At Office Buddies, we’re all about making workplaces better for dogs and their owners (and making dogs better for workplaces, too!). Unfortunately here in Silicon Valley we’ve seen a massive number of high-tech job layoffs, so there may be many dog-owners out there looking for new employment soon. Here are some tips to find a job that will welcome your furry Office Buddy, too!
Certain job search sites, like LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, and SimplyHired, will allow you to put “dog-friendly” into their search parameters. This will turn up a lot of jobs in the pet industry (not all of which will actually be appropriate for bringing your own dog). (As a side note, it is frightening to see how many job openings there are for “dog trainer” that say “Dog Training experience is not required”!) But these filters will also let you look at jobs within your profession that might welcome your “cowoofer”.
Find a Dog-Friendly Company
The other option is to research dog-friendly companies and look for what jobs they might be hiring for. Companies that focus on pets are usually pet-friendly, such as Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), HealthyPaws, Chewy, Kong, PetSmart, PetCo, PetDesk, Trupanion, Mars Petcare, Rover, Trupanion, and Purina.
Here is a fairly comprehensive list of dog-friendly companies that are not in the pet industry:
- Addepar
- AirBnb (SF headquarters)
- AllStripes
- Amazon (Seattle headquarters)
- Anchorage Digital
- Athena Health
- Ben & Jerry’s (see their K-5ers pictures and bios here)
- Bissell
- Build-A-Bear Workshop
- Carfax
- Ceros
- Cisco Meraki
- Clari
- Clif Bar
- CodeSignal
- Domino Data Lab
- EquityBee
- Etsy
- Eventbrite
- FabFitFun
- Glassdoor
- Google (dogployees are called “dooglers”)
- Hinge
- Indiegogo
- Invitae
- Kabbage
- Kea
- Kinship
- Klimpton Hotels
- Livenation
- Modernize
- Momofuku Milk Bar
- mParticle
- The Nerdery
- Nextroll
- Notion
- Nvidia
- Procore Technologies
- Procter & Gamble (Pet Care division)
- Ontra
- Ookla
- Redtail Technology
- Render
- Salesforce
- Samsara
- SelfMade
- Sensor Tower
- Sittercity
- Specialized Bicycle
- Splendid Spoon
- SS&C Advent
- Stride Health
- Squarespace
- Sugarfina
- Superhuman
- TaskRabbit
- Ticketmaster
- Tito’s Vodka
- Tradesy
- Trellis
- TripAdvisor
- Uber
- Upwork
- VMware
- WeaveGrid
- WeWork
- Workday
- Zogics (see their dogs here)
- Zynga
Just ask
You can also ask, when interviewing, if you can bring your dog to work with you. Companies are not required to permit pet dogs. But you can create a “resume” for your dog as well, showing what a great cowoofer your dog would be. It can include obedience classes your pup has taken, what titles you’ve won together, and skills and experience acquired either at your last workplace, or learning to be a good “pawsonal assistant” while you worked from home. Be prepared to tell the new company of your preparations for making sure your Office Buddy is clean, friendly, securely contained in your workspace, and occupied while you focus on your job. Let them see that your Office Buddy will be an “asset hound” to them! (See below)
Want to know more about how to make sure your dog is a good Office Buddy and your workspace best set-up to include your dog? Look for the Office Buddies book, coming soon! In the meantime you can follow the Office Buddies account on Instagram or Facebook.
Dog Resume
Your dog’s resume should include:
- Dog’s name, breed/mix, age (puppy/adult/senior), for example, “Rex, young adult Labradoodle”
- Training background (classes taken or private training sessions: “Basic Obedience 1 completed as well as 6 weeks of private lessons”)
- Any dog titles achieved (obedience, dog sports, etc.: “American Kennel Club STARR Puppy title and Nosework 1 achieved”)
- Background office/workplace experience (“office dog for previous job, 2 years, with great reviews!”)
- Favorite work-friendly hobbies (“Hobbies include napping during meetings, quietly chewing on toys, and short games of fetch with coworkers during coffee breaks”)!
(Note that a service dog is considered a piece of medical equipment and is always allowed in any workspace as a reasonable accommodation. You should never pass your pet dog off as a service dog; a service dog is one that has been trained to perform a task that mitigates a disability, and has excellent public manners. There are no official certifications for service dogs. )