Episode 1 Pet School

Nine animal-crazy kids...

Come on, it's time to go.

One goal...

I'd really like a rabbit.

I really want a pet rat.

I'd like to have a dog, hamster, guinea pig, rabbit or ferret.

They need to persuade their parents to let them have a pet of their own.

Has she proved to you she can be a responsible pet owner?

Is she getting a pet?

Over the next two incredible weeks, there'll be excitement...

ALL SCREAM

..there'll be drama.

You think you know it all, so you go and do it,

and you don't follow the rules.

And sometimes, there'll just be chaos.

SHE SCREAMS

Our children will meet the furry...

the scaly...

He wants to give you a kiss.

..and the slimy.

There's even going to be a celebrity or two.

Casey Stoney, Noah Marullo.

Magic George from District 3 .

Welcome to the greatest school on earth.

This is Pet School.

Good morning everyone, welcome to Pet School.

I'm Luke Franks and you are the Pet Heads.

ALL CHEER

Pet School is home to 101 animals, all needing care and attention.

We have three dogs, two cats,

four stick insects, three rats, two hamsters,

five gerbils, one snake, one blue-tongued skink,

one leopard gecko, 31 fish,

eight cockroaches, three giant African land snails,

11 guinea pigs, two rabbits,

two ferrets, seven chickens, three goats,

two millipedes, three tortoises, six budgies

and one very friendly bearded dragon called Leonard.

That's 202 eyes, 1,054 legs, 1,106 teeth, 13 beaks,

all needing for two weeks

87,790 grams of food,

229 litres of water, and 70kg of bedding.

Most of our pets here are rescue animals,

and are here to help make sure the kids

don't make the same mistakes their previous owners did.

I'll be giving our pet heads daily tasks,

as part of their morning assembly,

which is supposed to be happening right about now.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to morning assembly.

This is how we start Pet School every day.

Before we get started, I'd like to introduce you to someone.

Our resident Petspert, Marie. Give her a wave.

Hello, Pet Heads. Hello, everyone. How are you all today?

-Good.

-Fine.

Are you all keen and excited to learn some new things?

Marie is going to be checking up on you,

making sure you're looking after the animals properly as well.

And now you've only got two weeks

to try and change your parents' minds, to prove to them

that you can be responsible enough to have your own pet at home.

Are we up for the challenge?

-ALL: Yeah!

-Good. Glad to hear it.

So every morning, you're going to be working in teams

so you can complete our daily animal care tasks

or, as we like to call them, Pet Practices.

OK, so we're going to find out your groups.

Group one is Ananya, William and Tommy

and you're going to be in the dog room.

-Yeah!

-Yeah, happy with that?

-Yes.

-Good! OK.

Group two, Sam, Chloe and Lauren.

You're going to be with the rats.

MUTED: Yeah.

-A little delayed, there.

-Well, I don't really like them.

I haven't had experience with them, so that might change.

OK, and group three - Courtney, Thomas and Faramarz.

-You are going to be outdoors with the guinea pigs.

-Yes!

-Yes!

Cool, OK, feeling good. Talk to me.

Yeah, I feel good because my auntie has a guinea pig of her own.

-OK, you know a little bit already. That's cool, that's cool.

-Super.

OK, well, there's no time to be hanging around - off you go.

Have fun.

Pet Practice is how we teach our Pet Heads just what's involved

in making sure you've got a happy, healthy and well-looked-after pet.

So will our Pet Heads rise to the challenge,

or will they make a dog's dinner of it all?

And speaking of dogs...

William, Ananya and Tommy are hoping that with only 45 minutes

to complete their tasks, their doggy duties will be a walk in the park.

Hi gang, meet our Pet School dogs, Clark, Meadow and Gunner.

Dogs need a lot of care and today, you three need to look after them.

And make sure all of the following jobs are completed.

Did somebody say walkies?

BARKING

Calm down.

Shhh, shhh.

OK, I'm getting really scared. This dog is scaring me.

This dog is scaring me.

I know who Clark is. Sit, stay, stay.

Don't worry. Sit, sit.

It's not a great start for Ananya.

Ananya is ten years old and lives with her mum, dad and sister.

She likes playing piano, watching funny films,

and eating scrambled eggs.

And one other thing you should know about her.

I'm scared of animals.

When she was little, she was bitten by a rabbit.

Here you go. Ow!

The moment she will see an animal from miles away,

she will cross the road.

But Ananya's not the only one afraid of animals, is she?

I'm actually quite afraid of animals.

I do have a phobia for touching the animals.

