All Things Dog Blog

Showing posts with label dogs at work. Show all posts

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Pet-Friendly Offices on Mutt Monday

by Carrie Boyko, CEB

Today' Mutt Monday theme is Pet-Friendly Offices, something I recently experienced while visiting Natural Balance's facility in Pacoima, California. I'm inviting bloggers to link up their archived posts on this or related topics. Please help encourage more entries by clicking this Tweet:

I enjoyed reading about pet-friendly workplaces @AllThingsDog. #Pet bloggers can link up 2 #BlogHop here: http://t.co/WF2AkjlPbT
— Carrie Boyko (@AllThingsDog) August 18, 2013

Next week I invite bloggers to share both their bathing info, bath product reviews, and bath photos. I'll be dishing:

Baths, Bath photos and Bathing Tips

There's nothing more laugh-out-loud fun than a soaking wet dog photos. Help us encourage bloggers to join in, and share the fun with your followers on Twitter. Click this Tweet:

Join @AllThingsDog #MuttMonday #BlogHop 8/26-9/1 4 articles on Baths, Bathing & Bathtime tips: http://t.co/xyxD7cB82f
— Carrie Boyko (@AllThingsDog) August 18, 2013

Thanks for the help. We look forward to seeing you again next week.

Happy tails,

ATTN Bloggers: Mutt Monday is a themed blog hop that opens each Sunday evening to link ups and remains open until the following Sunday at midnight. Watch for our theme and join in by linking up your archived posts on our weekly topic.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Take Your Dog to Work Day is Friday--Need Help?

by Carrie Boyko

© Carrie Boyko 2010
My Tie is Crooked? My Bad!

Tanner is ready for "Take Your Dog to Work Day". Are you?

Recently you may have read my post on Klutz Publishing's dog-friendly office. You can find it at Dog Friendly Workplaces: Insight from an Insider. That was my sneaky set up to get your mind thinking about taking Fido to work on Friday, June 25. Of course, even I know that it has to work for the boss. That's your challenge; at my office, I have 3 dogs and we have a happy time interacting throughout the day. I love that I don't miss many of the photo opportunities or funny antics that my threesome pull off.

Poking around on the Internet, I discovered that Cesar Millan has offered some strategies for making your dog-office arrangement work out. Who better to offer assistance, right?

Cesar's article, although very brief, offers a few tips that are spot on. Like his 'no treats or food' rule. Food aggression is much easier to create when there are multiple dogs in a contained area, so keep that in mind if you decide to tackle this adventure.

Finally, Cesar's piece wraps up with photos of their office pack (there's a bunch of them) and stories from a number of the employees that describe how they deal with common problems of having multiple dogs in the office. I hope you'll read these--good stuff. If you decide to bring your pup to work, drop me a line and fill me in on your success or challenges. Any stories are helpful, so don't be shy.

More Resources? Try Dogs at Work: A Practical Guide to Creating Dog-Friendly Workplaces

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Dog-Friendly Workplaces:
Insight from an Insider

by Carrie Boyko

Dog-friendly offices are not exactly a commodity. Rarely do I encounter a business that has a dog on site, except for the occasional 'night guard'. This is definitely NOT the tree I'm barking up.

In seeking to meet and talk with someone whose medium to large business has an open house policy for friendly dogs, I had only to mention this dilemma in front of my husband. After all the people I had spoken to, it turns out hubby is well-acquainted with our expert for this article.

My husband's long time friend, John Cassidy, has run Klutz publishing, as its co-founder, since its beginning. He graciously agreed to an interview on this arguably politically-confused topic.

After pummeling John with a barrage of questions far too voluminous to publish, I decided to synopsize the interview in favor of the more useful questions that might help business owners that are considering such a venture.

As suspected, John shared the beginnings of his office's dog-friendly policy as a casual and fairly low-rules setup. When an employee with a well-behaved dog expressed interest in having his furry friend tagalong to work, John felt there was no particular reason not to okay it. From what he shared with me, it seems there was a pay off for the company throughout the years. Read on and I'll fill you in.

I was particularly interested to learn how problem situations were handled, when John passed it off as simply as "the HR lady took care of it with a probation, that passed without further incident." When I inquired as to the number of these incidents, he could only remember one--in all these years. And what, I asked, was the apparent problem? It was a hyperactive pup that lost his office privileges. No surprise there.

While at times there were as many as 4 dogs in the office, they did not generally spend time together, but rather with their owners, a point that John felt was key to the success of the plan. His fairness doctrine considered dog owners as well as their counterparts, and assured that the dog-averse were respected equally by not being overwhelmed in a dog park-like environment.

Finally, John's comments about the pros of allowing dogs in the office were most enlightening:

"I think a dog in the office made a lot of people--probably most--feel as if management was on their side. More informal, more human, more family. We actually see tons of kids brought to work and they're a lot noisier...The benefits the dogs bring to the spirit of the place outweighs their liabilities."

"My bottom line is that a well-behaved dog, or even a few, brings a sense of benign management and family friendliness to a place that works to most everyone's benefit....Unless you have tight quarters and a whole passle of dogs, I'd suspect everyone's preferences could be met."

Well, John, I'd say "That's that! I think you hit the nail on the head."

My office has 3 dogs in it; how about yours? The comment link is at the bottom of the post. I look forward to hearing about your experiences. Or perhaps you'd like to learn more: