Educating the Pet Owners of the Future

As a Registered Veterinary Technician and a team member of College Manor Veterinary Hospital I feel it is very important to get out into the community. Especially when it comes to educating the next generation of pet owners.

Yearly I make a visit to my daughter’s elementary school. It is a highlight of my year and I know by the looks on the children’s faces, that it is a highlight for them as well. I am usually accompanied by one of my dogs because the reality of it is, the kids want to see animals. Who doesn’t? This year my 10-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback Lola and I made our way to the school, with visual aids such as parasites, bladder stones and foreign bodies removed from pets. This year we took one of our anesthetic monitoring devices with us, some radiographs and some skeletal bones.

Our visits always begin with a brief discussion on how to approach a dog. We discuss “being a tree”. This year I was happy to hear that a few of the kids already knew what I was talking about. One little boy was super excited to tell me that you “plant your roots and hold your branches in tight.” Knowing how to react around dogs is such an important thing for children to know, even around friendly dogs. Lola is always great for her school visits but we still have her smell the hands of all the kids before they get to pet her. She is very patient and allows all the children to listen to her heart. When they realize that the drum that they hear is her heart, their eyes light up.

The best part of the day came from the anesthetic monitoring device which reads blood pressure and heart rate. I took 24 individual blood pressures that day, but it was worth it. They were so excited to see how their results compared to their friends.

All in all a great day was had by all.