Dog days of business
Annual event promotes taking your canine to the office

Caroline Skelton, Times Colonist
Published: Saturday, April 08, 2006

When Laura Bryan, receptionist at Orca Book Publishers, was being interviewed for her job, she was asked one surprising question: Did she like dogs?

The impetus behind this is a Springer spaniel named Malone, who is at home in the office.

Malone is the prime pal of publisher Bob Tyrrell, and has consequently opened the door for other pets to lounge about the Orca offices on Balmoral Street.

As the office pet, admits Bryan, Malone has it good. "She's a well-loved animal," she says.

So when Take Your Dog to Work Day rolls around June 23, you can bet Malone will be taking part.

The event, now in its eighth year and run by Pet Sitters International, encourages businesses to invite their employees' canine companions to work, if only for a day.

The pet sitters say the event, which annually attracts about 10,000 businesses, encourages dogless employees to adopt animals from humane shelters.

"Studies show that pets in the workplace boost employee morale, productivity and even sales," boasts the event's website, found at www.petsit.com/dogday.

Not everyone is keen to open the doggy door, however.

Moe Saunders, owner of Club Dog, a daycare for dogs on Gorge Road, says dogs and offices don't always mix.

"The dog becomes a distraction," she says.

"The person whose dog it is is paying attention to the dog and making sure it doesn't do anything wrong."

Then of course there's the food establishments, with all their obvious rules, and the concerns of employees with allergies.

The pet sitters' website brushes aside the allergy issue by encouraging companies to temporarily move allergic employees to dog-free zones, or grant them a day off.

At the Windsor Law Group, legal assistant Heather Boggs says that's why her bull mastiff can't hang out in their office. Well, that and him being "a little big."

But at the law office of McCullough Parsons Blazina, it's not allergies that canine visitors would have to contend with -- rather, it's a formidable feline named Lou, who has been the office pet for the past six years. Kevin McCullough, Lou's owner, began bringing his cat to work to alleviate his "residual guilt" over leaving him at home.

As Lou became a fixture in the office, and popular among the firm's clients, any opposition to his furry presence disappeared.

Now, he gets the run of the place. While he spends most of his time in McCullough's office, which houses his litter box and cat tree, he has also been known to hang out around the office watercooler, befitting his sociable reputation.

McCullough says having pets in the office is less of a distraction than a de-stresser.

"It's kind of cathartic in a way," he says.

Carole West brings Kodiak and Emma to Club Dog Doggie Day Care, where the new arrivals get the once-over from current residents.
Photograph by : Darren Stone, Times Colonist