At some point in the future, maybe when I retire (or can afford to pack in the day job, ha, as if!)I would love to be a pet carer. I already cat-sit for friends and neighbours and foster cats and have my own beasties too, but it's always been my 'dream' to work with small companion animals and I'd welcome any advice on this please.

I understand pet carers need to have insurance (who do you use?) and there are some national societies/ organisations for pet sitters/ carers etc (but when I look on the web i'm overwhelmed by the variety and can't see which ones are nationally recognised, if any) Plus I know you should be CRB checked too.

And me being me, I would probably want to gain a recognised qualification in animal care/ management. So far, I've done a couple of short COAPE courses and another distance course in Animal Care offered by Park Lane College in Leeds, nothing really serious - but again, I don't really know which quals have real currency, so any steer on this would be much appreciated.

I did a diploma in small animal management , and have spent regular sessions working and refreshing pet care management. There are many courses in sheffield that are animal related.
http://www.hotcourses.com/uk-courses/Pet-Care-courses-at-Uk-Open-Learning/hc2_search.adv_search_do/16180339/0/z/8331/p_search_col/search_text/p_pheader_id/197932670/page.htm try here

Thanks Teeny- I was thinking along the lines of Small/Companion Animal Management too but there are so many distance courses on offer I'm still not sure which one to go for -and I can appreciate these would all probably require some work experience element. Would there be any mileage in becoming a member of http://www.dogsit.com/ at some stage?

Quick trawl of the net found this http://animalcollege.co.uk/small_animal_care.htm
and this http://www.openstudycollege.com/course/home-learning-animal-care/index.html
and this http://www.coape.org/cd02.html plus this one http://www.coape.org/cdp.html

But it seems like everybody and their grannie can set up a correspondence course and I can't tell which ones are legit and worthwhile going for...

The Sheffield College offeres Animal Care and is developing higher level courses too, but they're all full time and I'd have to do it PT /distance, probably after I finish my current degree (e-Communications). Really would like to do something though.

My advice to you would be to choose one that is accredited by a nationally recognised body such as OCN or ASET, rather than doing a course that simply gives you a Diploma awarded by the college without it being a recognised qualification.

My advice to you would be to choose one that is accredited by a nationally recognised body such as OCN or ASET, rather than doing a course that simply gives you a Diploma awarded by the college without it being a recognised qualification.

Thanks HH - OCN and ASET crop up often when I search for animal care/management and they sounded 'about right' so I'll keep delving.

thats right as some animal courses arn't acreditted here in the uk. I would tend not registir with any organisation for which you have to pay for but if you were to do dog home boarding you need a licence from the council cost to set £191 and £171 to renew thats for Sheffield, If you join dogsit.com i believe you need NARP in surance which is very expensive, we were with Narp for the first year and then found a cheaper policy with the same benifits alot cheaper about 50% cheaper . I had it checked by both a solicitor friend and our accountants both came to the same conclusion.