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  • Animals at work?

    I'm just curious how your guys's work deals with animals.

    Mine has an open-door policy. Animals can roam free. I'm even considering bringing my rabbit(soon to be rabbits, I'm getting another in a few hours) to work for kids to play with and pet.

    Just a bit worried about the fact that our second-most-common customers are dogs. XP While my rabbit seems pretty okay with dogs, when the big ones (like golden retrievers) start getting too excited, he does seem to get a bit nervous.

    We joke that we have ice cream for the kids, and dog-bones for the dogs. I think it was an inherited policy, from the fact that the previous owner had a dog and a cat that he let roam the property.

    How about you guys?

  • #2
    Unless all the dogs are familiar, I would advise against bringing a rabbit in. I know dogs who are great with kids and cats but when they see a "prey" animal, they go right after it.

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    • #3
      There's no official policy at my place, but I'm quite sure they're not allowed.

      If they were, I couldn't work there. I'm pretty much allergic to all kinds of animals.

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      • #4
        I've delivered to places with office pets. One of them had a dog who could find items that were unusable and would take them off to her bed. Every night her Mom would have to take the items back to the line to be checked to see if they really were bad, she had over a 80% rating last I knew.

        I've also seen office cats and having to take the cat out of the satchel before you leave is always interesting.

        Once had a office lizard and that was interesting to see him eat grasshoppers but not when it was a spider day. *shivers*

        But I have never seen a office rabbit. And I think your only going to ask for trouble if you bring a rabbit into a office where a dog already has pecking order. I would hate for you to lose the rabbit cause the dog takes it as a squeaky toy.

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        • #5
          As far as I know, animals aren't allowed in the library unless they're part of a program or they're a certified service animal. And with the latter, let's just say that library administration has had to set strict guidelines because of some problems with library SCs.

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          • #6
            I wouldn't bring the rabbits in because most people don't know how to pick one up. Some kids are naturally very gentle, but others will be more like "Yay! Stuffed toy!"

            I wish we could have critters at work. There are days when a "kitty fix" would be helpful.
            When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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            • #7
              The motel is pet friendly, and I've seen all sorts of pets that guests bring in.

              I've also brought the puppy and/or the guinea pig to the office on a few MOD days.

              On the paper route, the puppy supervises from the back seat of the car.
              Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

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              • #8
                You'd have to introduce the dogs and rabbits slowly, but they might very well get along when supervised. Our dogs and rabbits are fine. The rabbits know the dog isn't a threat and she's familiar. The dog knows the rabbits are not toys and feels she should protect them. It also helped that because the rabbits weren't scared, they didn't run, and didn't trigger her hunting instinct. I brought one of the rabbits to a pet store costume contest where their were a dozen dogs. They were so confused, because they probably didn't recognize a rabbit and he just sat there, so they all just ignored him!

                Wish I could bring my pets to work. Hee, I could have a service snake or something!
                "If anyone wants this old box containing the broken bits of my former faith in humanity, I'll take your best offer now. You may be able to salvage a few of em' for parts..... " - Quote by Argabarga

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                • #9
                  They aren't allowed in unless they are service animals. One of our cashiers has a service dog.
                  "Is it hot in here to you? It's very warm, isn't it?"--Nero, probably

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                  • #10
                    I used to work at The Pharmacy Named After Two Streets In Downtown Manhattan That Was Recently Bought By The Green Wall (hereinafter TPNATSIDMTWRBBYGW).

                    Once upon a time, long before my tenure there, they had a corporate policy of one official cat per store. Seems it was cheaper than hiring an exterminator.

                    Then one day (sometime in 1999, I think) a customer walked into TPNATSIDMTWRBBYGW carrying a dog. The dog spotted the cat and went for it, the owner tried to break up the confrontation, and the dog went berzerk and attacked its owner. They wound up having to pay her off, and removed the cats from the stores.

                    Of course by the time I worked there in '02-03, the mice had the run of the place.

                    ETA: would "official cat" be abbreviated "OFFAT"?
                    Last edited by Shalom; 01-02-2013, 12:59 AM.

