It is time I introduced all of you to the newest member of my family. Riley Belkin Gelb is the seven-month-old wheaten terrier puppy who has been doing his best to keep me from writing this (or anything else for that matter) by licking my fingers whenever I start to type.
A lot of attention has been given to the challenges of balancing work and children. What about the challenge of balancing work and pets? When I first began writing from home, I felt guilt every time I shooed my children out of the office. But I stood firm, determined to draw the line between home and work. Now it is Riley who wants attention during work hours, and I find I have no backbone at all.
My older son's room was painted recently, so Evan spent a night sleeping on the pull-out sofa next to my desk. The dog came in the next morning and decided he really liked the new arrangement. We now call it Riley's bed, and he sits on it all day, like a pampered pasha, taking up both physical and psychic space.
I'm told that there are dogs who help their humans work. Jeff Steen, a management consultant in San Francisco, uses his Jake, a 16-month-old mix of Labrador retriever and Rhodesian ridgeback, in place of a clock. The two are at their desk (one in front of it, the other under it) by 8am. Then, at 4pm, Steen says, Jake's "job is to make me take a break" so that Jake can take a walk. At about 7pm "he makes certain that I know it is time for play by placing his toy ever so gently in my lap.
"That is kind of like the old whistle in the factory that signals the end of the shift."
Not Riley. Although quite organised (he places all his chew toys within reach on his oversized bed) and well versed in the ways of modern communication (he jumps up and heads for the door every time America Online says "Goodbye"), he would not qualify as anyone's idea of an executive assistant. In the time it took me to write these paragraphs he whimpered to be let out three times. When we came back in from the last (unproductive) walk, he sneaked a pen off the desk and ate it.
I realise things could be worse. Sarah Imrie, a literary publicist in Manhattan, shares her home office with Abby, a five-year-old Lab mix, and Jaspar, a four-year-old cat of questionable lineage. Jaspar, Imrie says, "has a pathological obsession with the fax-copier machine" and so he attacks and then shreds any document as it is faxed, "the more important, the better".
Abby, in turn, "has a deep-seated hatred of all uniformed delivery personnel", leading her to bark uncontrollably throughout the day, usually "when I am on the phone with clients".
Imrie and I would not have these pet problems, of course, if we worked in an office. We would have different pet problems.
According to a study by the American Animal Hospital Association, 75 percent of pet owners feel guilty about leaving their animals at home when they go to work. And 38 percent admit to calling home to talk to those animals.
There is a mini-trend afoot allowing employees to bring their pets to the office, which has led to some interesting company memos. At Netscape in San Francisco, new employees are given a copy of the Policy on Dogs in the Workplace, which says, among other things: no dogs with fleas; no dogs that bark too much; no dogs in the restrooms or cafeterias or business meetings; dogs may not snatch food off people's desks; all receptionists will keep a supply of doggy cleanup bags.
NewsEdge, a content provider based in Massachusetts, has a similar set of rules, including a "three accidents and you're out" dictum for dogs who are not house-trained (remind me never to bring Riley to NewsEdge). Vacuums are provided for dogs who shed.
To every trend there is a naysayer, and Howard Mellin, who runs the Good Dog training school in Chicago, warns that spending all day with your dog may cause neuroses (he is speaking of the pet, not the owner). Of the nearly 500 dogs he trains each year, Mellin says, almost half suffer from separation anxiety and low self-esteem.
The cause, he thinks, is that so many people are working at home or bringing their dogs to the office that the animals forget how to cope when the owner is not around. - New York Times