Electives—do what you want!
One of the great things about third year is the ability to choose your electives. Very interested in horses? There are many equine electives for you. Love pocket pets? There are electives for you. Excited about emergency medicine? They have an elective for you.
One of my passions is behavior, and currently I am taking the Small Animal Behavior elective with Dr. Bonnie Beaver DVM, MS, DPNAP, DACVB. This course builds on the knowledge gained during the required first-year course on normal animal behavior. We learned about the importance of differentiating behavior and medical problems. We discussed management and behavior modification involved in common behavioral issues. We have also learned about neurotransmitters and some common drugs and their intended uses.
At the end of our course, we had a choice to either create some informational brochures or train an animal to do something and make a video. Easy choice for me, let’s train an animal! I worked with my friend and fellow ambassador Christine, and we decided to train her Labrador retriever, Fischer. Check out our training video!