I want to at least overcome my fear

because when my sister's busy, I can have somebody to play with.

I used to want a fish, but now fish are actually quite boring.

So I want a pet which I can stroke and which I can cuddle

and which I can walk with.

Got any ideas?

-I would choose a puppy.

-OK.

But there's one tiny problem with the puppy plan, isn't there, Ananya?

If a dog just, like, jumps on me,

and tries to get at me, I get really scared.

So what will she have to prove at Pet School?

She needs to get comfortable and get over the fear of having an animal.

If I carry on being scared, then I won't get a pet.

So I need to make sure that I don't get frightened.

Hopefully, Pet School can help you with that.

Over in the Furries room, team leader Lauren is being as quiet

as a mouse.

Or should that be a rat?

-I can't pick up rats. I don't know how.

-Marie, I think they need you.

Do you want me to show you? I'll start with the first one.

Stroke her on the back, let her know what you're going to do.

And then we just lift them up around the middle.

And bring her out, OK?

Can I have that one?

No, you've got to give it a whirl. Come on.

We can do it. They're not going to hurt you.

She's pretty worried.

You're going to tell her that's it's nice and calm and she's OK.

-But will they bite you or anything?

-They won't bite you.

Our rats are very friendly.

And they need taking out of the cage if team leader Lauren,

with Sam and Chloe, are going to complete their tasks.

They must:

All in 45 minutes.

Honestly, it is not that bad at all.

It doesn't hurt either, OK?

I just can't pick it up. I don't know what it is.

I just can't pick it up.

Maybe if you knew some more about the rats,

it might be easier to handle them.

The Wood Green Rescue centre is where Rosie, Daisy

and Primrose live when they're not at Pet School.

They were born here, after their parents were brought in.

Tell us more about them, Marie.

The owner originally bought two rats, a male and a female.

So very quickly, two rats became over 100 rats.

The owner couldn't handle that many rats.

So if you are thinking of getting rats, unless you want

lots of babies, make sure you get two males or two females.

The girlies here are dumbo rats.

They've got big ears, which are right on the side of their heads.

Normal rats have top ears,

so they're slightly smaller just on the top.

Out of the three rats, Rosie is the most confident

whereas the other two, they're a little bit shy still,

so they're going to need a bit of time spending with them

although Daisy here seems to actually be settling quite well,

and is now quite confidant sitting on my shoulder.

I think the rats will bring a lot of personality to Pet School.

And the Pet Heads are going to be really surprised

at how cool they are.

Ready, there's one. Oh, he won't go in.

Close it. Close it.

Where's the other one? There's three.

Let me hold it closed.

-Where's the other one.

-There's two up there.

Oh, yeah, there are, OK.

Chloe's not picking Rosie up by the tail, which is brilliant,

as that would hurt her.

Did you know, rats use their tail to control their temperature,

as they can't sweat.

Guys, quick, quickly, quickly.

-OK. There's no way we're going to finish this on time.

-No.

That's not the best way to motivate your team, Lauren.

Out in the field, Thomas, Courtney

and Faramarz have met Max, the guinea pig

and his ten wives.

With Thomas as team leader, this team has 45 minutes to:

Thomas and Courtney are wheeling out the food,

as Faramarz shows how not to catch a guinea pig.

Seriously?

I just tried stroking one of them.

But then it backed away.

I got freaked out, so I just decided not to touch them,

until, um, Thomas and Courtney come back.

Faramarz may be taking it easy,

but Thomas is being a true team leader,

and giving all the hard work to Courtney.

Come on, you can do it.

If you need any help, just ask.

I haven't got one of them inside there.

None of them are coming.

You've let one of them out. I'll help.

Come on, come on, come on!

Thomas, they're guinea pigs, not dogs.

-Come on, come on, girl.

-Is there any more?

Stop being scared. It's OK.

They're harmless.

Everybody, get everything out, not shut it up.

-There's one more in there.

-How are we getting on? All right?

Really badly.

It looks like my bedroom in here, guys. It's a mess.

How are we getting on, Faramarz?

He's quite scared of picking them up.

Why are you scared of picking them up?

Look at what happened to my skin.

You've got to come closer, come a little closer.

I can't see anything, Faramarz.

Faramarz wasn't really helping much.

Because he got one little scratch on his finger,

he didn't really want to help us.

Thomas, what's happening? Tell us what's going on next?

-What are you doing now?

-It's kind of manic. Leave it.

But there's one in the bag, it's not meant to be there.

You're going to have to get stuff organised,

if you want to get through all three tasks.

Go in there, start cleaning up. I'll get those two in here.

