 9am - 5pm.

Course fee & how to enrol

This career pathway combines 4 of our individual courses, providing students with a clear and comprehensive path towards a career in animal care. What’s more, when you take this pathway, you’ll save, compared to taking each course on its own. Plus, you’ll get a free unit worth £195 £136.50.

There are two ways you can enrol

Pay the total course fee of £645 £451.50 in one sum and receive a £50 voucher towards the cost of your next course

or

Pay 12 monthly payments of £55.41 £39.29 (£20 administration fee included)