pet connection

Take Your Dog to Work Day is Friday, which has me thinking about one of my most recent books, “Dogs at Work: A Practical Guide to Creating Dog-Friendly Workplaces.”

As I write this post, three dogs are in my home office with me. Bashir is under the desk trying to get treats out of a treat dispensing toy. Archer is close to him, hoping to steal the toy or treats. And Riker is asleep in the door way. Plus, two cats are asleep on the dog bed in the corner. Because I always have company in my office, when I was approached by the publisher for HSUS books and asked if I was interested in writing a book about the ”Take Your Dog to Work” program I immediately said “yes.”

I would hate to work in an office without my pets.

We decided we wanted to serve two purposes with the book: We wanted to show businesses that having dogs in the workplace was something that could be done and could be beneficial for both the business and their employees. We also wanted to provide guidelines for dog owners who might want to bring their dog to work.

Researching the book was funny, though. My co-writer, Jennifer Fearing, had already done a considerable amount of research while instituting the official program at HSUS headquarters. But I also wanted to find some additional businesses where dogs were allowed and do some personal interviews. I wanted to see the dogs in the workplace. So I began researching businesses in my local area: San Diego county in Southern California. It was hilarious.

I began my search at a local nursing home where our therapy dogs visit regularly because I had heard that the manager, a doctor, brought his Jack Russell Terrier to work everyday. When I asked the activities director about the dog, she said, “All of the staff is under strict orders from the nurses to make sure the dog stays in the doctor’s office at all times.”

I said, “Oh?”

She replied, “The dog lifts his leg on anything that’s vertical, including peoples’ legs if they stand still more than a few seconds.”

Oops! That wasn’t what I was looking for so I left without interviewing the doctor.

I heard word of a landscaping nursery that had dogs on the property so stopped by unannounced. Apparently that’s a problem. The gate was open and a sign said, “Open” but two German Shepherds charged my van and one jumped on the driver’s door, scratching it. After about five minutes of barking, growling and jumping, someone finally responded and came to my van and asked, “Yeah?”

I said, “Sorry, I thought you were open for business. If you’ll call the dogs off I’ll leave.” So much for friendly dogs.

A local postal store has a Bull Terrier in the store. The manager is friendly, did a nice phone interview, and I hadn’t heard any complaints so I arranged to meet him at the store and take some photos. The dog was well behaved and very friendly, and I saw quite a few customers greet the dog as they came in. The problem? I coulnd’t take photos of him to use in the book; he had horrible skin problems. The owner said he was under a veterinarian’s care so I suggested a second opinion might be in order and I left.

I continued my search.

A visit to a local shoe repair shop introduced me to another dog in the workplace. My husband asked me to drop his motorcycle boots at a cobbler’s so they could be resoled. As I approached the counter, a Jack Russell Terrier behind the counter began barking furiously at me. He stayed on his bed, but his barking was very loud and not at all friendly. The shop owner – and also the dog’s owner – said, “He’s in place of a bell! He let’s me know when someone comes in the shop.”

Since the dog continued to bark, I said, “Don’t your customers feel uneasy about his continued barking? It’s hard to talk over him.”

She said, “Rusty, hush!” But he continued to bark as she said, “Well, you know, it’s impossible to train terriers.”

I dropped off my husband’s boots and left without telling her I train dogs and no, it’s not impossible to train terriers.

I found that a nearby automobile repair shop has dogs there when I stopped by to get the front end aligned on my van. As I sat down in the waiting room, two medium sized mixed breed dogs came in to sniff my jeans. When the office manager started to call them back behind the counter, I said they were fine and we began talking about the dogs. Apparently they just appeared at the business one day and begged for handouts from the mechanics as they were eating breakfast. The dogs left after getting some snacks but came back later. After several days of hand outs, the dogs quit leaving and have been permanent residents ever since. The mechanics began a coffee mess and throw extra change in the jar and that money was used to neuter both dogs and pay for their food and vacinations. Additional money is banked for future costs.

The dogs, now named Jose and Judd, have a good home. It’s not what I was looking for but it’s still a success story.

I found a  manufacturing firm that has three dogs that come to work every day. After talking to the human resources person, I arranged to meet the dogs and their owners. The owners were very nice and willing to talk about their dogs. Sarah does book keeping for the company. Her black Cocker Spaniel, Midnight, spends the day in Sarah’s cubicle. Midnight was not particularly friendly but she wasn’t aggressive, either so I didn’t say anything. Sarah brings Midnight to work because Midnight was prone to destructive behavior when left home alone for too many hours.

Jonathon works in the manufacturing supply portion of the business and brings his Miniature Poodle to work. He said, “Chucky was having some health problems and needed medication on a regular basis. My wife couldn’t take Chucky to work so I began bringing him here. It’s worked out great.” In fact, the two of them look like they have a great time together; the small Miniature Poodle trots along behind the very tall, large man wherever he goes.

The third owner, Sharon, said, laughing, “I bring Belle to work with me because I want to and I can!” As we talk Belle, a mixed breed dog, is calm and quiet, with her head on her owner’s feet. Sharon works in human resources and was instramental in formulating the company’s dog policy. The company is very happy having the dogs at work although for the most part, clients never see the dogs. It’s still a success story.

