How do you leave your dog to go to the office after years of working from home?

Going back to the physical office is raising many concerns for dog owners. Photo: AFP

How can people go back to their workplaces and leave their pets at home alone? It’s a very serious question and one that is very relevant at the moment.

As pandemic restrictions ease and remote working gets replaced by days onsite, several articles have looked at the best advice and practical recommendations for preparing your dog for a new reality of being home alone during the daytime hours.

Indeed since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic and the first lockdowns, pets have been a valuable source of comfort for their owners.

They have helped them through this stressful and confusing period by providing emotional support in the face of social isolation or quarantine.

But after two years of these idyllic relationships, where remote working was the norm and therefore pets and humans together on a near-constant basis, the return to the office has prompted “separation anxiety”.

Establishing new routines

Should you leave Fido alone at home all day? Or have it looked after by a third party? Perhaps take the dog to work? These are some of the many dilemmas that pet owners – dog owners, in particular – are currently facing. Because for some people the return to the office is creating new organisational issues, not unlike with childcare.

While some people attempt to gradually get their dog used to spending longer periods of time at home alone, working up to a full workday, others prefer to call upon professionals. Which explains why the professions of dog-sitter and dog-walker are booming. In Britain, dog-sitting service Barking Mad has seen demand increase by more than 1,000% since the beginning of 2022 compared to the same period a year earlier, reports The Guardian.

Even compared to the beginning of 2019, well before the pandemic, demand has increased by nearly 500%. In England, where an estimated 3.2 million households acquired a pet during the pandemic, dog-sitting costs between £10 and £15 per hour (between RM55 and RM83), according to the Trustedhousesitters website.

Demand for doggie daycare is also on the rise in Australia, to the point where some facilities can no longer take in animals.

“We do have to turn away dogs,” Sam Mendelson, general manager of operations at Kip Daycare, told The Sydney Morning Herald. In the United States, a study by 365 Pet Insurance found that a dog walker can earn up to US$35,000 (RM147,813) a year. Not bad considering that the average American salary is around US$60,000 (RM253,395).

For those without deep pockets, several alternative systems set up a bit like Airbnb or based on mutual aid exist. Examples are Rover, Pawshake or BorrowMyDoggy.

Dog-friendly workplaces

According to a study by Rover.com, 77% of pet owners would value working for a dog-friendly company. With the pandemic, the expectations and priorities of many workers have changed, and many companies have responded by offering “dog-friendly” jobs.

It’s also a new way for employers to entice their employees to return to the premises.

In the West, it’s no longer rare to come across Golden Retrievers or Australian Shepherds in the corridors of offices and open spaces, especially in a lot of Anglo-Saxon countries where bringing your dog to work has already long been accepted. Employees who own a dog see such a culture as a major advantage when choosing a workplace.

In Britain, job ads mentioning dog-friendly workplaces have increased almost fourfold on Indeed since 2019. In the last six months alone, these listings have increased by 43%, according to Daily Business magazine.

The furry creatures are universal attention-getters, offering a breath of fresh air and stress relief to employees. Numerous studies have shown that contact with dogs can improve mood and promote the secretion of feel-good hormones.

In the US, many companies have been accepting dogs on their premises for years. A leader in that area is none other than Google, which for the past 20 years has made available a dog park/doggie daycare centre, the Doogleplex to employees with pets, as well as offering numerous initiatives such as a puppy therapy programme.

At Amazon, ranked as the most “dog friendly” company in 2021, Tripadvisor and Ben & Jerry’s, just to mention the most famous, many perks related to a pet’s health are on offer, such as health insurance for pets, allowances to pay for their care, or days off for adopting a new pet or in the case of the death of a furry companion.

In any case, with the return to the office, owners are ready to do anything for their pooch. According to a recent study, many say they will miss their dog more than their significant other or even their own child when they have to return to the office. – AFP