By: Danielle Ortiz

This 2015-2016 school-year has been Dr. Dominique Nehrings

first year of teaching the Veterinarian Assistant Program at
the Center Career & Technology Education (CCTE). Along with
continuing the programs grooming service, she hopes to
prepare the students with real-world knowledge by taking from
her experiences in Marine Biology and Rehab Medication for
animals. She sometimes brings in her dog Bumper so her
students can put their grooming skills to a good use.

Q:

What
kind of
work
does
your program partake
in?

but it stays with our students

throughout their careers. The
seniors come back from their
clinics saying that terminology
is important because they
are working with seasoned
technicians and doctors so
they expect for them to know
it. The second semester is
Veterinarian Nursing, so our
Our program
students take temperatures,
is continuous
pulse and respiration, blood
because
drawing, vaccinations; things
you cant
they would have to do inside a
come in as
clinic. Senior year our students
a senior, you have to start as
take Advanced Medical
a junior. My classes [juniors]
Science, where they work on
concentrates on smaller
production animals. They even
animals along with some
get to see pigs and horses
pocket pets. I teach pre-AP
getting neutered. All seniors
Anatomy, which is comparative, have to do a Clinical Practicum,
so we look at both animals
in which they are placed at
and humans. I try to focus on
a local clinic. They have to
other animals like cows, goats,
complete 300 clinical hours,
horses a little bit, but as seniors 500 in total (junior and senior
they will learn more about larger year). Once they are done
animals. One thing our program with that, they are prepared to
does, is offer services for dogs, take the Certified Veterinarian
like grooming or brushing
Assistant test. If they pass,
their teeth. that the students
they can call themselves a
participate in! Its good practice, Certified Veterinarian Assistant.
and Id love to see it grow!
Thats great to graduate being
As seniors they have to take
certified; it really helps them be
Veterinary Medical Applications more marketable when it comes
where they have to do a
to getting hired.
Supervised Agricultural Project.
The seniors will either go out
What is
to clinics or the zoo, animal
shelters and they will have
your goal
certain goals they have to meet
for the
for that project. Veterinarian
Medical Terminology is another
program?
course that is one semester,

A:

Q:

Dr. Nehrings dog

Bumper, sometimes
comes by the
classroom to get
groomed by the
students.

Dr. Nehring assists her students while grooming a new client. Nehring brought in a grooming specialist before they practiced on dogs so they know what types of tools to use. Im not a groomer, I
can show you how to do a cut for a sugery, but I dont know very much tecniques. (Danielle Ortiz)

A:

Clinical hours
are crucial to
the students
education, and
since Im a
veterinarian, my goal is to make
sure they are totally prepared
to go into clinics. I know a lot of
veterinarians and techs in the
community, so I call them and
ask what they think I need to
concentrate on. I want to make
sure that Im teaching them
everything they need here, so
the vets will say, These kids
rock! Thats really my goal.

Q:

The
students
participate
in their
own Future Farmers of
America chapter, how
does it play a part in your
program?

A:

When youre
looking at
career clusters,
veterinarian
falls inside the agriculture
cluster, and there is no bigger
group in agriculture than the
Future Farmers of America.
We have a platform to follow,
so since my students focus
on vet tech rather than like at
Coronado where they have
farming. But theirs is all about
agriculture,where ours is like a
little piece of it. Because of it,
my juniors did a skill set with
surgical scrub, so basically
how to scrub in for a surgery,
because its important to make
things sterile. Part of FFA is

how does that relate to what

are you doing because some
of my seniors are already
scrubbing in and helping out
with surgeries.

Q:

What
is your
background
in
working with animals?
Teaching?

A:

My
background
is really
extensive! I
went to
Texas A&M for my undergrad
in Marine Biology. There I did
rehab for whales, dolphins,
turtles, and even penguins!
From there, I had a really,
really hard time getting a job.
I tell my students that want
to be a Marine Biologist, that
im not trying to crush their
dreams, but I too had that same
dream. There just wasnt a job
for me, and I wish somebody
had told me that when I was
in school, because I went in
rose-colored glasses thinking
Im going to be a trainer for
Seaworld, and the reality just
wasnt that. I was crushed. For
those of my students who want
to go into that field, i tell them
to go for it but have a plan B.
My next step was to go to vet
school at Ross University in
the Caribbean and I graduated
in 2007. My specialty is rehab
medicine. For my clinical
years I went to Louisiana state
University and did total rehab.
Teaching fell into my lap, and I
absolutely love it!