Dogs in the Workplace

I got hired at a new school for the coming school year, and have been told that I can bring my dog to work. Because a typical workday for me involves up to 22 loud little munchkins, I doubt I would bring Lil on a regular basis unless I had an octagonal playpen to provide her with a safe space free of little hands (she's not that fond of physical affection unless it's offered by me). Still, I am delighted to know that my future workplace is dog friendly. 

I remember one school I worked at where the librarian brought her dog to work with the special needs children. It was absolutely lovely to see this gorgeous dog with such a beautiful heart make a difference in the lives of children who were often non-verbal or otherwise challenged. Then, she was told that it was against the rules. In my opinion, that was a tragedy because one child, confined to a wheelchair and seemingly unresponsive, lit up when the dog was there. It was as if the dog provided the motivation for this child to become an active participant in life itself, and it was amazing to see this and the many other examples. I can understand why such a rule was put in place, but there need to be exceptions. For example, I recently worked at a school where a pint-sized therapy dog provided love and learning opportunities for many young children. Even the adults loved seeing his cute little face every morning! Dogs are amazing, and it's lovely when they are allowed to spread love and joy in the world.

For me as an employee, being able to take my dog to work alleviates stress (i.e. "Oh no, I need to stay a bit later, but my dog needs to pee and I live an hour away"), improves morale, and also improves the quality of life for the dog. After all, they want to be with their people, and I think most dogs enjoy having a job. 

Of course, if someone is allergic to dogs or afraid of them, they won't think it's such a lovely thing. I guess in that case, the humans need to be respectful and create a distance between their dog and that person so that everyone is comfortable. However, it has been my experience that even the non-dog-lovers I've worked with in the past saw the benefits of involving dogs in the workplace, and were not bothered by their presence that much. It was an "out of sight, out of mind" situation, and it worked well.

As for me, I think I'll go check out octagonal playpens online. Before the start of the 2012 school year, I plan to bring Lil to work and see how she does in the classroom without the kids. If she does ok, I just might start bringing her sometimes. She can't hear that well, so I think the stresses of the environment would be significantly lesser for her. We'll see. I used to keep bettas in the classroom, and every year, they would die around Spring Break. One year, I took the fish home for the vacation and didn't bring him back (long story). That fish just turned 4. Is the classroom that stressful of an environment? I don't know, but since I can gauge Lil's stress level fairly well, I'll know if it's a good idea quickly enough. Stay tuned...