A visit to a local furniture store bore excellent results. Rey, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, belongs to the owners of the store and comes to work every day. A very large Ridgeback, over 120 pounds, he can be intimidating. However, he is very well behaved, gentle, and kind. Although sometimes he’s on the display floor with his owners, most of the time he’s back in the office. He was such a good example of what a dog in the workplace should be that I interviewed his owners and used their information in the book.

My search for successful dogs in the workplace was interesting. I found that there definately was a need for our book as too many businesses seemed to allow the dogs to come to work on in informal basis. There were no or few company policies or guidelines. There were no policies in effect to cover problems or no system to allow arbitration between disgruntled employees. After all, not everyone loves dogs and some people are allergic to them. I hope the policies and guidelines that Jennifer and I outlined in our book will make it easier for both dog owners and companies to allow dogs to come to work.

More information on this book or the others I’ve written on my Web site, LizPalika.com.

First, I have to say that I was surely among the many disappointed people in this world when NPRs Scott Simon got married, not to me.  But, I’m happy he did, because marriage and parenthood has made him a better listen for us all. (Listen to his essay on Mother’s Day.)

This morning I listened to him interview Jules and Kate Feiffer about their children’s book, “Which Puppy?” I’ve always loved Jules Feiffer’s work, and the book sounds so adorable once I finished with my errands I ordered it.

From NPR:

“I watched [now-Pres. Obama's election=night speech], and … the next day, my editor contacted me and asked if I had any ideas for a story,” Kate Feiffer tells Scott Simon.

It turns out she did: Her idea was to write a book about a menagerie of animals — including a kitten, a turtle who takes barking lessons and a Guinea pig who says she can tell time with her tail — who compete to be the new White House pet.

“I had to write it very quickly, because we wanted to get it out before the first 100 days of the administration,” says Kate Feiffer.

But the challenge of working under such a compressed schedule meant Feiffer had to scramble to find an illustrator. Luckily, she had someone in her family who worked in the field; her father, Jules Feiffer is a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, illustrator and playwright.

Story and audio here.  Here’s the book at Powell’s.  This morning’s “Weekend Edition Saturday” also had a wonderful story on marine mommies, here.

After some technical difficulties this afternoon, my computer is up and running. All it took was Jerry glaring at it, and it begged forgiveness and promised not to give me any more trouble. So now that we’ve had dinner with Christie, I’m here with a late-night report of the first session I attended this morning (after breakfast with Christie and Terrierman at my infamous Eliot Spitzer- and J. Edgar Hoover-linked hotel, the Renaissance Mayflower). This session was aimed primarily at shelter workers, so rather than blogging it verbatim, I’m doing a little editing and occasionally adding commentary.

The two-hour session featured three speakers: Sue Cosby, executive director of the Animal Welfare Association in New Jersey (and fellow Twitterer); Bonney Brown, executive director of Nevada Humane Society; and Mike Fry, executive director of Animal Ark in Minnesota. They shared their strategies for keeping animals moving through the shelter system, limiting disease, increasing adoptability through socialization and marketing, and keeping animals with their people.

Here’s Cosby:

The most important thing you need to think about with no-kill sheltering is a sense of urgency for the animals coming into your shelter. Decide on a shelter model. Who are you taking in? Come up with a business plan on who you can/must take in and who else can take them. Work with rescue groups to take animals off your books, so to speak.

That’s a radical change from so many shelters that aren’t willing to work with purebred or other rescue groups. I can hear them screaming now that shelters working with rescue groups aren’t playing fair and are manipulating their numbers by doing so. Fail. Anyway, back to Cosby.

Feral cats don’t have any option when they come into your shelter. If you’re not re-releasing them because you’re not allowed to by law, you need to proactively get into the community and prevent those cats from coming into your shelter to begin with.

When I spoke with Alley Cat Allies a couple of years ago, Becky Robinson estimated that 70 percent of the cats in shelters were feral. That’s what helps to drive up the numbers of animals euthanized–when communities don’t institute TNR programs and instead prefer to euthanize feral cats. As a side note, one of the books in our goodie bags included TNR Past Present and Future: A History of the Trap-Neuter-Return Movement by Ellen Perry Berkeley. I’ve just skimmed it, but it looks like an excellent read and, among other things, addresses the belief that feral cats are a danger to songbirds. Check it out. Next, Cosby addresses the issue of vaccination. We’re all aware of the concern over excessive vaccination, but for shelter animals she has a different point of view.

Vaccinate immediately upon entry. Animals are not dying in shelters from overvaccination. Vaccination keeps them healthy. Shelters are often shut down from vaccine-preventable diseases. Put effort into keeping the shelter clean and animals healthy.

Toward that end, she recommends using disposable litter boxes and disposable food and water dishes. French fry trays make good food dishes and styrofoam soup cups make good water containers. What about the environment? Cosby would rather save a cat’s life today and figure out later how to do it in a more environmentally friendly way. She notes that no one likes to scrub litter boxes, so using disposable ones is a better way to prevent the spread of disease. Another favorite disease-prevention tool: gloves, gloves and more gloves.

