Dog policy at work

[Americaherewecome]

Does your employer have one? Do you have any experience of writing one?

We need one for our business; any suggestions gratefully received.

TIA

Very common in agricultural and other rural businesses to bring dogs to work. I visit plenty of businesses where the owners have their dogs in the office/premises with them and employees bring their dogs. It’s perfectly normal.

Check your company insurance policy and if they allow it what conditions are attached

Do a Health and Safety risk assessment

Then decide if you want to allow dogs. If you are a business where it’s related to dogs (Pets at Home allow dogs) or dogs are part of your workforce (agriculture, search and rescue, as examples) that is more likely to be ok. Otherwise I would say no. For the reasons everyone has mentioned,

I think you have to allow service dogs by law. I'm allergic to dogs so would find it impossible to work in an office that allowed dogs, however well behaved they are 🙁

My husband's work has a dog policy: one dog at a time, office manager to be notified approximately a week before the dog comes in (office manager makes sure only one dog is "booked in"), dogs are owner's responsibility (don't leave your dog and go out for a meeting for example). Works really well.

A few people have asked if they can bring dogs into our office and we've said a straight no. It just doesn't seem to be appropriate. Service dogs would of course be permitted.

A colleague quietly spoke to me after we turned down the request and thanked us as she's nervous around dogs but felt she couldn't say that in front of everyone else. I realised it was a good decision in case we ever hired anyone who felt the same or anyone who happened to be allergic. I also don't think I could handle the dog hair. The conversations with employees if they had a badly behaved dog would also be frustrating. It's all very unnecessary.

I’m willing to bet that the op is not working in an office on a farm

Yes and it's free as well, so really appeals to the whole lets get photos of our employees smiling whilst stroking dogs and sod those who can't come in because of their stupid allergies or fears because we are one big happy workplace.

It is absolutely not normal outside agricultural settings to bring your dog to work. I know of absolutely NOBODY that does this.

The allergy molecules hang around for weeks.

Only steam cleaning removes them.

A dog in an office would put me in hospital.

How kind you sound.

We have an ‘occasional dog’ approach. You need to book your dog in, ideally have your own office or space for it to be, be mindful of your colleagues who may not like dogs or could be allergic. It should be occasional rather than regular. I’ve done it once or twice in emergency dog sitter situations. Any dogs in the office always seem to be very well
received.

It’s not a policy, just common sense and we’ve never had any issues so far.

I think rookie is on your side.

It's a can of worms - I was involved I one for a service dog and we had a belts and braces policy and full risk assessment

Allergies
Ensuring they're properly flea and worm treated
Entry and exit routes to minimise contact with others and area impacted.
Always on a lead
Threatening dogs
People scared of dogs
Noisy barkers
Dog food smells
Water facilities
Cleaning up poo and wee (your facilities team won't)
Extra hair
Walking the dogs

Then you get can I bring my cat/gerbil/pony in as they brought their dog in...

What about people who haven’t got religious objections or allergies but just don’t want to be around a smelly unpredictable animal?

We had one allowed in an adjacent office temporarily - they all loved it but the room stank. When it got through to ours one day it ran straight over to my desk rubbed its greasy dog fur up against my coat and its nose right up my skirt. If a person did that at work they’d be dismissed. Why should we have to have it from animals? It’s so unfair to impose this on people.

You need to re read that post!

I'm 67 and have worked in all sorts of offices over my career. At least a quarter of them have been dog friendly. Admittedly I'm not talking about dangerous factory situations or food manufacturers. They've all been small to medium sized offices and obviously pretty informal. The addition of a dog or two has been great.

I like dogs, I don't want to see any at work that aren't assistance dogs.

I wouldn't work anywhere that had a dogs in the office. What's next, an office cat? Hamster?

I think that poster was being sarcastic…

I had a patient insist on bringing her ‘emotional support dog’ into her appointment once, it was very poorly trained and kept jumping up at me while I was examining her. I stopped the examination and asked her to return without the dog. Miraculously she managed without it next time 🙄

I love dogs, but I don’t want them in the workplace! My own dog would be either bored to tears or overstimulated, he loves his own company and doesn’t know what to do with himself now I’m on maternity leave and he has to deal with me and a baby all day 😂

Don't do it. I worked in an office and it was a pain in the neck. The boss used to take her dog in and all the sycophants used to pretend they loved the yappy thing and spend ages clapping it and speaking baby talk to it.

My sister’s office allows it. Some days they have 3 dogs, and it’s not a big office, although also not open plan. You have to factor in potential dog fights, dogs crapping/peeing on the floor, and dog care disagreements. I would have a hard line in the policy on dogs growling at staff or barking when disturbed. Also on people leaving open tins of dog food in the communal fridge.

I have two dogs and one would probably behave beautifully in the office and one would want endless attention. You’d need to factor in puppies - they’re much harder to control. I’m not allowed to take mine into the office but I’m not necessarily opposed, I just think you need a very clear policy in case of problems.

We have a policy. Dogs are allowed in one separate part of the building only, so that anyone with allergies or who just doesn't like dogs in their work space can book a desk in the other parts. This part is also where no client meetings take place. If a dog is reactive to people or other dogs, or too noisy, and people complain, they're banned (although we do have two dogs who very much hate each other but are fine with others, so those two colleagues came to an agreement and never bring them both on the same day). Puppies are not allowed, because they are usually not 100% housetrained and will chew everything. And the dogs are not allowed to run around (apart from during breaks), they are to be kept in their human's office.
Also, anything that gets broken or destroyed by any dog is to be replaced by the employee the dog belongs to.

My dps main office allows dogs

Dog has to have a photo id which needs to be updated yearly and £15 fee

Pet insurance has to include £1 million public liability insurance

The policy should be assistance dogs only!

Assistance dogs only, it isn’t fair on other employees.