Are you one of our Pet Hospital volunteers? Then these courses are designed for you! They will give you all the training and development you need to carry out the daily tasks you might come across in our hospital sites. 

PDSA is committed to the safety of each of our colleagues, pets and pet owners. The correct handling of animals will prevent injuries to yourself and the animal involved, and minimise further stress for everyone. This webinar should increase your confidence and knowledge when handling animals. By the end of this module you will be able to: - Describe why correct manual handling is important - Outline how the spine functions - Describe 5 key areas to consider when carrying out a manual handling risk assessment - Explain the different techniques for correct manual handling.

The COVID –19 pandemic has had many impacts on our lives- and on the lives of our pets. The 2021 PDSA Animal Wellbeing (PAW) Report has focused on investigating and reporting on these changes for the UK’s pet dogs, cats and rabbits. This session looks at how the pandemic has affected PDSA and our patients, as well as looking at how the 2021 PAW Report findings can help us continue to improve pet wellbeing across the UK. The session covers 5 key areas; pet population, pet acquisition, behaviour, obesity and preventive healthcare. We’ll be looking at how we’re already using PAW findings and focusing our resources to continue to help pet welfare, as well as providing practical tips and advice on tackling these issues in our hospitals from some of our own PDSA experts. The course will take approximately 1.5 hours to complete. We have broken it down in to 4 individual modules so that you can complete it in bite size sections

Safe handling is a principle that makes sure when you are doing something like picking up heavy things or moving big objects, you have an understanding of how to do these activities safely and without injury.

We want to make sure you are trained in the principles and practices of this course and so this course provides information and training for you to understand the risks associated with manual handling and how to ensure appropriate control measures are put in place. 

Health & Safety is so important at PDSA and is the responsibility of everyone. We want to prevent as many injuries as possible and completing this course will give you an understanding of how to prevent accidents from occurring and will give you information on how to ensure you are safe.

This course has been designed to develop and test your knowledge of Health & Safety, and will take you approximately 60 minutes to complete.

Fire safety is a critical part of health and safety at PDSA. It is important to know what to do in case a fire breaks out and the controls to put in place to ensure no one gets injured.

This course includes the principles of fire, procedures to follow in the event of a fire emergency, types of extinguishers and how to use them.


This course is not designed to provide training as a fire-fighter.

All of our volunteers across PDSA work hard to help us deliver a great service to our customers, clients and supporters. We want you to feel confident and supported during your volunteering, therefore we have developed this training which is full of useful information and tips.

At times you may be faced with an unhappy customers and we recognise that resolving their dissatisfaction can be challenging. By knowing what to say and, more importantly, how and when to say it, you may be able to de-escalate the situation - in fact, we could even end up having a better relationship with our customers and supporters than we had before.

The module will cover the following key areas:

- Our beliefs surrounding a situation

- Emotional Triggers

- How to minimise the impact of triggers

- Resolving Customer Dissatisfaction

- Safeguarding our people and customers

- Supporting our teams

This webinar will take approximately 20 minutes to complete.


We all love dogs - right? They are playful and loving creatures that bring us lots of enjoyment as pets. But it is very important to make sure that when you are around dogs, you understand how to keep the dogs, and yourself, safe. This course explains how to keeping dogs safe and also how to keep yourself and others safe when you are around dogs.

This webinar aims to connect each PDSA volunteer to some of the foundations of pet care - the five animal welfare needs assigned in the Animal Welfare Act (AWA 2006). Our organisation's vision of a lifetime of wellbeing for every pet can only be achieved if we are able to educate pet owners on what their pets need. 


By the end of this module you will be able to:

- Explain what the Animal Welfare Act means

- Describe the five welfare needs and the steps pet owners can take to ensure these are fully met

- List the things to consider before, after, and during a pet is introduced to the family

- Understand where to go for further help and understanding when looking after a pet


The webinar will take approximately 25 minutes to complete.