Pet Care Assistant (Kennel Assistant) - Pacific Beach

Pet Care Assistant

The Pet Care Assistant works with the veterinary medical team to provide and prepare for the best medical care of pets. The Pet Care Assistant must be able to stay on task and follow checklists to ensure cleanliness of the hospital at all times. This includes, but is not limited to, laundry, dishes, mopping, cage cleaning, trash collection and removal, and instrument cleaning as outlined by hospital protocols. The Pet Care Assistant must also stock and prepare the treatment room and exam rooms with all necessary medical items and supplies for the veterinary team. They must clean the surgical suite, dental suite, and instruments. The Pet Care Assistant monitors the comfort of hospitalized patients, ensures the comfort of hospitalized patients by "walking", exercising, feeding, and cleaning cages and pet (when approved by the veterinarian or veterinary technician), and may be asked to hold or restrain pets during examination or treatments. They may also help prepare routine in-house laboratory tests as allowed by state rules and regulations. Other job duties as assigned.

The Pet Care Assistant must have the ability to multi-task, manage multiple tasks at one time; quickly and accurately shift attention among multiple tasks under distracting conditions without loss of accuracy or appearance of frustration. They must have strong communication skills, read, write, and speak fluent English, using appropriate grammar, style, and vocabulary. They must demonstrate a systematic approach in carrying out assignments, be very orderly, and excel at cutting through confusion and turning chaos into order. They must also have strong problem-solving skills, demonstrate a strong ability to identify, analyze, and solve problems, and translate problems into practical solutions. The Pet Care Assistant must consistently ensure the team provides the client with attentive, courteous, and informative service, gain and show personal satisfaction from delivering great service, and accurately and consistently follow instructions delivered in an oral, written or diagram format. They must comfortably and confidently use a computer. The Pet Care Assistant must show willingness and aptitude to use their own discretion in taking appropriate steps in finding solutions to problems, present options and ideas to enhance current processes or procedures, take on additional responsibility when both big and small tasks need to be done, firmly adhere to the values and ethics of Banfield Pet Hospitals, exhibit honesty, discretion, and sound judgment, be willing to work with others, collaborating and compromising where necessary, promptly share relevant information with others, and be open to changing situations and opportunities and willing to perform all tasks assigned. They must be able and willing to perform tasks and duties without supervision, maintain a positive "can do" outlook, rebound quickly from frustrations and unpleasantness, and maintain composure and friendly demeanor while dealing with stressful situations.

The Pet Care Assistant must be confident around pets (i.e., dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, etc.), work special hours including working weekends and evenings, have mental processes for reasoning, remembering, mathematics and language ability (reading, writing, and speaking the English language) to perform the duties proficiently, and be exposed to a variety of pets that may bite or scratch, and on occasion, exposed to anesthesia, radiation, biological hazards, and medication/controlled substances. The Pet Care Assistant must have a high school diploma preferred, be at least 18 years old to perform duties involving radiography (x-ray) and exposure to radioactive substances, and have one year related experience required with customer service preferred.