Episode 8 Pet School

Hello, I'm Luke Franks, and this is day eight of Pet School.

Our Pet Heads just have two days left to try and prove

to their families they should get the pet they've always wanted.

And they're going to have to pull out all the stops

if they don't want to make a baaaaad impression.

Example of a bad impression there...

Nine pet-crazy kids...

I'd like to have a dog.

I would really like a rabbit.

I really want a pet rat.

..101 animals needing care and attention...

..two incredible weeks...

..but have our Pet Heads got the animal know-how...

Ugh, they poo! Ugh!

..to persuade their parents they've got what it takes

to have a pet of their very own?

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

Is she getting a pet?

Previously on Pet School...

there was a drawer full of surprises in the cat room...

Whoa!

..and the Pet Heads sounded out working with hearing dogs.

Good... Excellent!

On today's Pet School...

William and Thomas go crackers...

I'm going to put it back in. I just want to see

-if they go for the rat crackers...

-No!

..and the Pet Heads get a pet download

from Friday Download's George Sear.

It's time for morning assembly.

-Good morning, Pet Heads.

-ALL: Good Morning, Luke!

It is day eight, right?

In 48 hours, you're going to find out

whether you get your own pet at home.

Oh, yes!

-It's getting closer, right?

-Yes!

Me and Maria have been having a chat recently, as well...

Because it's getting so close to the last day,

we are drawing up your end of term reports.

So, if ever there was a time to step up, today's the day, right?

-Yes.

-Yep.

Tomorrow, it's parents' day.

ALL: Oh, no!

Your parents are going to be coming in.

They'll be able to meet your pet buddies.

We're getting so close to decision day. You've got to impress them

and show them what you've been doing, all right?

Unfortunately, Ananya's still not very well,

so hopefully she gets better soon. But, for the rest of you,

-do you want to find out our Pet Practice groups for today?

-Yes!

Good. All right, group one - Thomas and William.

Just the two of you for today.

-Hey, Thomas!

-So you're going to have to work super hard.

Um, you are with the rats.

I absolutely detest rodents.

All right, group two - Chloe, Courtney, and Tommy.

You're in the store room.

-Yes! Result!

-Woo!

Group three - Faramarz, Sam and Lauren.

You're going to be with the skink and the gecko.

Sam, thoughts?

I prefer the gecko to the skink.

Good stuff. So, 30 minutes again to complete your Pet Practice today,

and you want to do them properly,

get them done in the time correctly today,

because we've got a very special visitor...

An animal that we've never had before on Pet School.

Your pets are waiting. Off you go!

-ALL: Let's go!

-See you later!

Pet Practice is key to our Pet Heads showing they can responsibly

care for their animals, and have happy, healthy, and friendly pets.

And with decision day not far away,

they can't afford to waste any opportunity to prove themselves.

Things have just got serious.

Which means Thomas and William will have to stop being

ratty about Rosie, Daisy, and Primrose if they're going

to have a whisker of a chance at getting their very own pet.

"Why, hello again, Pet Heads.

"Being a rat can be boring, so they need lots of stimulation

"from their own pet owners to keep them entertained.

"Today, you need to...

"You have just 30 minutes to complete your Pet Practice.

"William, you are the team leader."

Can you start doing the cage?

I'm going to start with the rat crackers.

Yay, I made my first rat cracker.

It's funny, the bedding smells like crisps.

What flavour?

Ready salted? Cheese and onion?

-I suppose I'd say ready salted.

-Can I get a whiff of that?

Yeah, go and have a whiff of that, then.

-Yeah, it does a bit.

-I know, it does.

-Team Rats, hiya!

-Hi!

-Hi, how are you getting on?

-We're doing great.

-Yeah.

-I've done the crackers.

-Good job.

Have you put a little hat inside for the rats?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Yeah, you've done that? Good to know.

-And a little toy.

-And a little toy? A little joke?

-Yeah.

Little rat-based joke, good work.

I think I might try and put one on my shoulder.

Cool. Hey, this looks good.

Their tails are weird.

Yeah, they are strange, aren't they?

Kind of a bit freaky. How should we get them out?

