The Los Angeles Pet Obsession is Real.

Angelenos Take Serious Pride in their Pets.

A simple Yellow Pages search for “pet stores in Los Angeles” will give you an 11-page list of 329 different options.

Given what we know about pet store frequency and the fact that Los Angeles is roughly 469 square miles, that means there is roughly a pet store per every 1.4 miles… and that’s a lot. With that knowledge it’s safe to say Angelenos are obsessed with their pets and rightfully so. We could venture even further and say that Los Angeles pet owners don’t even want to leave them at home while they’re at work. Luckily LACS understands this dilemma, and is why the LA Center Studios are proud to be a pet-friendly campus.

Our canine colleagues hard at work.

Pets Are The New Therapists.

Pets are therapeutic, so much in fact that both Harvard Medical School and Yale Law School have resident therapy dogs in the libraries that can be borrowed through the card catalogue, just like a book, for students to de-stress. These types of programs are popping up in colleges all over the country like UC San Francisco and Kent State University. You can find out more about pet therapy across college campuses here.

A 2012 study conducted by the Virginia Commonwealth University found, “employees who were around dogs in the workplace reported feeling less stressed than employees who have dogs but left them at home”. Most pet owners can attest to this, especially in Los Angeles where landlords enter apartments for repairs when animals are alone, and pet owners may pay $20 or more per day to have a dog walker drop by for 20 minutes. Both of these scenarios have the potential to be stressful for pet owners, and that’s just scraping the surface of things that can be cause for alarm.

Pet-friendly Offices And Your Health

Countless studies point to the fact that bringing pets to work make people happier, healthier, and willing to work harder/longer. Pets have been shown to even decrease blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and triglyceride levels.

Having a pet-friendly campus allows pet owners out of the office for at least a small portion of the day for walks and just a general breath of fresh air instead of remaining seated at a desk for the entirety of the day. Pets also create an environment for people to socialize with coworkers in a healthy and friendly atmosphere. It doesn’t hurt that LACS is pretty much perfect for having a pet; there’s a park on campus, and the entire space is enclosed, making walking Fido pretty easy.

How To Make Your Workplace Pet Friendly

Perhaps you’d like to have a pet-friendly workplace, so here are a few tips to making that happen:

1. Present this guide to your coworkers and see how many other people would be interested in having a pet-friendly office. A solid showing is always helpful in convincing the boss!
2. Check for coworker allergies, perhaps they would be interested in having a pet-friendly day once a week or on particular scheduled dates rather than everyday.
3. Establish rules and necessities. Do you want to have shared water bowls, specific feed times, treats, or no dog zones? Whatever needs to be done to make having pets in the office fun and productive rather than stressful is paramount!
4. Gather the facts, similar to those above, and present your argument including your plans for specific office rules to those in charge of your office policies!
5. Good luck!