I’ve had a dog for five years now. More precisely, a vizsla has been living with me for five years. There are very few areas of my life he is not involved in. He comes with me to the grocery store, to the pub, to hiking, even to the climbing gym. And of course to work.

Me and my buddy

That’s why it was important for me to cautiously ask the HR manager when I was applying to Mito four years ago “Can I bring my dog with me to the interview?” And the answer was an enthusiastic “Sure thing! Our office is dog-friendly, come together! While you are chatting with Bálint (namely Bálint Ferenczi, former UX lead at Mito), I’ll pet your doggo!”

I can hardly imagine my days without my spirit animal… that’s just how it is. 

Why is this good?

Nowadays there are more and more dog-friendly offices: there are more and more people like me, and many companies realize the importance of taking your dog with you to work. But what’s so good about having dogs in the office?

First: as a dog owner, it’s quite liberating having your dog with you, because you don’t have to worry about your apartment getting trashed while you’re away, and your pet’s twice-daily walks are also taken care of.

Second: dogs are the only colleagues you won’t get mad at if they nudge your elbow with their nose during work.

Third: they always fill you with some peace and joy if you peek your head out from behind your monitor.

Fourth: I’ve seen a colleague of mine – after a difficult client call – lay down next to my dog on his bean bag chair… yes, that’s where he’ll work from now on.

But dogs can also easily brighten up the Mito Summer Trip when they stand next to you at the bar to order some premium stuff…

I could go on listing the pros.

At Mito, it was never a question whether your dogs could come into the office. Of course they can! And they do! We have small dogs and large dogs, shelter dogs and pedigree dogs, males and females, short-legged ones and long haired ones… All kinds.

This is how we do it

After reaching critical mass, problems cropped up too, of course: the dogs sometimes got into a tiff, one left a shit here, another marked a desk there… And of course not everybody is comfortable with dogs. No problem! Everything was going to be great: we found a solution!

We put together a policy for Mito dogs, laying down some ground rules. Nothing special; just things like “dogs should be house trained”, “they should come when called”, or “don’t feed your four-legged colleagues without their owner’s permission.” Owners should make sure that their pets don’t harass anyone who doesn’t like it. Just the basics, really. But because there are so many of us in the office, even these sometimes evident rules needed to be laid down and must be kept.

When searching for our (now no longer) new office, it was imperative to find one that is dog-friendly. We even passed up a few options because of this. But in the end, we managed to find a place that is all-around ideal for everyone at Mito – regardless of the number of their legs

Here we put conscious effort into supporting dog owners with useful stuff, like soliciting the help of a dog trainer to ensure an even smoother coexistence. Gábor Korom, the creator of the Mirror Method, also visited our office – while working on his Dog-friendly Workplace Program – to see how we do it. We’ve also helped the Noah’s Animal Shelter Foundation by volunteering, and the pet owners of Mito sometimes go on dog-walking jaunts together.

We created WoofWhere™, our dog directory, which contains all the most important info about Mito dogs: their name, their owner’s name, the room they belong to, dos and don’ts. And of course, a photo of everyone to help the identification of potential runaways. Obviously, all Mito dogs are perfectly well-trained: they don’t wander away, they never steal plushies from the next room, they never sneak into the kitchen to beg for food…

Unfortunately, last year we could not really enjoy the benefits of a dog-friendly office: everyone was at home, for obvious reasons. But the pets of our dog/cat/gecko/cassowary-owning colleagues still made for some entertaining moments, like a cat’s ass appearing in a random zoom call, or a dog lolling about on the couch in the background. We even put together an awesome “WFH with pets” gallery when being confined to our homes was still new and fun.

We are now going into the office more often. New people have arrived since then, and there are new dogs too, of course. But one thing that hasn’t changed is that dogs are always welcome!

Creating a dog-friendly office is just like adopting an animal: it seems like a lot of hassle at first, but after some time, you can’t even imagine not having your pet with you. Because having a dog-free office is possible – it’s just not worth it! And let’s not forget that dogs are the descendants of wolves, while humans are related to monkeys… which might be a bit embarrassing for people, but it’s comforting to know that our dogs are here supervising us to keep us from doing something stupid and to make sure that everything is going to be great!

The author(s)

Ferenc Tolnai

UX Designer