Leash Out Pet Photography – Toronto Pet Photographer » Pet Photography

Before I began my new venture as a pet photographer, my previous career was in Human Resources in a Consultant role.   A key factor that was of importance when I was consulting with my clients was, Employee Engagement.  It is proven, an engaged workforce is linked to superb customer satisfaction, which leads to high profitability and happy share holders.  I remember leaving on the Go Train for work and thinking about how much happier I would be if I could bring Zaira with me!  My day would go by much smoother, if I needed to smile she was there and during breaks you could go for a nice walk.

Pets Plus Us – a pet insurance company in Oakville Ontario, takes “Employee Engagement” to a whole new level!  Their pets are more then welcome at work!  I had the pleasure of being welcomed at their location to photograph the pets and team members.  When I walked in, I had an expectation of dogs barking or meeting me at the door and it was quite the opposite.  You could hear a pin drop!  They were calm, relaxed and enjoying their day.   These animals were so well socialized and I was very impressed.   I’m excited to announce that Pets Plus Us is my featured blog!  Enjoy the interviews of a few of the team members and of course the photos of them and their fur companions!

Please click HERE to check out the Pets Plus Us website.  You can read about their pet insurance options, who they are and much more!

Sarah, Advocate of Claims and Underwriting & Honey-Dew

What does it mean to you to be able to bring your dog to work?
It’s a huge perk!  It means we get to spend more time together and there is nothing better than that.

How has this impacted your home life and work life balance?
Spending time with your pets is a huge stress relief at work and at home.  Being able to bring Honey to work is like being at home – The office has more of a “home-like” feel to it.  It’s casual feel, allows for us to take the dogs for walks on the trails throughout the day or at lunch, allowing everyone to get outside for some fresh air or sunshine.  It’s great to be able to get away from your desk to be more active or even have a good stretch and play time with your dog or the office cat Bruin.

Have you seen changes to your dogs life since you were able to start bringing her to work?
I’ve been kind of lucky in the sense that she has always come to work with me.  Being a veterinary technician first, meant that she was accompanying me to the clinics, and greeting clients & patients.  When I made the change to Pets Plus Us, it was perfect because our daily routine that she had always known didn’t have to change.

Katie, Advocate & Waldo

What does it mean to you to be able to bring your dog to work?
Bringing Waldo to work with me means not having to leave him by himself all day. I love that I know he enjoys coming, and can still have his naps under my desk, but can also come out and play with his buddies.

How has this impacted your home life and work life balance?
Having dogs at the office definitely makes work life much more enjoyable. If I am ever having a stressful day all I have to do is look down and see Waldo wagging his tail at me and my stress is totally relieved.

Have you seen changes to your dogs life since you were able to start bringing him to work?
Waldo loves coming to work, and bringing him every day has made him much more calm since he isn’t going stir crazy being cooped up in a house alone all day!

Ela, Marketing Enthusiast & Chester

What does it mean to you to be able to bring your dog to work?
Being able to bring Chester to work means that I don’t have to rush home from work worried that he’s been home all day without being able to go out or getting any attention. It means that I don’t have to pay for a dog walker during the day. And it provides me with a sense of relief to know that he’s getting lots of love and attention during the day.

How has this impacted your home life and work life balance?
It definitely makes things easier at home. Chester is usually exhausted by the time we get back from work, which means that I can focus on spending time with my daughter while Chester rests up. At work, it forces me to take a break to walk Chester throughout the day, which is such a great mental break. It helps that we have a great walking trail behind our office building.

Have you seen changes to your dogs life since you were able to start bringing him to work?
Chester is a young Labradoodle with lots of energy, so taking him to work has definitely helped socialize him with other people and dogs. I’m also surrounded by a lot of amazing dog experts at work that provide lots of great advice on training, pet health etc.

Additional Comments
When things get stressful throughout the day, having pets at work can be an instant stress reliever. It creates a whole different atmosphere filled with friendliness and entertainment.

What obstacles did you encounter in order to be able to bring pets to work?
The biggest obstacle was finding a landlord that would allow us to have pets on the premises, even though we agreed to take full responsibility for any damage that they may create (which by the way has been none in our 18 months at our current location). I think landlords have a misconception that the dogs will be barking and disruptive, which is far from the truth, most days you would be hard-pressed to know that there are dogs in our office if you did not see them.  We even had one landlord that was willing to work with us, but as soon as the other tenants heard we would be moving into the building they complained to the landlord and the landlord then backed out of negotiations with us.

Have you seen positive evidence in employees moral and employee engagement at work?
Definitely, there have been many instances of all of us having a good laugh over the antics of the dogs and/or the office cat Bruin. The dogs are so excited to arrive at the office each day that their excitement and enthusiasm is shared by the employees.  Additionally, we run a call centre, it would be likely that by now one or more of our employees would have left, but to date we have had no one resign.  People truly do enjoy coming to work each day.  As I don’t bring my dog to the office as he doesn’t enjoy the car ride, it is nice to see the other dogs tail wag when I arrive.

As a manager of people who can bring pets to work, what challenges to you run into as a manager?
Really none, the staff that bring their dogs to work know that it’s a privilege and they enjoy having their dogs with them all day and therefore they make the extra effort to ensure that there are no issues.  If a couple of dogs have a disagreement their owners quickly take control of the situation.  If a dog has an accident, which I believe has only happened twice, the dog’s owner is quick to clean up the area.  They also have tremendous respect for each other, i.e. if one staff member’s dog is under the weather they will leave their dog at home so as not to infect the other dogs.  The dogs are required to remain with their owner wherever they are in the office (the only exception are the washrooms) so we quite often have dogs in the meetings with us and I can’t think of one instance where they have been disruptive.

What does it mean to you to see pets at work?
For me it just brings a completely different atmosphere than what I have witnessed during my career prior to starting up Pets Plus Us.  As stated above, it’s very nice being welcomed every morning by the dogs and the office cat.  Bruin actually comes running to me as soon has he hears my voice. If I ever need to decompress I simply go and say hi to the dogs and pat them a little.  They are a great stress release.

Be sure to follow Pets Plus Us on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/petsplususca and Twitter:  www.twitter.com/petsplususca!