Amber Scritchfield – Animal Care Internship

Starting my very first day at Delaware Valley Golden Retriever Rescue, I was extremely nervous about what to expect. I was also excited at the same time to be able to play with all the dogs. I’ve enjoyed meeting all the new people and learning from them. The rescue is located in Reinholds, and it is about 20 minutes from Garden Spot. I’ve enjoyed my time there and I can’t wait to keep going back and learning more from each of the workers there.

I go to the rescue on Mondays and Tuesdays after the second block in school and I spend the rest of the school day there. I usually get there around 10:50 in the morning and ring the doorbell to wait to be let in by the workers. I immediately go out back and walk into the play yards. They bring me different dogs and I do playtime with them. I love doing this, and it lets me work with all different types of dogs all day. After I play with the dogs and all the groups are done, I go inside and begin to wash all the dogs’ toys. After I scrub the toys with soapy water, I rinse them off and put them in the sanitizer to be fully cleaned. After I finish all these, I usually get an hour left to walk the dogs.

I also get to do some special tasks sometimes too. I can do PHL, which is spending extra time with some of the dogs that are more scared and timid. I am in a home life setting and I practice doing normal household chores with the dogs there, like vacuuming. I have also been over to the sanctuary which is also where more of the human afraid dogs are. There, I was able to go into their kennels and spend time with them to get them used to human interaction. I have also practiced scent training with some dogs. This is where we hid treats in boxes scattered around the floor and we let the dogs sniff around to try and find them. If the dogs are doing good with it, we progressively make it harder for them, and write reports about it after. I have also sat in on an evaluation of one of the dogs. Basically, Dennis tests them and evaluates their behavior around food, toys, and humans.

Overall, having the experience has benefited me as a person and has let me grow from it. This experience has taught me that I need to have more patience with animals. So many animals are mistreated and misunderstood, even though they are just scared and don’t understand what is happening. This experience has also helped bring some clarity to me and helped steer me in the right direction for my future life and career. Working with the dogs all day made me realize how much I am truly passionate about them.