-Is there a technique?

-Yeah.

-Oh yeah, yeah.

Sure, cheers, Thomas(!) Thanks for letting me know.

Thought you would like that. Look at William!

It's weird on your neck, isn't it?

'Yep, I'm not nervous!

'I just know that rats like to wee

'to mark their territory.'

-Do you want to take him...

-If you could, yeah.

Great. Well, you look like you've got it under control, um...

-Yeah, I think we have...

-I want to really try and...

Can you try and get one on my shoulder?

Right, well, don't run away, William.

You can do it. He's on, he's on, he's on.

There you go. He's just checking you out.

You all right? He looks more relaxed than you.

There you go, give her a little scrub.

-Can you get him off?

-Yeah.

Boys, good job. I'll let you crack on and finish your task.

You look like you're on top of it. See you in a bit.

Bye.

It's actually very relaxing having one on your shoulder.

I had a rat on my shoulder. I was a bit scared

because they have quite sharp claws and it's quite...

You don't know where they are.

You're sort of looking over your shoulder.

But I did do it and I'm quite happy.

Nice work, William.

Over in the feed room, Chloe, Courtney and Tommy are going

to have to be crafty if they want to finish Pet Practice properly.

This is what one of you needs to be able to make.

They have 30 minutes to...

So, these are your different plants that you need to be going to find

out in the playing fields.

Take these as your guides for what you're looking out for,

because it is important. We have got some poisonous plants out there

so you need to be making sure that you are confident

-that we're picking the right plants first.

-Yeah.

But all of these are really, good, really healthy,

and ideal for our pets at the Pet School.

I think I'll go and help Tommy.

-OK.

-And you can start making the willow balls.

-See ya. Right, let's go.

-Let's go!

Go, go, go!

Let's get in the fields,

-then we can quickly try and find some right...

-Search!

Get searching wherever you can!

-Let's go to the bottom of the field!

-Yeah.

Quite stressing.

Get in front, get in front! Let's go, go, go!

I'll go this way. You can go and check over there.

-Should we abandon the wheelbarrow and...

-Yeah.

-..search?

As Tommy and Courtney panic about plants,

Lauren, Faramarz and Sam are finding out what's on the menu

in their Pet Practice.

"Feed the skink a defrosted mouse..."

"You have 30 minutes to complete your Pet Practice.

"Lauren, you are team leader."

-Here you go, Faramarz.

-What, I'm doing it?

-You were doing it.

-Nope, you can do it.

-OK.

SHE LAUGHS

It's already dead. It's not like it's alive.

-No, but it just feels so bad.

-I just feel really bad.

I'd put it right at the front.

No, down here, down here, at the front of her cave.

-Down there.

-Here?

-OK drop, drop it.

I feel really bad now.

-Hello!

-Hi.

Come and look at the mouse.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, look at it, look at this.

-He's eating the mouse.

-He's eaten the mouse.

The mouse has gone.

So, we fed the skink. Good.

Check. Right, next, come on.

Wow! All right.

I mean, that's one job done, isn't it?

It made me feel horrible after feeding that mouse,

but as long as he's got his food.

If he's happy, we're happy.

Back at the feed room, Chloe's bouncing through

making the willow balls.

I wander what the others are doing right now.

Happy as can be, probably, picking little plants.

I think I've found some rose.

Ouch! My ankle, my ankle!

Grab the wheelbarrow, go, go, go.

It's quite panicky at the moment,

because we don't really have much time left.

We've only got about 15 minutes left to find all of this

and then go back to the store room.

With only 15 minutes to go, Lauren is feeling jumpy,

as the rest of her team prepare the crickets

for Lisa the gecko's dinner.

-My fault.

-Close it, close it, close it! Put the lid on.

Watch out, watch out.

Oh, no, you'd better grab that one.

-Yeah, got it.

-Drop him in.

-OK.

-Yes. The rest.

-So what do you want?

Calcium, calcium, a pinch.

-There we go.

-I'm going to shake it. Gently, gently.

Lisa has over 200 bones in her body,

and calcium powder on the crickets will help keep them strong.

