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CitesH. Higgens to Our Dogs, 'Kennel Pupils', Our Dogs 82 (6th Feb. 1931), p. 346.
Description:‘Sir,- I have read with mixed feelings your correspondents’ letters on kennel pupils. I’m sure if any intending pupils have read them, they must be somewhat bewildered by the varied advice and statements.
My advice to them, after my own experience as a kennelmaid and hearing those of a good many other girls, is to eschew kennel work entirely. In my opinion their chances of ever getting a living wage and being happy at it are extremely small.
Being very interested and keen on the work I have given it a good trial, but have been forced to the conclusion that, even given a decent position, there is nothing in it for an educated girl. There seems to be no chance of advancement, no matter how hard one works or how much one learns.
Two of your correspondents state that when a girl is proficient to take entire charge of and manage a kennel, she can command high wages. Can they substantiate their statement? Personally, I very much doubt if there are even a dozen kennelmaids earning £2 a week and all found – I don’t know of one; even that is not, I think, a munificent salary, when one has to dress nicely and save for holidats, old age, etc. Which brings me to a fact I have only recently learnt – namely, when one reaches the age of about forty the chances of a job are very slim. Yet many of us will still have to be earning our own living then.
I have been in five of the foremost kennels. I have always worked hard and conscientiously, but only in one place was I treated with consideration and made to feel happy. One of my employers housed her workers in (there is no other term for it) a hovel which had no sanitation whatever. At two other places it was of the most primitive type, and at all three places the bedding was horrible and the food insufficient and of the poorest quality. These three owners, when they engaged me, misrepresented the facts.
Most kennel owners, it seems to me, are too ready to say a girl is a fool just because she does things in a different way from them. They forget, I think, that the majority of them (the kennel owners) are more or less self-taught, and have therefore evolved methods of working and pet cures of their own. My five employers did practically everything in a different way from one another, and, no matter how adaptable one happens to be, a certain time must be allowed for getting into new ways.
There are some nice posts, but they are few and far between, and even in them the pay does not exceed more than about 25s. a week, with all your keep. I have never been able to get more than £1 a week, although I have kept on studying and making myself in various ways more efficient. At first I accepted even less, although I often took the responsibility of being left in entire charge of valuable dogs.
This is a long letter but I do hope you will publish it, as I feel it is time someone discounted the statement that a kennelmaid’s is such a very happy and lucrative career. - Yours, etc.,
A Sorely Tried Kennelmaid.’
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CitesL. Raymond-Mallock to Our Dogs, 'Kennel Pupils', Our Dogs 82 (13th Feb. 1931), p. 405.
Description:‘Sir,- I have read with mixed feelings your correspondents’ letters on kennel pupils. I’m sure if any intending pupils have read them, they must be somewhat bewildered by the varied advice and statements.
My advice to them, after my own experience as a kennelmaid and hearing those of a good many other girls, is to eschew kennel work entirely. In my opinion their chances of ever getting a living wage and being happy at it are extremely small.
Being very interested and keen on the work I have given it a good trial, but have been forced to the conclusion that, even given a decent position, there is nothing in it for an educated girl. There seems to be no chance of advancement, no matter how hard one works or how much one learns.
Two of your correspondents state that when a girl is proficient to take entire charge of and manage a kennel, she can command high wages. Can they substantiate their statement? Personally, I very much doubt if there are even a dozen kennelmaids earning £2 a week and all found – I don’t know of one; even that is not, I think, a munificent salary, when one has to dress nicely and save for holidats, old age, etc. Which brings me to a fact I have only recently learnt – namely, when one reaches the age of about forty the chances of a job are very slim. Yet many of us will still have to be earning our own living then.
I have been in five of the foremost kennels. I have always worked hard and conscientiously, but only in one place was I treated with consideration and made to feel happy. One of my employers housed her workers in (there is no other term for it) a hovel which had no sanitation whatever. At two other places it was of the most primitive type, and at all three places the bedding was horrible and the food insufficient and of the poorest quality. These three owners, when they engaged me, misrepresented the facts.
Most kennel owners, it seems to me, are too ready to say a girl is a fool just because she does things in a different way from them. They forget, I think, that the majority of them (the kennel owners) are more or less self-taught, and have therefore evolved methods of working and pet cures of their own. My five employers did practically everything in a different way from one another, and, no matter how adaptable one happens to be, a certain time must be allowed for getting into new ways.
