Recently we had the privilege of chatting with Dr Josue Rivera from the Atenas Campus of UTN (Universidad Nacional Técnica) and we were able to arrange a practical day for the second year veterinary assistant students on the 7th of November 2019. This was the very first time the students came to The Wet Nose and they promise to be back!

4 students arrived accompanied by a 4th year student and María Fernanda, the laboratory assistant to take the vitals of each of the dogs and also to draw blood which they took back with them in carefully marked test tubes.

Millie was by far the most dramatic! She had to have both her little arms shaved because she simply was not happy, wriggled a lot and in general made a lot of noise.It was a tough choice but she went first, the students got that craziness out of the way and Millie hung around watching how things went down for the rest of the dogs, clearly not traumtised at all.

We got some really great feedback. Maria Fernanda mentioned how they had been to many different rescue centres and in every single one of them the dogs were making a constant noise, always barking, disrupting the students and bothering and stressing out the dogs that were being seen to. Here, at the Wet Nose, because I put such a big emphasis on the dogs and cats living in a home and not in cages, the dogs were 100% natural and they didn't bother the students or other dogs. The system works well as it would in a home except this time with more dogs, more volunteers and a more natural coordination.

Thank you to Dr Josue Rivera for offering the support of the Atenas Campus, to María Fernanda for all of her organisation and excellent communication and also to the students for their dedication to their careers and for taking great care of the pooches.