Back outside, the only thing growing for the guinea pig team

is Tommy's frustration.

Foraging for wild plants is not at all necessary.

I mean, it's a nice little treat for them,

but so is hay.

Why can't you just stuff hay in willow?

Well, guinea pigs actually need a varied diet

of seeds, plants and leaves.

We ain't got much time.

Go, go, go, take this stuff out! Take this stuff out! Quick!

You've got to stick some stuff in. That's it.

Quick, quick. Got to go, got to go.

Quick, quick, quick.

We've done it! It's done.

As Tommy cools down, things between Thomas and William

are getting a little heated.

-Leaves.

-Please, Thomas.

-It's fine.

-That's enough.

Try adding some cardboard boxes or even some plastic igloos.

Yes, go on, find plastic igloos...

-Well, have you checked the folder?

-I did, it says it likes large tubes.

We do have a lot of stuff to still put in,

so you don't want to put too much in.

Yes, Thomas...

Can we take the food out and see if they go for the rat crackers?

-No!

-We'll put it back in.

-No. No.

They have to have their food bowl. It was already in there.

William, drop the bowl.

-I want to see...

-Drop it.

-I'm going to put it back in.

-Drop it.

-I just want to see if they go for the rat crackers.

-No!

-Then I'll put it back in.

-They'll still go for the rat crackers.

-No, they won't!

-That's just in case they run out of the rat crackers,

-they still have some food, so they don't starve.

-OK.

OK, can you get the cage, please?

The Pet Practice task is very stressful,

because William is not listening to me,

and I find, to be a good team leader, you have to listen to the

people around you, and I don't think he's the best team leader right now.

I'm just going to let you win the argument...

to avoid conflict.

OK, bringing it in.

Time flies when you're having fun, and that is time on Pet Practice.

But have our Pet Heads completed their assignments properly,

or will they be doing extra time,

and missing out on our special visitors later?

But, before they find out,

Marie has something very special to show our Pet Heads.

About two weeks ago, my work got a phone call,

and someone had actually been going to do a bit of recycling...

They saw a cardboard box with 18 guinea pigs sitting in there.

Someone abandoned them.

Today, we have two heavy pregnant mums.

Courtney, if you're able to sit here for us...

Now, guinea pigs are quite different to humans and other animals.

They actually have two big pouches on their side,

so they don't end up with a big belly out the front.

And, interestingly, they can sometimes have two or three

babies in one pouch, and the other pouch could be empty,

or they might have three or four in one, and only one in the other.

So, hand flat under her belly, that's it.

Did you just feel it?

-Yeah.

-What did it do?

It just felt like a little push on the side.

-Saying hello.

-Yep.

You need to be really gentle with the babies,

-because she could give birth in...

-Ooo!

-Yeah?

It's amazing, isn't it?

You could feel the babies inside, kicking,

and it was really amazing, so I'm glad I got that experience.

Guinea pigs are quite different to a lot of animals.

They are, within half an hour, fully furred, eyes open, ears open,

-baby piglets, ready to go.

-Really?

-Yep.

OK.

How old do you think a baby boy could be until he can become a daddy?

-Faramarz?

-One and a half?

-One and a half weeks?

-Years.

Years? OK, are you ready for this?

A male baby guinea pig could become a dad at three weeks old.

Can you imagine that as a human being?

-Yeah!

-A three-week-old dad.

Nice and gently, bring her straight in to you,

if you can, Luke.

So, Marie, do you know how many babies they're going to have,

or are you not definitely sure?

From general feel, I suspect she's going to have two to three.

That's two to three names we need for the baby guinea pigs.

KIDS GASP

-Do we get to name them, then?

-We'll take the best suggestions.

-Yes, definitely.

-Thomas, do you want to go first?

Could I name it Thomas? Because I...

Why would you like to name it Thomas, Thomas?

-Because that was the pet buddy.

-We'll bear that in mind.

-Anyone else? Faramarz.

-Oasis.

-Oasis? Why Oasis?

I don't know, I just thought of it straight away

-when you said names.

-Chloe?

It's called Chloe.

One - because I'm pet buddy,

and two - my mum told me, I think, it means princess

or something similar to that.

