Lea Burbidge-Izquierdo, left, holding Akari, a 12-week-old Olde English Bulldogge, and Francesca McFadden, holding Oberon, Akari’s sibling, at Doggos Events’ Toronto offices on April 6.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
When Francesca McFadden of Doggos Events arrives at a new company, she sets up a patch of fake green grass bordered by a small white plastic fence, and releases the dogs. Then, she waits for her favourite moment.
It comes when a busy executive peeks in and asks what’s going on. Play with dogs? Would love to, but too busy. Oh, okay, maybe just for a minute.
Nearly an hour later, he’ll have to pry himself away to get back to his desk.
“They will come right into the pen snuggling the dogs. It’s adorable,” says Ms. McFadden, who founded Doggos, a Toronto-based company that puts on social and corporate dog events, in 2020.
Doggos has been doing between 10 and 20 corporate events each month this year, compared with one or two a month last year.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
With many employers eager to entice people back to the office, companies that offer the dog-at-work experience say business is booming. Doggos has been doing between 10 and 20 corporate events each month this year, compared with one or two a month last year. Corporate Canine Therapy, also in Toronto, has seen a similar surge, with business up 80 per cent so far this year compared to 2022, says co-founder Rodney Kaufman. Even the Toronto Humane Society is reviving a program that brings animals to workplaces.
It is exactly the kind of can’t-get-this-working-from-home perk organizations need to entice people back to offices as we come out of the pandemic, says Janet Salopek, president and founder of Salopek and Associates, a Calgary-based human resources consulting firm.
“Top of mind for most employers right now is, how can we bring people back to work and not lose them?” Ms. Salopek says. “Organizations are wanting to create experiences for their employees. So when they come back in, it’s not just about coming back into work.”
As many Canadians came to prefer working from home – a September, 2022, survey from the Environics Institute for Survey Research and Toronto Metropolitan University showed that 78 per cent of Canadian employees like working from home better than the office – corporate dog events have continued to grow in popularity.
Doggos now fields at least five calls a day from companies requesting visits, says Ms. McFadden, who has worked with TD Bank and Deloitte, among others. Her first “corporate dog social” took place in the fall of 2021 when Pinterest reached out to ask if the company could run a puppy yoga program at its Toronto offices.
Last fall, Doggos held a Puppies and Pastries event at McCarthy Tétrault, a Bay Street law firm in Toronto.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
At each event, Doggos brings five to 10 dogs, all from breeders and rescue agencies, along with the fenced-in patch of fake grass, where for two hours employees get to play with the animals.
Last fall, Doggos held a Puppies and Pastries event at McCarthy Tétrault, a Bay Street law firm in Toronto.
“The firm just obviously went head over heels for the pups,” says Paul Galbraith, a partner who brought Doggos in for the event, part of the firm’s United Way fundraising campaign.
Employees had to make a donation to participate in one of the nine sessions held over three days.
“Every session was absolutely packed,” Mr. Galbraith says. “And it was amazing to see everybody from assistants and articling students up to our very most senior partners reacting in exactly the same way to the puppies – absolute bliss.”
It wasn’t just great for fundraising. It also got people back in the office, Mr. Galbraith says.
“Especially as we were sort of bouncing back from the pandemic, and people were looking for reasons to get together in person, it was an awesome way to bring people together to get them into the office and to get them reconnecting with their colleagues.”
Mr. Kaufman says another reason dog events are so popular is that mental health and wellness are a priority right now for many companies. “They need ways of providing innovative ways of addressing it,” he says. “We’ve had CEOs on the floor crying because they’re so stressed out and the dogs have just taken this stress from them and, and they’ve just been able to just let it go.”
'If you tell your team there’s going to be puppies here on a Friday, everyone will be there first thing in the morning,' Ms. McFadden says.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Mr. Kaufman launched his company with two teams, each consisting of a dog and its handler, in 2016. Today, the company has 56 teams doing events every day of the week. His client list is a who’s who of corporate Canada – RBC, McKinsey & Company, Cadillac Fairview, Labatt and BMO Financial Group have all engaged his services.
Often, the same company will book repeat sessions, sometimes out of inter-office jealousy, Mr. Kaufman says.
For example, his company has been hired six times by the accounting firm Ernst & Young. “Once the forensic accounting had it, the other five departments had to have it,” Mr. Kaufman says.
Later this year, the Toronto Humane Society plans to bring back its Corporate Shelter Pets program, shuttered at the start of the pandemic.
“People are trying to get employees back to work,” says Tegan Buckingham, THS director, integrated marketing and development, “and for us it’s a way to potentially make that match and find somebody who would take this animal home.”
Ms. McFadden has seen time and again the success of the simple but effective pitch of dogs at work. “If you tell your team there’s going to be puppies here on a Friday, everyone will be there first thing in the morning.”