There are some nice posts, but they are few and far between, and even in them the pay does not exceed more than about 25s. a week, with all your keep. I have never been able to get more than £1 a week, although I have kept on studying and making myself in various ways more efficient. At first I accepted even less, although I often took the responsibility of being left in entire charge of valuable dogs.
This is a long letter but I do hope you will publish it, as I feel it is time someone discounted the statement that a kennelmaid’s is such a very happy and lucrative career. - Yours, etc.,
A Sorely Tried Kennelmaid.’
Relevant passage from Raymond-Mallock:
'There is a vast field now open for capable up-to-date kennelmaids, but believe me their training and veterinary knowledge will have to stand a pretty big test before they can hope to command big salaries, or to hold responsible posts nowadays. Incomplete training is no good at all. There will always be room, I suppose, in small kennels for the girl who has learned enough to feed, groom, and exercise dogs, and to keep their kennels clean, whilst the owner does all the difficult work. However, there is something much better in store for the intelligent girls who wish to take up kennel work as a profession. My advice to them is to make certain how much they are going to be taught and how much “practice” they will be allowed, before they decide upon their school.'
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Quoted byA Happy Kennelmaid to Our Dogs, 'Kennel Pupils', Our Dogs 83 (27th Feb. 1931), p. 572.
Description:‘Sir,- I have read with interest your correspondents’ letters “pro et con” the kennelmaids’ life as a career. Surely those who write so sorely about the hardships of the kennelmaids’ lot cannot be true dog lovers, for love overcomes all things. Hardships there are plenty in all walks of life, and so it behoves each one of us to look before we leap. Unless a girl is fully prepared to adapt herself to hard work and all sorts and conditions of life, she is quite unfit to attempt kennel work; but if, after she has given it a trial, she finds that her love for dogs is not strong enough to enable her to overcome and live down the unpleasantness which may arise, then, surely, would not be more loyal to the career that she once thought she fancied if she were to quietly retire from the field and take up another career more suitable to her tastes, instead of creating a bit of a stir in the hearts of other kennelmaids by publicly complaining of her misfortunes and running down her some-time employers?
I have myself been through some most unpleasant experiences – worse a great deal than many of the causes of complaint that have been stated by some of your correspondents – but it does not make me, as a kennelmaid, any of the less keen on the career. And why? Simply because love of the dog comes first, and unless this love does naturally come first, then, for the good of everyone concerned, give up the kennelmaids’ life and cease grumbling. If kennelmaids really loved their canine friend they would put up with their moral and physical discomforts for the sake of having the care of man’s truest friend, the dog.
Your correspondent, “A Sorely Tried Kennemaid,” states “that there seems to be no chance of advancement, no matter how hard one works or how much one learns.” I wonder if she is a qualified canine nurse yet? That is something to work up for. But if sick nursing dogs does not appeal, then be satisfied with a head kennelmaid’s post – not an easy position, but one worth working for; and for those who are really efficient there is a good salary to be drawn. If we are not fortunate to be able to save enough from our earnings to one day start a kennel of our own, then stick to the next best thing – namely, the care of other people’s dogs; and if we are dissatisfied, then, out of fairness to the dog, our employers, and ourselves, we ought to give it up and make room for the genuine dog lover, who works for the love of the dog, and not for her own comforts and financial gain.
I write this as I think it is high time some more kennelmaids wrote in support of their career when they see it publicly condemned. If one cannot remain loyal it’s no use being a kennelmaid. - Yours, etc.
A Happy Kennelmaid.’
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Quoted byT. Quick, 'Puppy Love: Domestic Science, “Women's Work,” and Canine Care,' Journal of British Studies 58 (2) (2019), pp. 289-314.
Description:'Hygiene was often unsatisfactory; another kennelmaid described how “one of my employers housed her workers in (there is no other term for it) a hovel which had no sanitation whatever. At two other places it was of the most primitive type, andat all three places the bedding was horrible and the food insufficient and of the poorest quality. [note: '”A Sorely Tried Kennelmaid to Our Dogs, “Kennel Pupils,” Our Dogs, no. 82 (20 February 1931): 491.']' (307)
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