Having a birth of puppies
By Susan Crompton

One time I was working with animals in Australia as a dog-sitter for free accommodation when the owner’s dog went into labour. She was a beautiful Doberman dog and had been expecting the puppies for some time. We made sure we were ready for the specialized pet care activities and had sterilised scissors on hand to cut the umbilical cord, towels ready to clean up all the mess as well as pillows and other comfort items for the Doberman during the birth.The birth started happening pretty early in the morning so it was good that there were all of us there ready to help for a perfect maternity treatment and animal care. I was helping holding her head and comforting the dog, while the owners would help extract the puppies from the Doberman herself. They would then get each puppy and open their airwaves to ensure that they were breathing correctly and were able to have some milk straight from the mother. In the end she had 8 puppies and each of them were healthy! It was a great relief to be able to say that as it was touch and go for a while with the birth itself.She seemed to be struggling to actually give birth to the babies so it was important for us to keep her calm and make sure each of them were born safely. I then raise them for the remaining weeks I was there as a part of the dog-sitting activities, and would’ve loved to have taken one home with me if I wasn’t going back home!Opportunities like this don’t come often. However, if you are keep to study travel and work in Australia, here is one such opportunity. If you are studying in Australia on some specialized animal care TAFE courses, it is even better to get suitable experience like this. You can stay for free as a house-sitter, dog-sitter, or a dog walker. During situations like this, you can gain valuable work experience as well that would help you to work with animals even better.