The other day I was having a discussion with friends of mine at work and we decided that we wanted to bring our co-worker's dogs into work and have a little puppy creche so that we could have some distractions at work. We all had a laugh at this idea knowing that we would never be allowed to do set it up. A few days later one of the friends I was having the discussion with emailed me an article from the BBC News website. Apparently there have been studies done in the United States around the benefits of brings your dogs into work! I was astounded that a workplace would allow this distraction, however it seems that the trial has shown many benefits.
They trailed having some people bring in their dogs, another group who owned dogs but left them at home and a third group who did not own dogs. The results of a study of these groups over a week was that in the mornings all groups had the same stress level, however the group that had brought their dogs to work had their stress levels lowered throughout the day as oppose to the other groups who had their stress level rise throughout the day. Also when it was tested that the people who brought their dogs to work, left them at home for a day, their stress levels rose on that day. The results show that bringing dogs to work is actually a stress reliever, so our idea was not as hopeless as we had first assumed. Armed with this knowledge I think I might try to implement a similar policy at my workplace, however first I will have to start owning a dog, so baby steps might be best practised here!
If you want to read the full article check out BBC News.
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