Friday was “Take Your Dog to Work Day.” There’s a nice picture of Blaze and Griffin at work with their friend Marsh. My dogs think that’s great. They get to go to work with me most of the time. When we go teach lessons they sometimes go with our car set up (link is to our 2012 version). When we go teach group classes they come with me to the training facility. They have their own office room. Sometimes they’ll be closer to the training room and then they can help with demonstrations. Another part of work is sitting with me while I write up lessons or follow up notes and reply to phone calls and emails. They think that’s also a pretty great way to spend time together. My dogs don’t know – but training time with them is part of my work. We also do school visits, presentations, and other demonstrations – I couldn’t do those things without their help.
Some of my students are really lucky and get to also take their dogs to work – dog friendly office places, vet clinics, grooming shops, and pet stores. They make use of the polite greeting training, settle training, and polite walking to help make this a success. Sometimes we have to recommend a temporary break until there is more training in place – we don’t want the dogs to practice inappropriate behaviors and unsurprisingly at work they need to be working – not always in training mode.
I’m really lucky that I get to spend this time with my dogs – and that they’re able to help me be even better at what I do.