It is this time of the year again: Bring Your Dog To Work Day 2018 is happening on Friday 22nd June! If – like us – you love office dogs, don’t miss the chance to get involved and do good for charity while having the best day of the year at the office.

Why office dogs should join Bring Your Dog To Work Day

Credits: Official BYDTW image by Bridget Davey Photography

There are only two weeks to go to the day dog owners with office jobs await all year: Bring Your Dog To Work Day (“BYDTWD”), organised by HOWND, to raise funds for charity. A fun office dog celebration if your dog is already a regular at work, or a nice odd day in the life of your office and of your dog, if canines are not normally allowed between the walls of your workplace.

Either way, probably your colleagues will adore you forever, along with eagerly volunteering to walk your dog, keep him/her while you are away on holidays and even remembering your dog’s birthday rather than yours… sorting out your dog walking/boarding bills and allowing you to avoid those akward silences when they ask you how old you are turning on your b-day. On the other hand, if you are in the management, letting your employees bringing their dog to work – even just for Bring Your Dog To Work Day (“BYDTWD”) – will grant you an unmatching popularity with very little effort.

There have been many studies on the benefits of pets at work. Jo Amit, co-founder of HOWND and of Bring Your Dog To Work Day, notes “There is a myriad of benefits to having the presence of dogs in the working environment. Just interacting with these wonderful animals can help reduce stress levels and blood pressure. And partaking in an initiative like Bring Your Dog to Work Day sure is making bosses around the country more popular with their staff! I’ve never seen an unhappy office dog, only unhappy employees who have to leave their beloveds at home”, says Jo.

Bring Your Dog To Work Day: how it all started

Credits: HOWND | Laila & Roxy, the office dogs, founders of BYDTWD (photographer: Titovets)

We are huge supporters of office dogs and dog culture in offices, so this great initiative is something we particularly welcome and love. Bring Your Dog To Work Day, now at its 5th edition, was founded by HOWND in 2014 and aims to raise money for charity every year.

We spoke with Jo to learn how it all started. “Back in early 2014, we moved from a warehouse to an office building”, says Jo. “An hour after arriving with our dogs Roxy and Laila [today a nine-year old Portuguese Water Dog and a 8-year old Labradoodle respectively], along with their bones, toys, bowls and orthopaedic office beds, the building managers sent us packing. Strictly no dogs allowed! The frustration of not being able to have our furry friends at our feet all day long led me back to the manager’s office the following day where I requested to bring in our well-behaved groomed-to-perfection pooches once a month. Even those big brown eyes of my eager to please labradoodle couldn’t sway these guys.

“Eventually we reached an agreement and a dogs-allowed in the building once a year policy was put in place with a firm paw shake. Bring Your Dog to Work Day kicked off on a minute scale with two office dogs in an office block in Borehamwood. We simply had to take the concept a few steps further. Since my business partner Mark and I tend not to do anything on a small scale, we decided to establish an annual event to encourage business owners to allow their employees to bring their dogs into work – if not every day, then at least once a year.”

Since then, HOWND moved office to a dog-friendly building, but BYDTWD stuck. “We know that thousands participated last year but we do not know how many. What we love most is watching on social all our hard work and perseverance come to life and pay off! And to be able to give the donations to charity at the end of the event… nothing feels better than that”, comments Jo.

The best thing of BYDTW: it raises funds to charity

Vulric the Wolfdog

The best thing of BYDTWD is that all proceedings go to charity. Jo and Mark have been donating part of the proceedings of HOWND to animal welfare charities since the start of their business and when they conceived Bring Your Dog To Work Day (#BringYourDogToWorkDay) as a national event they decided that it would have had the goal of raising money for a good cause. Jo adds, “The nation embraced the initiative from the outset, and today thousands of businesses around the country are taking part in the best day out for dogs!”

This year all proceedings will be destined to the great local dog charity All Dogs Matter. “We know exactly what the money is spent on at All Dogs Matter: especially vet bills that we all know can be exorbitant”, notes Jo.

What a better reason to join the many offices and dogs participating to the initiative?! Do like Vulric the Wolfdog (Instagram: @wolfdog_of_London), who we had interviewed for our Office Dog Series – and you can see in some pictures above in this post -, who is joining BYDTWD this year. Contribute to help All Dogs Matter to get lucky abandoned pooches to be cared for until they find a loving forever home!

How you can get involved

Participating as a company

Companies can participate donating a minimum of £100. This will get your company’s logo and a link to your website displayed on Bring Your Dog to Work Day’s homepage and social media coverage too.

From the beginning, businesses such as Lily’s Kitchen, Private Fly, Natural Instinct and Banc Media, supported the initiative, and last year big household names such as Trainline, Red Funnel, Miele, Vets for Pets and the law firm Norton Rose Fulbright joined in.

Participating as an individual

If your company is not on board with the sponsorhip, you can still participate as an invidual by donating minimum £5, or £10 to enter the prize draw. Doing so will allow you to upload an image of your dog that will be published in our ‘Dog with a Job’ Hall of Fame along with your dog’s work duties for the day.

You can find more information about Bring Your Dog To Work Day on their official website here.

[PS: If you are unsure about bringing your dog to the office, it may be useful to know that dog trainer The Office Dog is offering a limited number of free consultations for offices in London who would like some help getting ready for BYDTWD.]

©2018 The Londog