-One more name, anyone?

-William?

If it's two boys, I like Faramarz's Oasis,

but I also like Hulk. Hulk and Oasis.

-Hulk and Oasis.

-Little boy. I like that.

Think about, really,

are you going to be able to care for a pet for seven years?

And there's already all these babies in rescue centres,

so we need to be making sure we know how to really deal with them

properly, and how to care for them.

But hopefully we'll find new homes for these guys soon.

A few days later,

Kylie the guinea pig had three babies - Thomas, Chloe, and Oasis.

Still to come...

Thomas faces his fears,

Lauren gets her teeth into bonding with her buddy,

and some never-before-seen visitors wow our Pet Heads.

So how did our Pet Heads do today in Pet Practice?

Thomas and William successfully completed all their tasks...

as did Courtney, Tommy and Chloe...

and Lauren, Sam, and Faramarz.

Time to tell them the good news.

You're in this room because you passed Pet Practice!

ALL: Yes!

Good job. So, today, we've got another very special visitor,

and it's an animal we've never had at Pet School ever before, as well.

The tall human one is called Gary,

you might recognise him already,

and he's brought a special friend, as well-

Hugo the iguana.

Oh, that is awesome! Whoa!

Gary, come and have a seat.

He's not a small fellow, is he?

No, whoa!

He is massive!

I like him.

How big is he, Gary?

Make a mess, why don't you?

-Hugo's about a metre and a half in length.

-Whoa.

And they can get up to about two metres.

I should say he's about fully grown.

That is ridiculously massive.

Look how long his tail is.

Hugo's actually got a lovely calm temperament.

You can see that he likes being stroked.

He has a favourite spot of under the jowls.

If you scratch behind there, he loves it.

-A little bit like a bearded dragon, right?

-Yeah.

Actually, yeah. I loved him and I was really upset to swap him

for the ferrets, but this is just another scale of a...

Why does he kind of have spiky teeth on his back?

The spines here help him with his display.

It makes him look a little less easy to eat for other predators,

and a little bit more aggressive,

so that when he's displaying,

he really gives off that "I'm the boss" vibe.

How old is he?

Hugo's about six years old.

He was originally a rescue.

And yeah, they can live about 20 years,

sometimes a little bit more.

OK, so a proper commitment.

In 20 years time, you could have your own kids, William,

and if you had an iguana, you'd still have him.

Yeah, that's freaky.

It is a big commitment.

So, this one is Joe.

-He's a beauty!

-Aww, he's beautiful!

This one is an albino, which means that, genetically,

they don't produce any dark pigments in their skin.

They can also, if they're caught by a predator,

drop their tail, and then, over time, they can re-grow it.

It's a really cool defence mechanism.

-What's this for?

-I'm glad you asked that.

That's called the dewlap.

Because it's really thin skin,

it's really good for controlling their body temperature,

because it's full of lots of blood vessels and they can catch

a cool breeze on that, or even, in a sun spot, warm up very quickly.

Well, Gary, thanks for coming in. Pretty special, right?

ALL: Yes.

A really unusual animal.

Good to see you, thanks for coming to Pet School

-and showing us your iguanas.

-You're welcome.

-Thanks, Gary.

-Thank you, Gary.

-You know what you've got to do now.

You've got to go and look after the animals you've been bonding with

all week. Go and spend a bit of time, say hello to your pet buddies.

-Off you go.

-See you, guys.

-Bye, Gary.

Aw, I really want to keep him.

As the Pet Heads check in with their buddies, one person who can't

wait to brush up on bonding with hers is Lauren with Meadow.

Hello!

What have you been doing for your pet buddy session, then?

-I've just been taking her out at the moment.

-OK.

I'm actually a dog owner, and there is actually quite a few other

bits and pieces we need to be doing, as well.

I thought what we could do today is have a little check of her teeth.

We can see the bottom ones looking nice and healthy.

What colour are some of them?

-Some of them are looking a little bit yellow.

-Yeah.

-You've got a bit of nasty teeth in there, don't you?

-Aww.

Yes, you do.