Have a think. You need to crack on. I'm going to leave you to it.

-Good luck, guys. See you in a bit.

-I've got him.

As this team looks like

they're making a pig's ear of the guinea tasks,

over in the dog room, with only 25 minutes left on the clock,

Clark, Meadow and Gunner are unleashing chaos.

Gunner, no. Get him!

No! No! I'll get him.

Get back here.

No!

Up, up.

As Clark shows Tommy who's top dog,

Ananya shows that despite her fear of dogs,

if at first you don't succeed...

Sit, sit.

..Try again.

-Sit.

-..And again.

Come on, boy, sit.

..And again.

Sit.

..And again.

Sit!

Good boy, well done.

When I actually said sit, I just needed to say "Stanley,"

then Gunner would actually sit.

The dog's called Meadow!

Otherwise it would pounce up.

-She

-would pounce up.

It's her first day, Meadow, she'll learn.

Team leader William arrives with the dog food.

But one canine customer isn't going to be happy.

Oh, no, I need to go get some more food for Clark.

Should I go and get the food?

How will I know what Clark's food is?

-It says it on his tin.

-OK.

As the hunt for Clark's food begins,

with less than 15 minutes to go on Pet Practice,

Thomas has decided that being team leader

is all the hard work he needs to do.

Faster, come on.

I'm hurrying.

-Actually, do you want to swap jobs? You'll be better at this.

-OK.

I'll put this all in the bag and you'll do that.

Come on, we can do this.

We're cleaning out the shed at the moment.

WE are cleaning out the shed?

We need to get some new paper in there for the hamsters.

They're guinea pigs.

Where is...

Faramarz?

I've lost him.

I think he's stuck.

You might be waiting a while for that paper.

In the Furries Room,

things are looking ropy on the rat ladder front

for Sam, Chloe and Lauren.

It says you've got to plait fabric.

Plait fabric?

I can't plait.

I can plait.

Right, where's the fabric? What are we supposed to plait?

Just anything.

I don't think a tiny bit of paper counts as fabric, Chloe.

Maybe you'll do better with the weighing task...

Hey, hey, hey!

Or maybe not.

Guys, I think we seriously got the wrong scales.

-Do you want me to go get it?

-Yeah, you go get the scales.

As this team weigh in on the rat tasks,

Ananya is still hunting for Clark the dog's food.

Where can it be?

-One big bad problem has erupted.

-What?

She isn't back with the food yet. For Clark.

She'll be back.

She better be. Come on, come on.

Where can it be?

OK, Ananya, Clark eats meat. Where would you find meat?

Uhhh...well, at the butcher's?

Try again.

Well, maybe in the fridge or something.

Bingo. The fridge. But we're not going to look there.

So Clark's dinner is off the menu. But William has come up with a plan.

There's some treats. I might have to feed him that.

But I don't think I should

because treats are supposed to be like a treat, not a whole meal.

Yet Clark's getting them anyway.

With under ten minutes to go, Clark's lack of dinner is big news.

And Faramarz is making headlines too.

Well, he's reading them.

Tell him to hurry up, he's taking a long time.

Quick, we haven't got much time. Run!

-My leg hurts.

-My back hurts but I'm still working.

We're almost done, we just have to put them back in.

Why are you reading a newspaper? You're not helping us.

-OK, get out of the way.

-Quickly. Quickly.

Yes, yes, we've done it.

Time is up.

So, on day one, have our Pet Heads made a good first impression,

or are they going to be in the doghouse?

Not the best.

Still to come, Chloe's not impressed.

It doesn't really count as a pet.

Faramarz gets stuck.

And Lauren isn't happy.

I really don't like them at all.

Hello. Day one, pet practice, your first one is done.

Courtney, Thomas and Faramarz, you're with the guinea pigs, right?

ALL: Yeah.

You did manage to change their beds, you managed to feed them,

and give them water. Well done, you passed your tasks.

Good work. You got yourself a little injury, Faramarz,

-didn't you, on your finger?

-Yes.

-Show everyone that.

-LAUGHTER

-Where is it again?

-There.

-Are you OK, are you going to be all right?

-Yeah.

And we also had Chloe, Lauren and Sam with the rats.

And tell me about the rat ladder you made.

Cos we were rushed with time, we just had loads of paper

and we just plaited it around and tied it up to the top.

Right, OK, do you think they'll be able to climb up that?

Unfortunately, you didn't complete you task for today.

Tommy, Ananya and William, you did the dogs, how did you get on?

Well, the dogs escaped. And Clark didn't get fed.

