Barking and barfing may happen, but the benefits far outweigh an occasional hurdle.
By Pam Foster, PetFriendlyOffice.com
As your Chief Pet-Friendly Officer at PetFriendlyOffice.com, I’m always on the lookout for experts in creating workspaces that include pets. So I can share their stories with you.
Animal Arts Design Studios is one of those experts.
In addition to creating innovative spaces for animal care through thoughtful architecture and design, they’re also a pet-friendly office. So they truly know what it takes to keep a pet-friendly workspace humming.
Heather E. Lewis, AIA, NCARB, is the principal at Animal Arts Design Studios. She’s pictured here with May the chicken. I love this!
I asked Heather to share her firm’s approach along with advice for pet-friendly office success. (Her sense of humor is delightful, as you’ll see.)
Can you describe what you offer to clients when assisting with a pet-friendly office?
Heather: In our world, a pet-friendly office space generally arises when designing buildings for other animal uses. For example, people who work in animal shelters usually have pet-friendly office spaces. Here are some of the questions we ask after the obvious stating point:
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Are you going to have animals in your office space?
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What types of animals might you have in your office space? This is a good question to ask because people might be bringing their own pets from home or day-fostering an animal in their workspace — this animal might have special needs such as under socialization, medical needs, etc.
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What species of animals will we plan for? Usually when we speak of pet-friendly offices, we think of dogs. But people can have cats in offices. Cats make great (better?) office animals! We have worked with clients who have all sorts of office animals, from a tortoise to tarantulas. (No kidding!)
Once we know those answers, we can help with design solutions.
We need:
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More cleanable flooring than typical. Ideally, no carpet.
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A way to safely have the animal in the office or work cube, while still allowing the employee to stay connected to other employees.
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For offices, we do "Dutch doors" which are the half barn type doors so people can lock in a dog. But a Dutch door will not contain a cat.
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For cats, they can roam freely — but only if the office has only cats. Cats and dogs do not mix very well. Another choice is to use a secondary screen door to have the cat in the office while still leaving the primary office door open. A third choice is to have the cat in a fun enclosure INSIDE the office for when the employee wants to keep their office door open, or when they are coming and going. A cat condo, for example.
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It might be helpful for employees bringing dogs to have a create to place the dogs in when they are away from their desks. We have pretty crates in our own office at Animal Arts. (Photo showing one of their crates >>)
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Work cubicles can be changed to have animals. For example, we might design a pet gate at the opening to the cubicle.
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For more exotic pets, they can be kept in proper housing inside the office. For example, the tarantulas are never loose. Thank goodness?
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If the employee is keeping a pet with certain husbandry needs, for example a lizard that needs heat and light, then the housing needs to provide for those needs, which means that the room does too. There needs to be a place to plug in Suzie in Accounting's lizard cage.
Other considerations we discuss with clients:
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Place to walk dogs outside for potty
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Place to throw away animal waste outside the building (no one wants it inside)
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Escape-proof front door. Solution: a vestibule with two sets of doors, with space between them.
When did your firm get involved with pet-friendly office projects?
Heather: We are very animal centric ourselves, and we have decades of experience in designing for animals. We have a pet-friendly office at Animal Arts, so that doesn't hurt either!
There are not very many people hiring us to design pet-friendly office spaces (in general). Most of our pet-friendly office design is secondary to the primary goal of our projects. For example, to design an animal shelter, veterinary clinic, etc.
However, pet-friendly office space is typical in our work because our clients are already animal friendly, and we are designing their clinic or their shelter. I think we have been more intentional about it in the past few years.
Here are two Animal Arts designs for pet-friendly workspaces:
A safe outdoor play/relief area…
and a vet-practice office space where the clinic dog is welcome to hang out.
Both photos courtesy of Murphy | Foto Imagery.
Do you get involved with their pet-friendly office policies, ground rules, insurance, legal, etc.?
Heather: Only tangentially. I can talk about Animal Arts' office policy, and I can comment from professional experience as well:
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Pets must be up to date on all vaccines. Vaccination is essential.
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The dog/cat/rabbit must be house- or litterbox-trained.
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Dogs, cats, rabbits must be spayed/neutered.
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There is a reasonable limit to the number of pets. For our office, it is a 3 dog a day limit. We had a dog sign up calendar for many years so you could reserve your spot.
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The management should reserve the right to ask someone not to bring a pet, at their sole discretion. For example, if a dog shows aggression, or if house training is an issue, or if there are other problems that arise, the pet may not be able to be in the office.
There may be other insurance implications as well. And I'm probably glossing over behavior evaluation, but I do not have the ability in that area to advise on the best way to have the pets evaluated for office suitability.
What have been your clients’ biggest benefits of offering a pet-friendly office?
Heather: There are two important ones.
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The first is attracting and keeping staff. Not everyone can leave their dog at home all day every day. Allowing some dogs to come in is a huge benefit for employees.
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The second is connecting employees with meaning and a sense of community. Sometimes the office animals take on an important social role, allowing connections at the office.
Pets make us better people. You smile and laugh EVERY day when there’s an animal in your space. That is such a huge benefit.
How about any hurdles or problems?
Heather: Most things people worry about will not come to fruition. The workplace will not become a dog kennel. It is still an office.
Setting parameters like the ones I listed above can really help. That said, if there are problems — for example, a dog bit someone — this needs to be addressed quickly and attentively, and prevention measures need to be put into place to prevent such an incident in the future.
“Occasionally an animal barfs on something or worse, but we manage. And we have a clean and professional office space. Being diligent and working as a team to enjoy the amenities is the key to success.”
We have not had many issues in our own office. We did have a nice big doggy who peed on our drawings every now and then if they were on the floor, but we loved him so much it did not matter that much! Occasionally some animal barfs on something or worse, but we manage. And we have a clean and professional office space. Being diligent and working as a team to enjoy the amenities is the key to success.
One thing that might be good to implement in a pet-friendly office is more regular deep cleaning. The cleaning crew should come several times a week or even daily as needed to keep the office clean, hair free, and never smelling like pets.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Many thanks to Heather and Animal Arts for sharing their fascinating and fun insights! Please visit their website for more information about their services.
About Animal Arts
Established in 1979, their expertise in animal care facility architecture and design spans the veterinary and animal sheltering worlds, assistance dog care and training campuses, veterinary teaching hospitals, and animal boarding and daycare. They design small general practice veterinary clinics, expansive specialty emergency practices, and equine and large animal hospitals. Their work with animal sheltering organizations begins with needs assessments for small, nonprofits and continues up to large-scale shelter design for nationally recognized organizations and municipalities.
About PetFriendlyOffice.com
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