By Helene, Mexico

I have recently read on the internet that dogs at a work place help to relieve stress. I have a dog – Nise.  She is big and cuddly, and well, that day I had plenty of small but urgent things that were spoiling my life. Why not take Nise to work then? My colleagues seem fine with it, as well as my boss.

Early in the morning we set off to work. Nise was happy to go, she is usually happy to go anywhere even if she is not actually needed there. This time she was welcomed, running like crazy, testing all the puddles that were left after the rain, and a thought crawled into my head, that probably taking her wasn’t the best idea. Nise was supposed to relieve my stress at work, not necessarily on the way there.

Then, the moment of truth came.  When we arrived to our comfortable small office, the thought that was trying to crawl into my head became clearer: I should have left my dog at home, as I usually do! She disliked the idea of staying in a small room after running freely on the street and hid under the table of my colleague. Even cookies couldn’t convince her to come out, Nise was yelping and insisting on staying under the table.

Finally my boss arrived. Who knows what entered my dog’s head, maybe she mistook the poor lady for someone else, but Nise flashed to her happily as if asking to be saved, and jumped on her. At that moment, I understood that I will be fired… the expensive tights that my boss was wearing were torn with sharp canine nails. Also, I knew that today my boss had to go to an important meeting…

I will not describe here all that I had to hear out about my dog, myself, and my poor idea of taking the dog to the office. I was told to take her away, immediately. On the way home I was thinking what to do further, if I shall come to work today or I shall put all off till tomorrow. Or maybe better to look for another job?

In the meantime, Nise was running around like crazy testing rain puddles, happily wagging her tail. I was looking at her and feeling relieved. Yes, dogs really relieve stress, but not at work.