A kennel attendant feeds, waters, cleans and exercises animals, and watches them for signs of illness or injury, often caring for them overnight in place of an owner.
The federal government counts the job under Animal Caretakers (SOC 39-2021), a category so broad it spans boarding kennels, animal shelters, pet stores, stables and zoos — with veterinary clinics as only one setting among several.
Most positions require a high school diploma, no prior experience, and only on-the-job training.
What is a kennel attendant?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics defines the role directly: kennel attendants "care for pets, often overnight, in place of owners," and "clean cages and dog runs and feed, exercise, and play with animals."
That definition sits inside a much larger federal occupation code, Animal Caretakers (SOC 39-2021), which also covers pet sitters, groomers, stable hands, shelter workers and zoo or aquarium caretakers.
The title "kennel attendant" is one job inside that code, not a synonym for it.
Nationally, BLS counts about 365,300 people in the Animal Caretakers occupation as a whole.
That distinction matters for anyone reading pay or growth data for this occupation, because the numbers describe the whole group — not specifically the person cleaning runs at a veterinary hospital.
It's also worth separating kennel attendant from a related but distinct title: animal trainer.
BLS tracks trainers under their own, much smaller occupation code (39-2011, roughly 47,800 jobs, 4% projected growth), which is about teaching learned behaviors rather than day-to-day husbandry.
A kennel attendant feeds, cleans and monitors; a trainer teaches.
Some people do both, but the government counts them separately.
What does a kennel attendant do day to day?
The core tasks, per BLS: giving food and water, cleaning equipment and living spaces, monitoring animals and recording their diet, condition and behavior, examining animals for signs of illness or injury, exercising animals, and bathing, trimming nails and clipping hair as part of basic grooming.
In a boarding setting, the job often runs overnight and on weekends and holidays — someone has to be there when the owner isn't.
In a veterinary clinic, kennel or ward attendants keep hospitalized and boarding patients fed, walked and clean between treatments, and flag anything unusual to the medical team.
BLS also notes that part-time work is common in this occupation, and that schedules routinely include evenings, weekends and holidays — animals need care every day, regardless of the calendar.
That schedule reality is worth weighing before taking the job, not after.
The physical part is real
Where kennel attendants actually work
This is the single most misunderstood part of the job, so the numbers are worth stating plainly.
BLS breaks down where Animal Caretakers are employed: 40% in other personal services (boarding and grooming businesses), 25% self-employed, 10% in professional, scientific and technical services (the category veterinary clinics fall under), 9% in retail trade (pet stores), and 5% in arts, entertainment and recreation (zoos, aquariums, stables).
Put plainly: roughly one in ten people counted in this occupation works in a clinic-type setting.
The other nine work in a boarding facility, are self-employed pet sitters, work retail at a pet store, or work at a zoo or stable.
So when a national pay or growth figure gets quoted for "kennel attendants," it is overwhelmingly describing the boarding-and-grooming majority, not the veterinary-clinic minority.
Neither is wrong to call a kennel attendant — but they are different jobs with different day-to-day realities, and a clinic posting for the role may look and pay differently from a boarding-kennel posting.
Kennel attendant vs. veterinary assistant
These are two different federal occupations, and the difference is about setting and task, not seniority.
A veterinary assistant is clinical support staff working inside a practice under the medical team; a kennel attendant is an animal-husbandry role that exists across boarding, shelters, retail and clinics alike, and only sometimes happens inside a veterinary practice.
Both list a high school diploma and no prior experience as the entry bar, and there is no formal credentialing bridge between the two — moving from kennel work into assistant work is a job change, not an automatic promotion.
See kennel attendant vs veterinary assistant: the real difference for the full comparison — duties, the two roles' separate BLS aggregation problems, pay, and whether kennel experience counts toward anything on paper.
Do you need a credential?
No. BLS lists the entry-level education for Animal Caretakers as a high school diploma or equivalent, with "None" required for prior work experience.
On-the-job training is required, meaning the employer trains you into the role rather than expecting you to arrive already able to do it.
There is no state license and no widely required professional certification tied to this specific title.
That is part of why it functions as a common first job for someone testing out whether they want to work around animals at all, clinically or otherwise, before committing to further schooling.
What it pays
BLS puts the median at $35,360 a year, with the middle half of earners between $29,820 and $40,050.
The bottom tenth earn $27,250 or less; the top tenth $50,060 or more (OEWS, May 2025, SOC 39-2021).
The same caveat from the settings breakdown applies here: this is a national aggregate covering boarding, grooming, retail and self-employed workers alongside the small clinic-based share, so treat it as the shape of the broader market rather than a precise read on veterinary-clinic pay specifically.
For comparison, the veterinary assistant occupation sits at a median of $38,150 — a modest step up, and a different occupation rather than a raise within this one, though that figure carries its own combined-occupation caveat too (it's Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers, SOC 31-9096).
On growth, BLS projects 12% job growth from 2025 to 2035 for the Animal Caretakers occupation as a whole — though that projection, too, describes the full aggregate rather than clinic-based kennel roles specifically.
National figures, aggregate occupation
Kennel attendant, or a step toward veterinary work?
For a lot of people, this is the job — steady, hands-on animal care that doesn't require years of schooling, and boarding facilities, shelters and clinics all need people who do it well.
For others, it's a way to spend time around animals and a veterinary environment before deciding whether to pursue clinical work.
Be clear-eyed about what it isn't: there is no formal credentialing pathway from kennel attendant into veterinary assistant or technician work.
Moving into a clinical role means applying for a clinical role — most commonly veterinary assistant, which also requires no credential to start, or eventually a credentialed veterinary technician position after an accredited program and the VTNE.
Browse open kennel attendant positions to see how the role is actually posted in your area.