But it's important as an owner that you're checking regularly,

as much as you can, and giving them treats, chews,

all, like, the sort of Kong treats

that are really going to work those teeth, as well.

Whilst Lauren gets her dog duties licked,

Sam is shouldering his rat responsibilities.

Come and have a little sit down.

It's always a good idea to start, when you're socialising a rat,

to start off in a nice comfy zone. So, socialise them on your sofa,

or somewhere small, where they can't run away and escape from you.

A good thing with the ratties is that they actually socialise

-and get used to when you come home from school.

-Oh, right.

So they'll sleep while you're at school,

and they know about 4 o'clock time, they'll be at the door,

ready to come out and they'll be waiting,

they'll jump on you and follow you around.

If you put the time in with rats, they can be brilliant.

An easy way to bond with your rats is by offering them treats.

Now, with rats, they often, like she just did there...

-Are you OK?

-My shoulder...

What she just did then is just sort of licked your finger,

and that's just tasting the salt on your hand.

So, if you keep your hand still, they rarely actually ever bite you.

They just want to really gently use their tongue to taste it.

-I'm going to leave you to it. Good job, though. See you later!

-OK.

While Sam has the rats eating out of his hands,

Chloe is hoping her Pet Practice willow balls

will make bonding with the pigs a roll-over...

especially after her mum's concerns yesterday.

It is a worry if she's not bonding with them,

because it makes me think,

"Will she actually look after something that

"she's not really that interested in?"

I was a bit unhappy to hear that, of course,

but I think I've definitely made an effort.

I've got to try and get them to get used to me.

It said hold them for a second. There we are.

Second one of the day, I'm pretty proud.

It looks like Chloe has had a stroke of luck

in bonding with the guinea pigs.

Come on, Thomas...

Meanwhile, over in the reptiles, it's a different story.

It's very hard to bond with a snake when you're scared of a snake.

HE BREATHES HEAVILY

I don't like this at all.

Hi, Thomas. How are you doing?

Not so well.

While she's out right now, moving around,

this is an ideal time to pick her up.

Just touch and lift.

So, this is her skin here, so I'm going to touch, and go like that.

OK? Be nice and confident with her, you're a bit too far apart...

Try not to keep lifting your hand up, because, the thing is,

every time you keep touching her, that's just going to rile her up

even more, so you want to be nice and confident and get it done.

Yep, lift, lift, lift, all the way, that's it, good job.

Bring this other hand in. Good job. Now, lift her up.

You're doing it.

Oh!

Chill. Let her feel like you're just a nice tree moving in the wind.

Yeah? You're doing a great job. I'm watching her.

When she's on me, I don't feel so scared.

You look a lot more relaxed with her.

So, just get that bond going, remember.

Support her body, that's it. Good job.

Keep handling her for a little bit, but you do seem more relaxed.

Remember, just keep taking that nice breath, and just relax.

She needs to feel that you're relaxed, OK?

Because she's going to be more tense if you're tense.

Good job, I'll see you later.

Oh, I don't feel so happy right now.

She's just left, and I don't know if it wants to go...

or not...so I'm just going to maybe put her back in.

There you go...

There you go.

Yesterday, our Pet Heads were asked to cast their vote for who

they thought made best pet carer.

The person that I will be voting for is...

Really supportive...

I think the best pet carer...

Always works good in a team.

I think the best pet carer...

Should be...

Courageous and brave with all animals.

I think the best pet carer...

Works really hard, gets stuck in...

Ananya is still ill at home,

so I'm giving her a call to find out who she'd like to vote for.

Thank you for your decision, Ananya, I'll put your vote in the mix,

as well, and then we're going to find out who wins

-later on today, all right?

-All right!

OK, all right, take it easy, and get well really soon,

-missing you!

-Bye.

All right, see you soon, Ananya, bye-bye.

-Bye.

-Bye.

But before I announce who's won best pet carer,

I've arranged a magical treat for the Pet Heads.

It's been a big day already. We've had a special visitor...

Yes, loved him.

But we're good to you. We've got another special visitor...today.

ALL: Ohhh!

I think you're going to love this one. It's going to be fun.

