Does anyone here bring their dog to work?

What exercises do you do or activities do you share with your dog?

I work at an astronomy shop and brought my dog today, so I'm looking for activities I can do that will keep her occupied and exercised without her running rampant in my store and knocking telescopes off their tripods. I've already taken her for a short romp-and-exercise on a lawn in the parking lot outside our door, and she's already taken her time to explore. I brought a kong, peanut butter, and a sturdy bone chew that has ground rawhide/meat rings that screw on for the dog to try and chew off, but I haven't given either to her yet except to reward for doing well.

I was thinking of putting her through random routines, like making her sit-stay/down-stay in certain parts of the store while I check inventory and releasing her to make her stay in other parts, and doing recall from front room to the back. Anybody have any other ideas of how to make this fun for her? She's being very calm and laying at my feet while I do computer work, although I've already gotten her to fetch the mail for me from the front desk.



Any suggestions as to what "games" we can play? I was thinking of making her find her kong if I hide it as well as having her fetch me various things I point out. Fortunately for me I brought sausage bites, and we have a sturdy collection of boxes in the back that she can climb and "search" for treats on. She's done extremely well with sitting patiently behind the counter with customers, and sitting for them quietly to be petted. Even I'm impressed! Does anyone else bring their dog to work with them, in a non-dog type work setting? How do you make it fun for your dog?

My brother-in-law owns a whale watch and sometimes I help out on the pier when they're short-staffed. I take the slow times to teach some stupid pet tricks just for chuckles (when I'm there I have to work in a really small space).

Sounds like you must have a lot of free time there, eh? I think "find it" games are great, just as long as she doesn't knock over any terribly expensive telescopes looking for the reward! At any rate, from what you've described, it sounds like your dog IS having fun already!

A whale watch! Wow, I've been on a few of those as a little kid, I still remember them.
I agree with stupid pet tricks, she knows more of those than she does standard commands, and responds to them much more reliably! Something I have to work on. :P We've been playing the point-it game, something she picked up from my laziness, where I point and she goes and sits. I used it on a customer to show them where a particular brand of scope was, we had laughs all around. XD

Fortunately for me, it's usually really slow and I get my paperwork done first thing, leaving me the rest of the day to goof off. :P I just hope these games will keep her occupied for the rest of the day, we have until 6 and she's already giving me the "I already know this game, let's do something new" look.

My dog has been coming to work with me every day since he was 12 weeks old (he'll be 2 years next month).
When I'm at work, I'm working and he is too. His job is to not bother me while I'm working. He has one stuffed animal, one chew toy and one fetching toy that stay at work. He also always has access to a crate and water bowl. I ignore him for the most part. And you know what? He does his own thing. He sleeps a lot and chews a lot. He has been good about this since I started bringing him. I think the trick is I really forget he is there because I am busy. I don't really want my dog to think we play at work either...I take him out several times a day for a hard run/fetch game.
I guess my point to you is that you really don't need to "entertain" your dog constantly. He will be happy to be near you and will settle down and do his own thing if you expect that.

If you have other questions about taking the dog to work I love talking about it! It's such a joy to have them with us during the day! Enjoy!

My pup comes with me to work most of the time. But when I'm at work he is in his crate. I give him something to chew while he is in there. I try to make sure that we have a fairly significant walk from the car to the store, so he doesn't have too much pent up energy before being crated for the day.

Most of the day he is good, but on some days he is WHINY. Today has been a whiny day ... so tomorrow I will leave him in his Crate at Home. Coming to work with me is a priviledge, and if he cannot behave then he must stay home.

And no, he doesn't need water or to go potty. He is just whining to get out of his crate. Since I don't want customers to hear him whining, nor have him think that whining gets him OUT, it is easier to leave him home and not listen to the whining for a day or two before I bring him back into the store.

This is business, so if he can be here at the store quietly, then that is GREAT. But it is not the place to play games, IMHO.

Heh...I bring my dog when I help out on the pier because I'm bored and he really helps jazz up a slow period!

When I have clients, obviously I don't bring Carbon. Having another dog present for the majority of cases only serves as a distraction to the clients and dogs I'm working with. Sometimes we're working with getting the clients dogs to ignore other dogs and in that case, I usually bring the Corgi, not the GSD, since he's more mature.

But, yeah, if I had to work in an office or the like I would certainly not put up with a dog calling the shots. I think it's cool that so many people are allowed to have their dogs with them at work, though. Surprising, really, but cool.

This reminds me of the store I bought my guitar at. The owner always had a dog there, a chow, who was so mild mannered and calm- it was unbelievable! One day I asked him about it, and he told me the dog had never knocked down a guitar at all! The guy wasn't giving the dog commands all the time or keeping it in a down or a sit, the dog just layed in one spot, or roamed around calmly...very nice.

I think your best friend here is time. I own a bike shop, and my dog lives in the shop 24/7, well unless we are outside training.

When i first started to bring him to work, I worked on teaching him not to run out the door when people came in.
Then I got him a bed so he can sleep, bought a kong and some PB.

After the dog gets used to the place, they should chill out and sleep.

after 2 years, phoenix is perfect in the shop, in the morning I feed him, take him out for an hour, bring him back to the shop, he sleep most of the day, and he work him after work.

best of luck

Thanks for the advice guys!

It went extraordinarily well, she ended up sleeping either at my feet or in front of the counter most of the day, and the rest of the time we played find-it games with sausage bits in the back room. She only ran to the door once, every time after that she stayed behind the counter until I let her out of sit. We've already had people coming in today asking where the dog is. :P Not one telescope knocked down, not one incident. One of my fears was her not alerting me she needed to go out, but she sat at the door every time, which was great.

Hopefully my boss will let me bring her in more often when he doesn't bring his cats. I'm very fortunate to work at a small one-man-owned business and the guy is real chill, I was the one who suggested he bring his cats and his response was, "Why the hell not?" I'm hoping some of the regulars will tell him how good my dog was to make a good case to bring her back, I'm surprised at how many customers take having an animal in the store so well. I never imagined stuff-looking attorneys and conservative retired folks would accept "an animal" roaming "a respectable business", I've been around in stores with animals before that people came in, took one look at the animal, and deemed the store "dirty" and left. I guess it's a risk you can take, but we don't sell food or other edibles that would cause reason for health risks, so I'm happy. Nothing better than finding a job you're not only content with going to every day, but you can share that day with your pet. Now if only I can convince him that my snake would be a quiet addition...