When is Bring Your Dog to Work Day?

Pet-loving employees are encouraged to take their four-legged friends into the office for the day, instead of leaving them at home or going to a dog-sitter.

But one North East firm is bucking the trend and allows its staff to take their dogs into work every day, saying it benefits not only the staff but the dogs as well.

For staff at Newcastle based global performance marketing agency N21 every day is 'Bring your dog to work day' because it's one of the benefits available to its employees.

Neil Robbins, CEO of N21 said: "The UK is a nation of dog lovers so allowing staff to bring their dogs to work feels like a very obvious benefit for them.

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“We have many dogs in our office and I can only see the benefits of this to our staff. We have 101 employees now in our UK office, many of whom have dogs.

“If they weren't able to bring their dogs to work they would have to fork out money for a dog walker or a dog sitter which, because of the rise of the cost of living, our employees really don't need.

“We also think about the well-being of our employee's dogs and the fact they can accompany their owners to work instead of spending hours on their own at home is a huge benefit."

Experts say that having dogs in the office can have endless benefits including ‘employee productivity’ and improved wellbeing, according to awarenessdays.com.

Scientific studies have also shown that the presence of pets can "substantially reduce a person's stress level in the workplace."

Sarah-Jayne and rescue greyhound Jake. Picture: PR

Sarah-Jayne Taylorson, a PR Manager at N21 recently adopted an ex-racing greyhound called Jake and says it’s ‘wonderful’ she can take him into the office.

She said: "I have always wanted to rescue a dog, but previous employers didn't have a bring your dog to work policy which meant it wouldn't have been feasible.

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“It's wonderful to have employers that not only care for our wellbeing but also our dogs, Jake is family so I am so pleased N21 values him."

There was a massive surge in dog ownership during the Covid pandemic with 3.2 million dogs joined families during lockdown, taking the UK dog population to 12.5 million, according to the National Dog Survey.

It also found that 85 per cent of us regularly tell our dogs how much we love them.

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