We’d rather buy gloves than antibiotics and euthanasia solution. Handle every animal as though it’s diseased when it comes into your shelter. Spend your efforts on keeping animals safe, healthy and happy. Provide opportunities for people to stay clean in your shelter.

In Cosby’s shelter, cleanliness is next to catliness. Her advice sounds obvious, but of course that’s where most of us run into problems with anything: thinking that what we know is obvious to everyone else as well. She advises using appropriate disinfectants–Lysol is harmful to cats, for instance–and keep hand sanitizer everywhere. At this point, she demonstrated just how long it was necessary to rub sanitizer on damp hands for it to be effective. It went on for at least a minute. Good to know in these flu-ridden times. She goes on to discuss privacy issues, and no, we’re not talking Roe v. Wade or the constitutionality of school strip searches.

Don’t house dogs and cats together; the dogs will scare the cats and they won’t act adoptable. Give cats a nice, quiet room and blankets, towels and hiding places like boxes. This is for animals just coming in; give them some chill time. Teach staff how to recognize stress and disease and when there might be a problem. Be creative in coming up with ways to give animals privacy.

Other factors to consider: The question is not is this animal adoptable but is this animal savable? Upper respiratory infections, fungal infections, injured/hit by car, mange, parvovirus, panleukopenia, FIV/FeLV–Cosby says in most cases these animals are savable. Her goal is to build an isolation area with lots of big windows so the public can see all the animals that are available and show them what their donations are doing.

Be able to say to the public: Look at the animals we’re saving right now. Make those animals available for rescue and adoption. The power is not what you do in the four walls of your shelter; it’s what the community does.

After discussing her shelter’s Free to Great Home program, which adopts animals older than 8 years or that have expensive medical problems at no charge, she ended with advice on how to know when to euthanize. Hint: it’s not when animals look bad or sound bad. It’s only when they’re diagnosed bad: they are irremediably suffering, or their condition is unmanageable or has a poor or grave prognosis.

I had hoped to finish this tonight, but it’s almost midnight, I’m tired, and I want to do justice to Bonney Brown and Mike Fry, so more tomorrow.

Last night I went to a friend’s annual Academy Awards party. The hosts have a number of contests and prizes, and the most hotly contested is “Most Creative Dish.” Everyone brings a dish that is named or based on a nominated movie or actor.  This year I took a turn from my dog’s treats.  If you’ve ever baked healthy treats for your dog (and if you haven’t, I love Liz Palika’s The Ultimate Dog Treat Cookbook, Howell, $14.99), you may own cookie cutters shaped like dog bones. Your dog doesn’t care what shape the treats are and would happily eat them if they looked like poop. The shape is something we use because we like it.

Using that cookie cutter, I baked sugar cookies. Some of them were layered with vanilla frosting in-between two, like an Oreo, and some I left plain. I called them Milk Boners, cream-filled or naked.

Heh heh.

I didn’t win, but the cookies garnered some votes.  Some luscious Thai-type chicken dish won; it tasted terrific and was served on a platter with a bamboo hut.  Compared to that, it’s easy to see why some sugar cookies didn’t win. It took me so long to make all the cutout cookies that we never made it to the dog park <oops> so a couple of dogs are feeling their oats today. Nonetheless, the Milk Boners made a lot of people laugh, and that was good enough for me.

Baking was also a personal triumph, since the Counter-Surfing Setter did not manage to illicitly steal one single cookie. Not one!  Why? Because I have finally remembered not to leave food on the edge of the counter. If you deny access to Counter- Surfing Setters, you deny them reinforcement. This is not something people who have only had dogs with four-inch long legs think about, but given enough experience you can train yourself. And once you have successfully trained yourself, treat yourself with a bone-shaped cookie.

The VIN News Service takes up the issues surrounding the techniques of Cesar Millan, whose TV show and books have made him the hottest thing in dog-training in decades.  Timothy Kirn writes:

Cesar Millan, television’s ‘Dog Whisperer,’ has legions of fans, including some dog trainers. But a group of veterinary behaviorists is not among them.

The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) issued a position paper aimed at countering some of the pervasive influence of his show, which airs on the National Geographic Channel, and of Millan’s training approach, which is based on what the position statement calls outdated dominance theory.

[...]

Though Millan has been criticized by a number of different groups and individuals, he has supporters. {…] “I have never seen Mr. Millan be abusive,” says Martin Deeley, executive director of the International Association of Canine Professionals.

Millan does not use coercive techniques exclusively, but also uses positive reinforcement, says Deeley, who has worked with Millan and knows him well.

Raised by Wolves blogger (and regular PetConnection commenter) Heather Houlahan was interviewed for and is quoted in the piece.  On the whole, it’s a pretty good overview of a complex and contentious situation that leaves the dog-owning public wondering exactly which trainers have it right.

Which brings up that old joke in dog-training circles: The only thing two dog trainers will agree on is that a third dog trainer is wrong.