Well I'm still new so I don't know all of the ins and outs of the courses yet, but I do know nobody touches an animal until they've practiced on "stuffed animals" (really, really, really expensive stuffed animals). They have restrictions on what you can do and how many times you can do it to an animal, such as drawing blood -- you only get two tries, and if you can't get a vein by the second try, you stop and the animal is put away (unless they *need* blood drawn, in which case the vet on staff will do it).

Basically, we don't just jump in and practice on the animals first; we learn, practice, and lastly use the real animal.

We also have what's called "kennel duty", we're put into small groups and on a three or so week cycle. If ifs your week for kennel duty it is your responsibility to come in early and stay late to completely clean and sanitize the kennels, exercise the animals, feed, water, bathe (if needed), observe them, give them medication, etc. They are VERY strict about this, it's 50% of the grade and if we miss even one day we can fail the class. We even have to come in on weekends.

I can give more information as I get more into the courses thought