My current client allows employees to bring their dogs to work.
For the most part, the dogs are a friendly and quiet bunch. My favorite is a chubby Corgi, an adorable little chap who greets his fellow office mates with lavish affection. I miss him when he’s not around.
A couple of the dogs are clearly higher maintenance, though, and perhaps not by coincidence, their owners are highly placed in the company. Perhaps for that reason, there isn’t a lot said about them under normal circumstances.
The other day, though, in a brief, informal social gathering, there were some pointed comments made about these particular animals. Honestly, I was relieved to find out that I’m not the only one who’s been terrorized or at least been made uncomfortable.
I understand how a dog who’s been abused in the past can be overly aggressive, but the dogs I’m talking about come from loving, caring homes.
Further, their owners are “animal people” who are extremely well-informed about nutrition, medications, etc.
That brings the bad behavior down to two factors: innate personality or poor training. Knowledge about grooming and feeding doesn’t necessarily translate into behavioral know-how.
There are a couple of dogs who seem just plain skittish by nature. There’s another, though, who I just can’t figure out: a stunning, gorgeous golden who growls softly with his mouth closed but at the same time, wags his tail. I don’t know if he’s timid or territorial, maybe both.
While the other less mellow dogs are kept in pens, the golden is permitted free range of the office, something I can’t understand about his owners: maybe it’s not such a hot idea to bring your dog to work if he or she can’t cope with a hoard of relative strangers, or if he or she likes to run around, an impulse with which I can well empathize.
The company has a vet, an in-house resource, and I may ask her advice one of these days. It could be a worthwhile extra-curricular project to figure out what makes this dog tick and to get him on my side, especially if that could be done without compromising him nutritionally with treats.
I have a purely selfish reason for investing time in this. I’m desperate to have a dog again, but with three relatively small grandkids, the dog would have to be extremely well-behaved.
My preference is for Huskies, a breed which requires a lot of care in selection, or a Husky cross, like my girl, Paula. Some Huskies are magnificent animals but others are less predictable.
In the past, I haven’t had the know-how or the time to really spend with my animals. If I were to become a dog owner again, I’d want to do it the right way.
Spending 8 hours a day in a dog laboratory is, thus, an opportunity that most people don’t have, and I’d like to take full advantage of it.
Meanwhile, I, who have feared strange dogs for years, actually find myself looking forward to seeing most of my four-legged co-workers.
If only they could give me some advice about JavaScript…