Yeah.

And also, we couldn't find Clark's food,

so we ended up in the end giving him dog treats.

Right, so starter course,

main course and dessert was all dog treats, was it?

-ALL: Yeah.

-I mean, he got fed, but it's not ideal, is it?

Good effort, but unfortunately,

you've not passed your task for today.

I know it's your first day, so for those who didn't complete it,

we're going to let you off, just this once.

But from tomorrow, if you don't finish your pet practices,

you're going to lose time with your pet buddies.

And you're going to have to come back to complete the task.

Now talking of pet buddies,

-who wants to know which animal they're paired with?

-ALL: Me!

Yes, here, behind us, are nine pigeonholes.

Inside is a letter from Pet School -

it's going tell you which animal you are paired with.

Go and have a look, go, go, go, go, go.

Yes.

Ferrets, yes.

Uh! Rabbits.

I got Clark the dog.

Lucky!

That's it.

Don't be upset. I love goats.

Goats are the most interesting creatures ever.

I got the cats.

I got a baby dragon, you see.

I got the guinea pigs.

What have you got? The chickens! You not happy?

-No, I don't like them.

-You don't like them?

-No.

-What's not, what's not to like?

I just don't like them.

Well, this is the test, isn't it?

This is where your parents can watch.

You've got an opportunity to prove yourself.

They don't look so bad, do they?

You never know. It could be all right.

Maybe at the end of it, you'll get through it.

-I just don't like them at all.

-Come here, come here.

-I'm really crying.

-We'll be here, we'll be here.

We'll meet them and get to know them.

-We'll be mates by the end.

-I don't like them at all.

It's going to be an interesting few days for Lauren.

But hopefully, Marie can help her learn to love our chickens.

OK, guys, so you've got all your animals,

you know who your pet buddies are.

They're waiting for you to go make friends with them.

Off you go. Go see them.

The Pet Heads have each been assigned their pet buddy.

And here's how they match up.

Faramarz will get friendly with the ferrets.

And Chloe's got the goats.

William's buddy is the bearded dragon,

whilst Ananya's befriending the bunnies.

Tommy's taking on the rats.

And Sam has scored the cats.

Thomas has got the guinea pigs.

Courtney's collared Clark.

And Lauren's landed the chickens.

Bleurgh, perfect weather for ducks!

Except we haven't got any ducks at Pet School.

All of our Pet Heads have now got their own pets to look after.

And it's really important that they make the most of it

and bond the best they can with them.

It all goes towards the big decision

their parents are going to have to make -

can they have a pet of their own at home?

But I don't think it's going to be as easy as some of them think.

I will join them in just a minute.

Most of the Pet Heads are happy with their buddies. But others...

I got the goat as my pet buddy. I'm not too happy about it,

because there's nothing you can really do with a goat.

It doesn't really, to me, count as a pet

because you can't cuddle up to it,

you can't really speak with it, it just sits there.

I'm not sure if I'm meant to pet them or anything.

Whoa.

Off they go. They're gone.

Don't take it personally. Tommy, Bill and Ben are just shy.

Yes. Well, they're getting there, they're eating.

But there's not much else to do.

I'm not sure what I'm meant to do afterwards.

But just sit, maybe, because they seem happy in the shed.

I'm not sure if that's going to impress Mum and Dad, Chloe.

Meanwhile, over at the ferrets, Faramarz is also struggling...

With the door.

Whilst Faramarz wants to get in the enclosure,

Lauren, with her fear of chickens,

is quite happy to stay outside the coop.

CHICKENS CLUCK

Why have you got this fear?

Cos a couple of weeks ago, I got attached by a chicken

up at the horse farm and I just had a fear.

And what did the chicken do?

It chased after me and started jumping at me and pecking me.

So how are you feeling about just standing outside with them

-moving around me?

-All right.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-You feeling a bit comfortable about it?

So, really, chickens, they just want to eat all the time, OK?

They're pretty nosey things.

If you've got food, they want to come over and see what there is.

They're going to come over, have a little look.

If they do peck...

It might be that you've got a colour on your shoe that they see.

They know a lot of colours. Red is their favourite.

Will they peck my shoes?

No, because it's quite a big space, your shoe.

You're going to be making a lot of slow movements. They won't see it.

They get really excited by red things moving around.

We're going to be fine. So you start coming in and just let me know.

Just say stop and they're going to stay there. That's fine.

Only go as far as you want to.

-Can I come in?

-Yeah, you most certainly can.

-So how are you feeling? Tell me.

-Really scared.

-Yeah?

