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Feeling a bit low? Suffering burnout? A 25-minute session with some rampaging puppies may just lift a smile – puppy therapy is the new ‘go-to’ wellbeing initiative and many of the big players are on board and extolling its virtues.
Puppy therapy is just one of the new ways that employers are trying to entice reluctant office workers back to their desks and for some it’s proving pawesome in other ways too. Paws in Work - the only licensed provider of puppy therapy in the UK found that office attendance increased by a jaw-dropping and paw pleasing 400% on the day puppy therapy occurs. It’s significant and a key reason why the big players including Coca Cola, TSB, Tik Tok and Google to name just a few are in the throes of matching up some puppy ‘wuv’ with weary employees.
How it works and why it began
Ashley Fry is the founder of Paws in Work, the business evolved from the healing power that Fry’s dog, Nelson, an English Bulldog gave him in his hour of need. “My mother was fighting a long battle with cancer – Nelson was extremely in tune with all the emotions going on at the time. When my mother sadly passed away, he provided so much comfort in helping us to grieve, just by being there and not saying a word. It was the simple act of having a cuddle on the sofa that provided such support,” says Fry.
Although it’s called puppy therapy, we’re not there to force wellbeing conversations on anybody. The sessions are all about the puppy
The best friend that never left his side in his own hour of need became his rock and it was a second trauma when aged six, Nelson also passed away. The hole was gaping but partially filled with the addition of a new bundle of fur fun, an English bulldog girl, called Margot. “I presented my wife with her, but over the next few weeks Margot wouldn’t eat or drink, she just couldn’t settle,” remembers Fry. There were no physical issues with her; her lethargy was due to a lack of socialisation and the resulting fear and anxiety from that. “That was the moment my brainwave came to me,” says Fry. He knew then that puppies need to be amongst people early on to feel at ease with humans and on the other side of the species’ coin, most people living and working in London are unable to keep a dog but would benefit five-fold from interacting with one. Paws in Work formed that bridge for both needs to be met. The business has been running for some seven years now.
Ready for your best day at work ever?
Employees are invited to a 25 minute session. It’s a case of sanitising hands, throwing off shoes and sitting down in the ‘summer garden’ – an area which is about as far removed from a bank of desks and chairs is possible. There’s a white picket fence around some artificial grass and a bundle of fur fun within it.
