Take Your Dog to Work Day -- what a howl!

Your chance to get Fido into the rat race

H.J. Cummins, Star Tribune

Last update: June 21, 2006 – 10:45 PM

You might call it the dog day of summer.

Friday, June 23rd is Take Your Dog to Work Day, a chance for dog lovers to.... commute with their cockers, lunch with their Lhasa apsos and take a break with their border collies.

"It's quirky, but in the end it does what it's supposed to do," said John Long, spokesman for Pet Sitters International, which created the annual event eight years ago.

And that is: Show that dog ownership is so wonderful that colleagues will go out and adopt canines.

If you want to include your workplace, Long advises some preparation -- such as ruling out that any nearby colleagues have allergies or dog phobias.

Pet Sitters estimates that about 10,000 employers in the United States and Canada participated last year. So far, on the official website -- www.petsit.com/dogday -- about a dozen Minnesota companies have registered.

And then there are Minnesota workplaces where every day could be Take Your Dog to Work Day. Such as the PetSmart store in Plymouth, where operations manager DeeDee Bergquist sometimes brings in Daphne, her Italian greyhound puppy.

"She just chills out in the office, and I check on her," she said. "She goes on break with me, and our trainer spends a little extra time with her."

Why is it good to allow dogs at work?

"It's good for socializing the dog," Bergquist said.

Uh, no, we meant why is it good for people?

"I think it loosens everybody up," she said. "Animals are calming. They lower stress levels."