CHICKENS CLUCK

So I think, because of all of this rain,

they're hiding under the shelters,

so I think let's leave them for today.

You've done an amazing job. You're inside a chicken coop.

-How cool do you feel?

-Really cool.

-Yeah. You've done a fab job.

Being bitten or pecked by an animal can be really scary,

so that's amazing work, Lauren.

Back at the ferrets, Faramarz is finally inside

with Flint and Smokey, his buddies.

They pooed. They pooed! Ewww!

I think they might have pooed.

Disgusting.

Faramarz is 11 years old and lives with his mum, dad,

two brothers and his sister.

Faramarz enjoys playing video games, trampolining

and playing football.

So what pet would you like, Faramarz?

A cat, because it's furry and it just licks you.

And what's the problem?

My mum and dad don't think I'm responsible enough for one,

because I'm lazy and I like sleeping,

which is one of my hobbies.

He loves sleep, yeah. He loves to sleep.

But it's not just being lazy that's the problem, is it?

I'm scared of claws.

But cats have claws.

That's one of the bad things about a cat.

Cos they have a lot of claws. Ten.

OK, so what does Faramarz have to do at Pet School?

We need Faramarz to get used to a pet. Scratching is quite normal.

Any other concerns, Dad?

Now he is telling us he is responsible,

but still we are not very convinced.

So how are you going to change their minds, Faramarz?

I'm going to need to show my parents that I can feed it,

take care of it, take it to the vet regularly.

Despite my laziness, yeah, I'll try to overcome it.

So how is it going making ferret friends?

I tried playing with the black one but it started looking at my finger.

It started licking its lips, and I thought that's a bad idea.

I want to be friends, don't you?

Faramarz isn't the only Pet Head worried about being bitten

by their pet buddy.

So we're going to meet Custard and Freckles.

-I hear you've got a little bit of a fear of rabbits.

-Yeah.

Yeah. So tell me what happened?

I was at my friend's birthday party and I got bitten by a rabbit.

They were just in their cage and I was just, through the gap,

I was just trying to feed them.

Right, OK, OK. Often, when they're in small spaces like that,

they feel a little bit sort of threatened.

So you need to make sure that they're in a situation

where they can walk away from you if they want to. OK.

So what I think we'd like to do, once you're feeling ready to,

is really, we'll come in and we'll either bend down,

so you're sitting like this.

Or we're going to sit with our legs stretched out, holding the food.

These guys are going to come up to you.

They have a scent gland underneath their chin,

and what he's going to do is...

he might come up to you and just rub your shoe.

He might go and rub your leg.

Just have a little check, and that's just to decide and say,

"Yeah, I quite like you, you can come into my home."

So how do you feel about coming in?

I'm fine because I actually want to overcome my fear.

What I'll get you to do,

you can just hold on to a cabbage leaf for me,

and I've got a little bit of lemon balm here.

How do you feel about her being near you right now?

Well, I'm all right, because she's quite a cute bunny.

You're OK. You're doing really fab, well done.

Keep hold of that cabbage, because the idea is

that she comes to realise that you're her feeder.

SHE STARTS

-You're fine, that's fine.

-Yeah.

-Yeah? You're feeling OK?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

So what she'll do, she'll get used to the fact

that you're going to provide food. Every time she see you,

she'll come up ready to take food from you,

and she'll be really relaxed.

Whereas, if you keep trying to pick her up or chase her around,

that's when they're more likely to scratch or bite you. OK?

-I think I would like to stay out.

-You did really good, though.

I did get scared but I still fed it.

So I think that's an achievement for me.

An amazing achievement. Well done, Ananya.

So that is it for day one at Pet School.

Some of our Pet Heads have made a good start.

And others, well, let's just say,

they're going to need to work pretty hard

to convince their parents to let them have their own pets.

Don't miss registration tomorrow.

More fun, fur and scales, only here at Pet School.

Next time on Pet School, feeding time is bugging William.

You're going to have to get that box out of the bag eventually.

HE GROANS

The chickens ruffle Lauren's feathers.

-Oh, my gosh!

-You're doing fine.

-Please, please, I really don't like it.

-You're fine.

And the Dumping Ground's Gus, AKA Noah Marullo,

drops in with his cat, Leo.

He needs a lot of work done for him, so that he can be like a normal cat.

Hello.

THEY LAUGH

So that's it for day one at Pet School. Some of our bleurgh...

Good morning, everyone, welcome to morning assembly.

LAUGHTER

-What did I say?

-I think it's awkward cos I...

-Oh, you're in it!

-LAUGHTER