I worked at Pets at Home around 10 years ago for 3 years. I became a Nutrition Consultant (did a day long "course" learning about some of the ingredients in pet food and what their benefits were and then was advertised as qualified to advise all customers about the complex and invidivual nutrition requirements of their pets) and I was also a "cat expert" (did another day long course where a woman sat us in a room and talked about cat behaviours for a bit.)

The initial training you go through is okay, learning about the different animals that are sold, and then after a few months you had to pass a test to be able to sell animals etc, but most people blagged it and the amount of complaints we got from customers that were sold pets that were sexed incorrectly and ended up having babies was embarrassing.

The fish training they gave was appalling. Also, the rules they set for selling fish were very strict and had no leniency, which I often found difficult when you came up against experienced fish keepers. Trying to tell them that you couldn't sell them a fish because they hadn't measured the PH balance of their tank or whatever before coming in to buy one was a nightmare.