Agriculture · Helping & Teaching
Animal care worker: what the job actually is
Feeding, cleaning, grooming and looking after animals in shelters, kennels, groomers, clinics and zoos, and talking to the people who own them.
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The work
What this job actually is
- Looking after other people's animals, or animals nobody owns anymore, and keeping them fed, clean, safe and calm. The job title covers shelters, kennels, boarding, grooming, doggy daycare, pet stores and zoos.
- Cleaning is a huge part of it. Kennels, litter, cages, bowls, floors, laundry. Animals are dirty and the work is mostly keeping them from being so.
- Handling is the skill. Reading when a dog is scared and when it is going to bite, picking up a cat that does not want to be picked up, and keeping a groomer's table calm.
- You deal with people as much as animals: adopters, owners dropping off, owners picking up, owners who are angry about the cost or the haircut.
- In a shelter you also see the worst of how people treat animals, and some animals do not get adopted. In a zoo or a groomer the pressures are different but there is always pressure.
A Tuesday
What a normal day looks like
Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.
- 7:00 — Open up. Check each animal, note any who ate nothing or were sick overnight.
- 7:30 — Clean. Kennels, litter, bowls, floors. This takes hours and has to be done properly or animals get sick.
- 9:00 — Feed and give medications according to each animal's chart.
- 10:00 — Exercise and enrichment. Walk dogs, play with cats, or rotate animals in the yard.
- 11:30 — Grooming appointments or intake. A dog arrives for a haircut or a surrendered animal arrives and needs to be checked, photographed and recorded.
- 13:00 — Lunch, then laundry. There is always laundry.
- 14:00 — Meet adopters or owners. Help a family choose, give instructions, or talk to an owner who is upset.
- 15:30 — Behaviour work or training. A shy animal needs gentle practice, a reactive one needs careful handling.
- 17:00 — Second clean and feed. Update the records so the next shift knows what you saw.
- 18:00 — Lock up, and your clothes smell of animals for the rest of the evening.
Honestly
Who loves this, and who should not do it
The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.
- You like being around animals and do not mind the cleaning that comes with it.
- You are patient and calm, and you can read an animal's body language.
- You can handle the smell, the noise and the mess of a room full of dogs or cats.
- You are good with people as well as animals, and can stay kind when somebody is rude.
- You want a job you can begin without years of study, and that can lead to other animal jobs.
- You want to be paid well soon. Job Bank's Ontario wages for this occupation are low at the start and stay modest, and many jobs are part-time or seasonal.
- You would be overwhelmed by sad cases. Shelters see neglect, abuse, surrenders and animals that cannot be saved.
- You do not want to clean. Most of the hours are scrubbing, mopping, washing and laundry.
- You get bitten or scratched easily. Frightened animals bite and handling them is the job.
- You need steady full-time hours. Job Bank's data shows this occupation has a high share of part-time and part-year work.
- You dislike people being unreasonable. Owners can be angry, entitled or in tears, and you carry that.
The route in
How you actually get there in Ontario
Start with experience
Many animal care jobs can start without a credential. A shelter volunteer shift, a kennel or boarding job, or a part-time grooming assistant role is how most people begin.College programmes exist
Ontario colleges run Animal Care programmes covering animal anatomy and nursing, nutrition, behaviour and stress management, breeding and birthing, and legislation and ethics. Graduates work in veterinary practices, zoos, kennels, shelters and rehabilitation centres. ontariocolleges.ca lists the entry requirements for each programme.Vet assistant and vet tech are next steps
Ontario colleges also offer one-year Veterinary Assistant programmes and two-to-three-year Veterinary Technician programmes. Only the technician route leads to the Registered Veterinary Technician designation.Grooming and zoo work are their own paths
Grooming and zoo work each have their own routes and employers set their own requirements, so ask the specific shop or zoo what they hire for. A related college programme plus volunteer or seasonal experience is the safest preparation.
Where this comes from: ontariocolleges.ca — Animal Care programs · ontariocolleges.ca — Veterinary programs · Ontario — Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM)
The money
What it pays in Ontario
Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.
- $17.95
- Low (hourly)
- $19.00
- Median (hourly)
- $26.00
- High (hourly)
Ontario, NOC 65220. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth.
Where it is heading
The outlook for the next three years
Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.
Moderate3 out of 5 stars
- Employment growth will lead to a few new positions.
- Not many positions will become available due to retirements.
- There are a small number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.
What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.
- 13,950
- people work in this job in Ontario
- 83%
- are women (48% across all jobs)
- 51%
- are self-employed (15% across all jobs)
Source: Job Bank — Pet groomers and animal care workers job prospects in Ontario (NOC 65220). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.
Before you leave school
Things you can do now
- Volunteer at a shelter, rescue or humane society. Many have a minimum age, so phone and ask, and ask whether the hours count toward your school's community involvement requirement.
- Take biology and keep your English credits strong. Read the entry requirements for the colleges' Animal Care programmes on ontariocolleges.ca early.
- Ask about the Specialist High Skills Major in Agriculture, which has an animal science variant at some schools and includes CPR, first aid and co-op placements.
- Pet-sit, dog-walk or help at a stable. Real responsibility for a living animal, with feedback from an owner, is the best preparation.
- Join 4-H and take an animal project. Raising and showing an animal teaches handling and records.
Test it
Do this before you decide anything
Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.
Spend a day doing the unglamorous half of animal care
About 90 minutes- Phone a local shelter, kennel or groomer and ask what a volunteer or new employee does in the first month and what age you have to be. Ask nothing else.
- Do an hour of animal-related cleaning for somebody who will let you: a neighbour's dog yard, your own pet's cage or litter, a friend's stable. Do it carefully, not quickly.
- Spend twenty minutes watching how one animal behaves, whether it is a dog at a park or a pet at home, and write down five body-language signals you noticed.
- Read the ontariocolleges.ca Animal Care page and write down the three courses that sound most interesting and the one that sounds least.
What it tells you. If the cleaning did not put you off, the watching was interesting, and the phone call made you want to try a volunteer shift, you have a good reason to start there. If the mess was the part you dreaded, or the idea of dealing with distressed animals and owners felt too heavy, then your interest in animals may fit a different job, such as farm work or a role away from the front line.
Better than any article
Questions for somebody who does this job
Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.
- “What do you do in the first hour of your day?”
- “How did you get your first job in this field?”
- “What is the part that nobody warns you about?”
- “How do you stay calm with a scared or aggressive animal?”
- “How do you cope when an animal you care for does not make it?”
- “Is it full-time work where you are, or do most people piece hours together?”
- “What would you study or do first if you were starting again?”
Could you own one of these?
The part other career sites never mention
Yes, and it is common. Job Bank counts a large share of this occupation as self-employed, which fits grooming salons, mobile groomers, dog walking, boarding, training and pet-sitting businesses. Startup costs vary a lot: a dog walking or pet-sitting business needs very little, a grooming salon needs equipment and space. Insurance, handling skill and a reputation come before income.
Not sure this is the right list to be reading
Start from yourself, not from the job.
Future Finder is free, takes about ten minutes, needs no account and stores nothing. It will tell you which kinds of work you lean toward, and which of these pages are worth your time.
Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.
If this appeals, look at these too
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Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.