Anyone know what day it is today?  It’s ‘Bring your Dog to Work Day’ – an initiative helping to raise money for ‘All Dogs Matter’, a re-homing charity.

Lots of you humans might have experienced the joy of owning a dog like me: the long walks in the wind and the rain – such fun! When we bring you presents like our soggy tennis balls – fun, fun, fun! When we clamber on top of you for a cuddle because we love you so much – hooray, fun!

But we’re actually rather good to have around in the office too, did you know that? Something called BeeBeeSee Nues has said that bringing dogs to work can ‘reduce stress’.

(What is stress? I’ve never heard this word before… Maybe it’s like when my human looks up to the ceiling and quietly counts to 10 after I’ve made a new pattern on the carpet with my paw prints. Hmm.)

Anyway, a study found that having canine friends in the workplace can ‘contribute to employee performance and satisfaction’ – which I think means that the humans are happy and work well. Although I’ve never seen any of the humans in my office have their tummies rubbed, so I’m not sure they’re doing that well…

Have I introduced myself to you yet? Sorry, lots to do today (balls to chase, toys to squeak, humans to guard – the usual). I’m Mabel, and my official title is ‘Director of Staff Morale’. Sounds fun, doesn’t it!

I don’t get to come in every day, but I do love coming to work. I start my day by squeaking my tennis ball (which normally gets a lot of oohs and ahhs – humans are very appreciative of my craft). I follow that with a little sleep.

A quick stretch and I am up again and will go from desk to desk for a bit of fuss, whilst checking out all the bins (you wouldn’t believe what humans leave in there). I then tend to spend the afternoon curled up under my human’s desk, snoring gently for hours on end. It’s such fun but, as you can imagine, very hard work.

What I have noticed is that everyone is happy to see me (apart from when I am on bin patrol; for some reason humans don’t seem to appreciate this). Everyone smiles when I drag my human into the office (not as hard-working as me, you see). And everyone likes to give me a little pat or some fuss when I do my regular trots round the office to make sure everybody is happy.

My own humans are especially happy because I am not left at home alone with only the radio for company and an old sock to play with. And I am happy because, actually, being a ‘Director of Staff Morale’ is a pretty good job for a three year old mischievous Springer Spaniel.

A dog is not just for Christmas…you need to take us to work too 🙂

P.S To donate to All Dogs Matter and find out more, visit the Bring Your Dog to Work Day website.