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Sarah Whitlock served eight years in the Canadian Armed Forces before leaving the military in 2022. She is now based in Kingston, Ontario and is currently working toward certification in veterinary support and medical massage for animals, with plans to eventually pursue acupuncture training as well. She is not yet a licensed veterinarian or registered veterinary technician but is enrolled in coursework toward both. We spoke with her about the transition from military service to animal care.
Q: Can you start by telling us a bit about your background?
SW: Yeah, so I joined the forces right out of high school, did eight years total, mostly logistics work with a couple of postings overseas. I got out in 2022. Honestly, I didn’t have some grand plan when I left. I think a lot of people expect you to walk out of the military with your whole next chapter figured out, and for me it really wasn’t like that. I spent the first several months just decompressing, figuring out what civilian life even looked like day to day.
Q: How did animals end up becoming part of that next chapter?
SW: We had a dog growing up but I wasn’t what you’d call an animal person before this, not in any serious way. What actually happened is I started volunteering at a shelter here in Kingston mostly just to get out of the house and have somewhere to be a few mornings a week. And I found myself really drawn to the older dogs, the ones with arthritis, the ones who moved slow and nobody wanted to adopt because they weren’t the fun bouncy puppy everyone pictures. I started asking the shelter vet a lot of questions about what could actually be done for them beyond just pain medication, and that’s really where this whole path started.
Q: What made you want to pursue this formally rather than just staying a volunteer?
SW: There was this one dog, an old shepherd mix named Duke, who had bad hip issues. The shelter vet showed me some basic massage techniques to work on him with while he waited for a home, just to keep him comfortable and moving a bit better. And I remember doing that with him for maybe fifteen minutes and watching him actually relax in a way I hadn’t seen from him before. It sounds small when I say it out loud, but it hit me pretty hard at the time. I was looking for something with purpose after the military, and this felt like an actual direction instead of just a hobby. On top of that, I found this amazing company: Curacore Canada, that is essentially everything I was looking for: dedicated care to a variety of animals that includes medical care, massage and physical therapy, acupuncture, all-in-one place. It was an incredible find and I hope that once I finish my education, I can land a job there or at a similar company.
Q: So what are you currently enrolled in?
SW: Right now, I’m in a program for veterinary technician certification, which is a two-year track, and I’m about halfway through. Alongside that I started a separate certification specifically in medical massage for animals, since that program doesn’t require you to already be a licensed vet or technician, just some foundational anatomy coursework first. I’m doing both at the same time, which some people have told me is a bit much, and they’re probably right, but I wanted to build the hands-on skill while I was still working through the more academic side of things.
Q: Is the goal eventually to become a full veterinarian?
SW: That’s the honest answer, I’m not sure yet. Vet school is a whole other level, years more of school and a lot more debt, and I’m thirty now, so I think about the timeline differently than I would have at twenty-two. Part of me really does want to go all the way and get the DVM eventually, especially once I’m further into the massage and rehab side and I keep running into the limits of what I can do without that degree. But for now my plan is to finish the vet tech program, get fully certified in medical massage for animals, and see where that leaves me before deciding whether to commit to the full veterinary path.
Q: What drew you to massage specifically, out of all the areas you could have focused on?
SW: It’s tactile, I think, more than anything else. In the military there was a lot of structure and a lot of physical work, and I think I respond well to things where you can actually use your hands and see a direct result. Medical massage for animals felt like that in a way that some of the more diagnostic classroom heavy material didn’t. You put your hands on a dog’s shoulder, you feel where the tension actually is, and you can do something about it right there. That immediacy appealed to me a lot after years of work that often felt more abstract.
Q: Do you see any connection between your military experience and this new path?
SW: People ask me that a lot. I think the discipline transfers directly, honestly. The coursework isn’t easy, there’s real anatomy and physiology you have to learn properly, not just technique, and I don’t think I would have had the patience to sit through it in my early twenties the way I do now. There’s also something about working with animals that are scared or in pain that I think my time in the service prepared me for in a strange way. Staying calm around something that’s stressed out and trusting your training instead of reacting, that’s a skill I already had going in, I just didn’t know I’d be using it on a nervous greyhound instead of anywhere else.
Q: What’s the hardest part of the coursework so far?
SW: Probably just the sheer volume of anatomy. I did not expect how much time I’d spend memorizing muscle groups and nerve pathways for a certification that people sometimes assume is mostly intuitive or hands on only. It’s not. My instructor for the massage program is a working veterinarian herself and she’s very clear that you can’t do this responsibly without understanding what’s actually happening under the skin, what could be contraindicated, when something you’re feeling might actually be a sign of a bigger problem that needs a vet’s attention rather than a massage session.
Q: Have you had a chance to work on animals yet as part of your training?
SW: Yeah, quite a bit, mostly through a partnership the program has with a rehab clinic outside the city. I’ve worked mostly with dogs recovering from surgery so far, a lot of cruciate repairs, a couple of spinal cases. There was one dog, a border collie recovering from a slipped disc, where I actually got to watch her go from barely willing to put weight on one side to walking almost normally over about six weeks of sessions combined with her regular rehab exercises. That was a good reminder of why I’m doing this. And I’m glad I got that training so honestly, I was a bit scared at first. These animals don’t fully understand what’s happening while we work and the only way to mend that lack of communication is experience on my end. So I’m glad I already have that under my belt.
Q; What would you tell someone else, maybe another veteran, who’s thinking about a career change into animal care?
SW: Don’t assume you need some lifelong love of animals going in, because honestly, I didn’t have that either. I actually used to be scared of dogs, believe it or not, but met so many kind ones during my time serving that I realized how much care they need and deserve. What I’d say instead is pay attention to what holds your attention once you’re doing it, not what you think should interest you on paper. I went in expecting to maybe just volunteer casually and ended up genuinely fascinated by anatomy and rehabilitation, which surprised me. Also don’t be afraid of starting from scratch a bit later than everyone else in your program. I was older than most of my classmates when I started the vet tech course and it didn’t matter nearly as much as I worried it would.
Q: What’s next for you?
SW: Finish the tech program, finish the massage certification, and then honestly just get some real years of hands on experience before I make any big decision about vet school. I’d like to eventually specialize in rehabilitation work specifically, maybe acupuncture down the line too since a couple of my instructors have mentioned it fits naturally with the massage work I’m already learning. But I’m trying not to map out the next ten years too rigidly. That was actually one of the harder lessons coming out of the military, learning that it’s alright not to have the whole plan figured out at once.