So, you'll know him from Friday Download...

his name is George Sear,

better known as Magic George, and he's brought his dog Dougie, too.

George, come on in!

ALL: Woo!

Yes! Keep running.

-Hi, mate, how you doing?

-I'm good, thanks, how are you?

Good. I'm really good. This is Dougie, right?

-Yeah, he's a Jack Russell Terrier.

-Nice to see you,

thanks for coming to Pet School. You're busy at the minute, right?

Tell us what you've been up to.

If you watch Friday Download, you'll know I'm the magic man on it.

If I put the 10p here, and the 2p there, right...

Don't do this yet, but when I say,

I just want you to close your hands around that coin very quick, OK?

3-2-1, go.

OK, I'm not sure if I got one.

Open your hand up slowly.

You can actually see that the 10p has completely disappeared.

I know, I know, I know.

That's not it, yet, I've got to bring it back, right?

So turn your hand round.

I'm actually going to drop that coin straight underneath your watch.

It's ridiculous, innit? That is mad!

If you're magic man, is he magic dog?

He is, and you might actually get to witness some magic from Dougie.

-Should we try it?

-Yeah!

-So Sam is going to be your beautiful assistant.

-Yeah.

-What do you need him to do?

-OK, so, Sam...

-Yeah.

You're going to need to put this blindfold on, OK?

So just wrap it round twice, make sure you can't see anything,

and then I'm going to take you over to the board

and hand you this pin up here. And once I hand it to you...

you can put it in anywhere you want on the map,

-it's going to be completely random, OK?

-OK.

So, just put that on.

Just tuck this in here.

-How many fingers am I holding up?

-I don't know, four?

OK, you definitely can't see.

OK, just come over to the board here...

-Whoa, this is weird.

-Yeah, don't worry, I've got you.

Right, I'm going to hand you this pin, safely,

so just hold your hand out.

OK, now I just want you to put it in the board, anywhere you would like.

You're sort of in front of it now.

OK.

Now, I know you can't see anything,

-but are you happy with your decision?

-Yeah.

-100%?

-Yeah.

OK, feel free to remove your blindfold.

OK, so just step out a tiny bit.

If you could actually get closer to the pin,

and read out the closest town.

-York.

-York.

All right. Dougie! Come over here.

You guys didn't know this, but Dougie's actually

been in on it from the start,

and I'll explain what I mean by that.

Inside his bandana, there's a prediction.

OK, I'll pull it out. I prepared this earlier.

And, in here, it has something written down,

so if you'd like to open that...

And then clearly show everyone what is written on there.

Unfold it.

-York, yes!

-York. There we are.

-Nice!

Amazing, and that's why he's called Magic George.

-Cool, so you're going to stick around, George?

-Yeah.

Because we are about to announce the winner of yesterday's...

THEY ALL GASP

..best pet carer award.

You cast your votes, we've checked with the animals,

they're happy with the winner, as far as I can understand,

ferrets really didn't really make any sense,

but it's fine... OK, we are ready.

So, the winner... Drum roll, please...

ALL: Woooooooah...

The winner is...

..Lauren.!

-ALL: Yay!

-Yes, Lauren!

Good job. You were voted by everyone as best pet carer.

A surprised winner, good job.

Well done, Lauren!

I was really astounded by that.

I was so shocked, but, like, I was so happy.

And I just really thank everybody that voted for me.

Thank you so much!

Well done, Lauren.

You've come a long way since day one at Pet School.

If you want results like Lauren, then go to the CBBC website,

where we've got loads of pet fact sheets

to help you become a top pet carer, too.

Iguanas, a secret vote result, and a magic dog.

Today has had it all on Pet School, and the drama does not end there.

Oh, no. In 48 hours, our Pet Heads will either be proud pet owners,

or be going home with an empty leash.

Who is going to be getting their dream pet?

Don't miss registration tomorrow when we'll have all of this...

Clark? Clark?!

Next time on Pet School...

it's parents' day...

Gerbil Pet Practice is a scream for Thomas and Sam's mums...

THEY SCREAM

..and Tweetie Pie grabs a quick dinner.

I'm so glad I'm a human.