Kennel Hand
Provides routine care for dogs, including feeding, exercising, monitoring their health and cleaning kennels.
ANZSCO 2013, the edition the department applies to the points tested visas (189, 190 and 491).
Duties
Published for unit group 3611 Animal Attendants and Trainers
- teaching animals to obey verbal and non-verbal commands and addressing behavioural problems
- training animals to accept riders and pull vehicles
- training animals to perform in competitions
- bathing, cutting, combing, blow-drying and styling pets' coats, clipping their nails and cleaning their ears
- inspecting, preparing, cleaning, disinfecting and maintaining comfortable animal cages and enclosures
- transporting food, filling water troughs and feeding animals according to their individual needs
- maintaining animal health records, treating minor injuries and reporting serious conditions to Veterinarians
- exercising and playing with animals, answering visitor questions, and transferring animals between enclosures by leading or carrying them
- dusting and spraying insecticides on animals and immersing them in insecticide baths, to control insect pests
This is what the occupation is, not what a skills assessment requires. The assessing body applies its own criteria on top of this, and those criteria are not published here. Check them with the body itself.
Who assesses this occupation
Last confirmed against the department's list on 30 July 2026.
This occupation reads differently for the 186 and 482
Two editions of ANZSCO are current at once, and the department applies ANZSCO 2022 to the employer sponsored visas while everything above follows ANZSCO 2013.
The definition is identical in both editions, but the published duties are not:
- teaching animals to obey verbal and non-verbal commands and addressing behavioural problems
- training animals to accept riders and pull vehicles
- training animals and conditioning horses to perform in competitions
- reporting to trainers on horses’ progress and performance
- bathing, cutting, combing, blow-drying and styling pets' coats, clipping their nails and cleaning their ears
- inspecting, preparing, cleaning, disinfecting and maintaining comfortable animal cages and enclosures
- transporting food, filling water troughs and feeding animals according to their individual needs
- maintaining animal health records, treating minor injuries and reporting serious conditions to Veterinarians
- exercising and playing with animals, answering visitor questions, and transferring animals between enclosures by leading or carrying them
- dusting and spraying insecticides on animals and immersing them in insecticide baths, to control insect pests
If you are going for a 186 or a 482, this is the wording that governs you. Everything above governs the points tested routes.
Where Kennel Hand stands right now
There is no expression of interest queue for this occupation: it is not on the points tested lists, so the route runs through an employer instead. Vizard maps that route step by step.
See where you standWhere this comes from
Definition and duties: Australian Bureau of Statistics, ANZSCO
Assessing authorities and skilled lists: Department of Home Affairs skilled occupation list
Vizard is not a registered migration agent and nothing here is migration advice. It is published government information, organised. For advice on your own situation, speak to a registered migration agent.