His large expressive eyes peer out from a fibre-glass cage in the corner of the surgery. There is no mistaking the canine sentiments. "I want to go home," he seems to say as he sits patiently waiting for his mistress to come and collect him. "Where is she?" he whines. This lovely King Charles Spaniel is mending nicely and will go home today. Michael Woods, the vet, is happy with his progress.

"Yes," Woods agrees, "you have to love animals to like veterinary surgery but not in a fragile way." He bends down to pet the dog's head. "You must have a feeling for animals but not in a soppy way because you have also got to diagnose and treat. You get an extra sense if you're with animals all the time. Your bites tend to happen in the first year.

"Some people think because animals don't talk that they can't let you know what's wrong with them. The pet is now an integral part of the family. We're all so much more educated, and with the vet programmes coming in from the UK, people are seeing for the first time what vets can actually do."

Woods qualified from UCD in 1984. There were 60 in his class - 45 men and 15 women. "Most of my class emigrated," he says.

Before UCD, he went to St Fintan's CBS in Sutton, Dublin. "My interest in veterinary science came from growing up beside a farm in Kilbarrack. I watched dogs dying from strychnine powder - that led to an interest. When I got towards my Inter Cert I really started thinking about it. Then when I decided to go for it I repeated my Leaving Cert to get the points to get in."

Today he runs his own practice in Dun Laoghaire. His days are as exciting as they are demanding, challenging and long. "The day is so varied you just don't know what's going to happen next", he laughs. "I start work at 8am. I come in and do office work for an hour. Then the practice opens at 9am. I do consults until 10am and then I operate until lunch."

His clients include dogs and cats but there is also the odd snake, cockatoo, budgie, lizard or iguana. Woods, as a veterinary ophthalmologist, has the only eye referral practice in the country and he now sees animals from all over the country, including horses, which are sent for diagnosis, treatment and sometimes operation.

His first job after he qualified was in the west of Ireland in "a real James Herriot type practice," he remembers. It was a large animal practice - mostly cattle, sheep and horses. He was based in Kilrush, Co Clare, and then in Ballina, Co Mayo. The hours were long and the days hectic. He recalls doing up to 25 calls on Saturdays and having to cover a large area in his car.

"Now it's different," he says. "The hours are quite considerably reduced.

"The west of Ireland is a practical type of environment and the veterinary practice is in accordance with the environment. There are disadvantaged areas. A lot of part-time farming. Small herds between five and 30 animals. You're in a car doing 50,000 miles a year. Your work routine is about 90 hours a week. It's very physical."

After two-and-a-half-years, Woods left to take up a job in England. "My motivation for leaving Ireland was to further myself as a vet," he says. He worked in a practice that concentrated on "small animal work" in Luton. Then he moved to Herefordshire on the Welsh border. "A lovely rural practice, very different. The order and organisation of the practice was very different, all calls were in by 10 in the morning. You could schedule your day."

He worked with a veterinary ophthalmologist, one of the top eye surgeons for animals in Britain, for four years. He also studied for a certificate in ophthalmology and got that in 1990 from the Royal Veterinary College.

Back to Ireland in 1994, he took over a small practice in Dun Laoghaire and he has gradually built it up. "You're beating a path forward and also introducing the concept that a referral is a positive thing to do," he says. "It's not negative. People are a bit afraid that you have to hand a case on." Of the vet's life, he says: "You're dealing with different situations. The new puppy, the old dog being eased out of this life. There's a lot of emotion tied up with animals. They're often the most important aspect of a family. You're dealing with the person as well and their sadness. With older people, the dog or the cat is often their only companion. You're treating the owner as much as the animal at times. They're often the last link a family has with someone who has died."

Woods believes that veterinary medicine in Ireland is moving forward at a great pace. "There's a great feeling of everything moving forward, of change. I feel our practice being swept along."

To youngsters thinking about this career, he says "you would want to be very, very dedicated, and prepared to do a 12-hour day. I try and get an hour's break in the afternoon - it's a long day. Just like medicine, it takes a while to come up through the ranks. You're basically 10 years developing and then you see where to go but it's a progression. You have to be prepared to educate yourself."