As a Pet Care Professional Be Competent and Confident in a Pet Emergency Situation
Whether you pet sit for your friends and family, just signed up for a pet care listing site, or have a staff of 20, when you take care of people’s pets – or share your life with them – you better know what to do when something goes wrong – because it will!
As a professional pet sitter for the past 13 years, knowing someone else loves these pets like I love mine puts more stress on knowing how to care for them. Despite only spending 20 minutes with a pooch twice a week, I have found impacted anuses, mammary tumors – which turned out to be cancerous – eye ulcers, puncture wounds, you name it. None of the animals I found these on were any less loved by their owners. Sometimes it’s just hard for an owner who sees their pet every day to notice things. That’s exactly why they should educate themselves as well and why they’re lucky to have someone like you.
So why not learn to be a pet’s hero? You could be that person that makes an emergency situation for a pet, better. Most importantly, increasing that animal’s chance at even surviving! Maybe you’re the person that notices Bella’s limp and because you did, she gets relief much sooner. You can be that person by learning the lifesaving skills taught in a pet first aid and CPR certification course.
There are choices in learning how to accomplish this.
There are several pet CPR and first aid courses available to you. Some are in person while others are on the Internet. Most offer good information but when lives are at stake, make sure the one you take is great.
You can do that by:
- Finding out about the company that is presenting it, are they an accredited organization?
- Any Tom, Dick or Harriett can teach an online class, so make certain you have a person that actually has experience saving animals; like a veterinarian.
- How long do you have access to review? The range seems to be from 30 days to 2 years, I certainly am most likely not going to have an emergency or issue within the first 30 days, nor am I likely to remember what I just learned 90 days from now.
- What topics are covered? Some just cover pet first aid, excluding the least used but most valuable, cat and dog CPR!
- How long is the course? They range from 1.5 hrs to upwards of 4
- Is the course current? In June 2012 the AVMA changed the companion animal CPR protocols based on years of gathering information that statistically showed pets have a greater chance at surviving if the newer dog and cat CPR protocols were taught and used. Just because the course came out after 2012, does not mean it actually teaches the up-to-date techniques.
- How much does it cost? Why pay $65, even $100 if the course isn’t taught by the right accredited person?Who are you paying to teach you and where did they get their information?
- Does the course test your retention and make certain that you are certified in your knowledge? Fancy certificates are only as good as the brains they represent.
- Some offer an added bonus of CEU’s – Continuing Education Units – for those of you particularly in the dog training field. Make certain the company is actually accredited to do so, one way is to check the CEU listings on CCPDT.org
By reading this you have taken the first step to making a good choice about making the pets in your care safer. So now go choose a course that:
- Was developed by an accredited organization
- Is the only online pet first aid and CPR class written and presented by a board-certified emergency veterinarian, specializing in emergency care for small animals AND a professor of emergency veterinary medicine
- Is just under $50 – pretty much a night out and certainly less than a wellness exam – even less per course if you have five or more staff
- Allows you 2 years to access the information
- The course is split into bite-sized chunks, so pausing, stopping and starting is easy
- Has the best interactive delivery with videos, lecture, and test modules between sections to measure retention
- Includes a complete downloadable pet first aid manual that includes pet CPR instruction as well as other useful goodies
- Actually allows you to receive valid CEU’s
ProPetHero’s online pet first aid and CPR certification course meets these criteria and beyond. It is worth every bit as it gives back to your clients by teaching you what to do for them.
For those of you with staff, ProPetHero offers excellent group discounts. Five or more staff gets you 10% off of $49.95 – have more than 10 – save more. ProPetHero has a company dashboard that allows you to:
- Track employee progress
- Update company info
- Print copies of certificates
- Purchase units of training
- Add / remove employees
- Add more training courses
Oh and as an added bonus, enter this coupon code CPR-PROPETHERO, to save a little more on saving them.