Thursday, June 19, 2014

Take Your Dog to Work Day!

Photo of Fuzzy by Gary Rohde

June 20, 2014 is the official Take Your Dog to Work Day this year.  This annual event was created in 1999 by Pet Sitters International and they have a website devoted their special day (http://www.takeyourdog.com/index.php). Why not?! If your dog is well-behaved and your company is on board with it, it can be a really wonderful event.

If you're planning to take your dog to work, be sure that he or she is current on all vaccinations and has excellent manners. This includes reliably house trained, walking nicely on a leash, sitting and lying down when told, sitting nicely for treats and is quiet. If you dog is a barker, he or she should know how to be quiet. Sometimes this means putting the bark on cue if the dog is an inveterate barker. And he or she should get along well with other pets because yours will not be the only dog there on Take You Dog to Work Day.

Photo of Sandy by Jim Stagg
Knowing how to behavior properly and be quiet in the work atmosphere will earn you and your dog bonus points. No one wants to listen to a barking dog. 

Be sure to walk your dog before going into the building so he has a chance to eliminate first. Even if you have walked your dog at home before leaving, give him another chance to eliminate before entering the workplace.  

Take along bottled water and a water bowl as well as a food dish and food.  He should have the opportunity to have a snack while there or a meal if he's fed more than twice a day.  Bring along a few treats and a toy or two, but not a noisy toy! Bottled water is essential because water changes from place to place and water from anywhere but your home could cause an upset digestive system.

You may want to take her around to meet people and she should definitely have a chance to sniff and get acquainted with the place as well as the people.  Don't forget to take her out for a walk at lunch time so she has another opportunity to eliminate.  Reward her for doing the right thing in the right place and don't forget to clean it up!

One of the nicest thing about having dogs in the workplace is that dogs help lower blood pressure, help people relax and be more productive.
Karma photographed by Veronique Schejtman

It's hard to imagine anything nicer than having the opportunity to have your dog with you when you work. And for dog lovers who don't have a pet at home it's a nice opportunity for them to interact with calm, well-mannered pets, which can only make their workday much nicer.

A BIG Thank You to Pet Sitters International for creating this very special day.

Have fun with your dogs and please let me know how you and your dogs spent the day and what the highlight was for you!





9 comments:

Jim said...

A great idea! I have done so, and my dog, Rusty, was extremely well-behaved (he was a Therapy Dog as well). It is so much better than leaving one at home for endless hours.

Just don't leave them in a car for any reason....unless you have the air-conditioning on.

Darlene said...

Thank you so much for your comment! I'm so glad you had that experience with Rusty!

I agree about not leaving the dog in the car but even air conditioning can fail or the engine. Best to leave your dog at home in the air conditioning if he can't go into the air conditioned workplace. :-)

Unknown said...

Love this idea, Darlene and I had no idea that it has been going on for such a long time. As always, you have provided excellent advice, which I hope people will adhere to, should they think about taking their dog into the workplace. I must admit that, as you mentioned and I have read, I am surprised that production is actually increased on these occasions. If that's the case, maybe people should take their dogs in with them EVERY day.....LOL!

Darlene said...

Thank you so much, Gordon! I'm glad you liked the post so much. In some businesses, usually the owner can take their dog to work and everyone benefits. Pet related businesses often allow their employees to bring their dogs to work. It seems to me that would be the perfect work atmosphere!

Cat and DOG Chat With Caren said...

visit Dakota's blog and see what HE does at "work!" Loved your post!
www.daktoasden.net

Darlene said...

Aimee and I will float over, Caren. Aimee goes to work with Mama every day and doesn't need to be a dog to do it. LOL

Unknown said...

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Images of Butterflies said...

There's a problem. You see, my dog is far from 'well behaved'. He would be running around like a little kid and it will give me headaches.

Darlene said...

Positive reinforcement training would resolve the issue and make your dog much more fun to live with! I highly recumbent operant conditioning, more commonly known as clicker training. You can find a local trainer who uses this method and you can find a lot of information at Karen Pryor's site: www.clickertraining.com. It's fun for both you and your dog!