Dogs and Work Together? I Don't Think So

There are some companies that have specific days where dogs are welcome inside the workspace. Does it mean that they are welcomed by all? It is possible that everyone in your work environment may not be as excited about your dog coming to visit them that day. I've thought of some reasons why you should strongly consider NOT bringing your dog to work with you:

1. One or more of your co-workers may be allergic to dogs. Do you want to be the one who causes a stoppage in workflow because of your pet? You must consider that not everyone can handle an environment that contains dogs inside of it. For some allergies can lead to sickness, or in extreme cases death. Will someone die at work because of a dog, probably not, but take that into consideration.

2. Your workspace may not be conducive to animals. If you work in a small space then having a dog inside the work premises may not be such a good idea. Most dogs, even the well-trained ones, aren't going to just stay still for an eight hour work day. They, like people, need movement and activity. The dog isn't working like you are, and being at work you're not going to take your dog for frequent walks, so why set your animal up for frustration? Unless you have a big office or a big workspace within your office, consider leaving the dog at home where it can at least run around in the backyard.

3. If your dog is not housebroken at home... then God help the dog if it's in your workplace! Let me paint a vivid picture for you. Dog walks in, starts squatting (like it's in the park or something). You've stepped away from your desk for a minute, come back and find dog poop next to your desk. So you clean it up, throw it away, come back and find the dog hadn't finished. Then it goes to your boss's workstation or office and thinks the plant is its new territory, so it pees in the plant. Of course, I could go on with this example, but I won't. Yes, this is a bit of an extreme case, but think of the possibilities if your dog is not housebroken. Chances are it won't be work-broken either.

4. One or more of your co-workers may be afraid of dogs. For some people dogs cause stress, for whatever reason. Bad childhood memories, bad experiences with dogs, don't like the barking noise, whatever the case may be. Imagine how much it would affect performance if every time your dog barks someone jumps, or someone cringes. Or if the dog maneuvers around the office and lands at someone's desk and starts getting in their lap, or messing with their files, or touching stuff on the keyboard, or any number of things, it may make them paranoid to work that day. Again, not terribly likely, but my point here is dogs cause distractions and not everyone is equipped to handle those distractions.

5. Your dog may not want to go to work with you! If it took you a while to get your dog out of the house that day, perhaps your dog is trying to tell you that it doesn't want to go to work with you. Dogs are more intelligent than people give them credit for sometimes. It's possible if you've taken your dog to work with you before and you tell it, "Hey boy, we're going to work today," it actually remembers what environment that was and may not want to go. Then the dog will do nothing more than mess with you all day because either it's mad at you, or is bored, or whatever. So listen to your dog's cues if it seems that it's not too willing to attend your workplace.

6. Your dog and someone else's dog may not become friends. Let's think about this one. Everyone doesn't have friendly dogs. Some dogs are natural-born beasts. If they see something they don't like or aren't familiar with they bark the heck out of themselves. So let's say your dog and another dog get together. Your dog doesn't like how my dog is sniffing it, or something. Then your dog wants to bark at my dog, and then before you know it it's Ali vs. Frazier all over again! Then you (and probably a couple other people) have to stop work, separate the dogs and pull them apart from each other. Not a good exercise for productivity.

I personally don't have a dog, but if I did, I wouldn't bring it to work because there are just too many variables to consider as far as bringing a dog into a workplace. Besides that, sometimes it's enough for me to concentrate on my work without having a dog coming to me every so often. Maybe I'm talking like a non-dog owner and if so, drop me a comment on things I'm not considering. I'd love to hear your thoughts as a dog-owner. I'm just thinking about extra preparation, how to transport it, it could just get messy all around. Even if I loved dogs, I just don't see how dogs and work mix.