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                    • #11
                      Quoth Shalom View Post
                      ETA: would "official cat" be abbreviated "OFFAT"?
                      As long as it doesn't meet the OFFOG! Or maybe that's what really happened?
                      I am not an a**hole. I am a hemorrhoid. I irritate a**holes!
                      Procrastination: Forward planning to insure there is something to do tomorrow.
                      Derails threads faster than a pocket nuke.

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                      • #12
                        There's a tradition of railway stations keeping cats, occasionally by domesticating strays. This was of course back in the days when even small stations still had full-time staff who could look after the cat, and when there was a need to keep vermin out of both the waiting room seat cushions and the parcels office. Seat cushions are these days reserved for the first-class lounges which are only at larger stations, and as for parcels offices...

                        The typical staff of a country station in Britain might have been the stationmaster, the porter, the booking clerk and often a signalman, since stations were good places to break a block section. The stationmaster might have been assigned to several nearby small stations simultaneously, but he was responsible for administering freight and parcels work, as well as the station as a whole. These days if you want to send a parcel, you either take it to the post office or call for a courier - such is the modern idea of progress.

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                        • #13
                          I've worked at various theaters where people would bring their dogs to work. This is ok...if it doesn't get out of hand.

                          One theater I worked at a long time ago, the wardrobe supervisor volunteered for the big animal shelter in town. She fostered animals, mainly dogs, and would bring her foster dogs to work with her. She must have gotten about 15 dogs adopted out that way. There was also the time she found a litter of kittens whose mother disappeared. She brought in this mewing box of adorableness. They were just old enough to start eating wet food, but they'd stand in it while doing so. So after they ate, she wiped them down and then we all took a kitten and figured out how to hold them and keep them warm while we worked. I had a kitten get quite comfortable down my shirt. Squee!!!

                          On the other hand, it got a little out of control when people started thinking "Oh well I'll just bring my dog and he can stay in the costume shop." One tech Saturday we had 5 dogs in there! They were well behaved, but come on, people, we're a costume shop, not doggy daycare.

                          But mostly, I think animals in the costume shop is a bad idea. There's pins on the floor, and you don't need cats sleeping on expensive fabric or dogs chewing on stuff. Plus the allergy issue.

                          In offices, I think it's easier to keep stuff out of reach, and to close the door so your dog doesn't bother other people. It's a nice little morale booster.
                          "If you pray very hard, you can become a cat person." -Angela, "The Office"

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                          • #14
                            My boss figured as long as I took a box from the box room so the bunny could hide, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Just as long as the bunny wasn't at the virtue of the dogs.

                            I know our customers really like the open-door policy we have to animals. I've never seen a non-dog animal come in, but they're just glad that they can take their dogs out on the boats too. (Usually the dogs get super-excited about that.)

                            Next door there is a rental house that is practically a bed-and-breakfast (usually up to four families will pool their money together and stay there). Some of their dogs get smart, realizing if they drop by they'll get treats. One started dropping by every 15 minutes until I realized it was the same dog, and stopped giving him treats.

                            Another one comes over and quietly asks for a treat. You give it to her, and then she quietly asks for another one. She's so polite I usually give her multiple small treats rather than one big one, just because she hasn't worked out that she's still getting about the same, and it makes her happy.

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                            • #15
                              We have a very open door policy on pets in my store. The Shawnie Lama (a customer and friend that has a couple screws loose) brings in his Irish Wolfhound, Shaggy, on hot days. I had an Assistant Manager temping for a little while and he got upset until I looked him dead in the eye and said Shaggy was a service animal and therefore if he tried to force the Shawnie Lama and Shagster out of MY store then he was getting a verbal whipping. From itty bitty me.

                              Temping Assistant Manager wouldn't look at me for a WEEK. Which I was totally fine with because he was a dillweed anyhow.

                              I have several customers that have service animals, actually. Mimi is a service pup for her Mom, who suffers from Bi-Polar disorder, and she's about to have a brother to help for when Mom goes into episodes.

                              I was going to train up two hound-mixes for my glucose levels but that fell through.

                              I've had customers come in with kittens, dogs, and a bird flew in the open door on the last nice weekend and he was left in there for two days (I dubbed him Damascus, because I didn't wanna yell "DUMBASS!" in the store). Haven't had anything besides dogs and cats, though. I'm looking forward to a lizard or snake so I can squee over them.
                              Now a member of that alien race called Management.

                              Yeah, you see that right. Pink. Harness.

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