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Dogs in the Work Place

9/22/2010

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This article comes by way of a co-worker of mine.
Of course I have to share!

Animal and human behaviour
Manager's best friend: Dogs improve office productivity

Aug 12th 2010 (http://www.economist.com/node/16789216?story_id=16789216)

OK. Here’s the plan THERE are plenty of studies which show that dogs act as social catalysts, helping their owners forge intimate, long-term relationships with other people. But does that apply in the workplace? Christopher Honts and his colleagues at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant were surprised to find that there was not much research on this question, and decided to put that right. They wondered in particular if the mere presence of a canine in the office might make people collaborate more effectively. And, as they told a meeting of the International Society for Human Ethology in Madison, Wisconsin, on August 2nd, they found that it could.

To reach this conclusion, they carried out two experiments. In the first, they brought together 12 groups of four individuals and told each group to come up with a 15-second advertisement for a made-up product. Everyone was asked to contribute ideas for the ad, but ultimately the group had to decide on only one. Anyone familiar with the modern “collaborative” office environment will know that that is a challenge.

Some of the groups had a dog underfoot throughout, while the others had none. After the task, all the volunteers had to answer a questionnaire on how they felt about working with the other—human—members of the team. Mr Honts found that those who had had a dog to slobber and pounce on them ranked their team-mates more highly on measures of trust, team cohesion and intimacy than those who had not.

In the other experiment, which used 13 groups, the researchers explored how the presence of an animal altered players’ behaviour in a game known as the prisoner’s dilemma. In the version of this game played by the volunteers, all four members of each group had been “charged” with a crime. Individually, they could choose (without being able to talk to the others) either to snitch on their team-mates or to stand by them. Each individual’s decision affected the outcomes for the other three as well as for himself in a way that was explained in advance. The lightest putative sentence would be given to someone who chose to snitch while the other three did not; the heaviest penalty would be borne by a lone non-snitch. The second-best outcome came when all four decided not to snitch. And so on.

Having a dog around made volunteers 30% less likely to snitch than those who played without one. The moral, then: more dogs in offices and fewer in police stations.
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Do you smell wet dog?

9/8/2010

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I've always known that swimming was great exercise for dogs, but this weekend I learned something new about doggie paddling. I've been working with a puppy who wants only to pace. For those that don't know, pacing is where the two legs on the same side move forward together. Not the ideal gait for the show ring. My friend recently finished her dog (Kumbe) who, as a puppy used to pace. I then asked my friend how she got her dog out of pacing. She simply replied, "I took him swimming." It never dawned on me that if a dog paces in the water, they sink. To properly swim, they HAVE to gait correctly. Sometimes the simplest answers are right in front of our face.

Since we're on the subject, I thought I would share more benefits of swimming.
Swimming involves the use of almost all the muscles required for movement, without the stresses of walking or running. Also, because water resistance is greater than air resistance, the muscles have to work harder. I found an interesting statistic from
Dr Arleigh Reynolds, a Veterinary Surgeon and Canine Physiologist. According to studies, one minute of swimming is equivalent to about four minutes of running.

Summer is winding down...find a pool, lake, pond or river soon and get your exercise on!
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    Erin C. Kerfoot

    A blog of useful tips, funny stories, and my crazy thoughts. Enjoy!



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