Take Your Dog To Work Day Highlights:
• Take Your Dog To Work Day® (TYDTWDay®) was first celebrated in 1999. 2024 will mark the 26th annual event.
• It was created by Pet Sitters International (PSI) to celebrate the great companions dogs make and promote their adoptions.
• The event encourages employers to experience the joys of pets in the workplace for one day to support their local pet communities.
• TYDTWDay is an annual event and is always celebrated on the Friday following Father’s Day.
• It also accommodates cat lovers (and other pets) and those who cannot participate on TYDTWDay. The entire week leading up to the event, June 17-21, 2024, is Take Your Pet To Work Week® and Monday, June 17, 2024, is Take Your Cat To Work Day®.
• PSI offers tips and ideas for virtual and in-person celebrations—as well as a sample “dogs at work” policy, employee participation form templates and more—in its TYDTWDay Event Toolkit, available for participants to access for free at www.petsit.com/toolkit.
• For businesses whose employees work remotely, PSI encourages these companies to host virtual celebrations of TYDTWDay, giving employees an opportunity to show off their pets remotely, to support animal shelters and/or animal-rescue groups, and to learn more about professional pet-care services.
• When PSI Founder and CEO Patti Moran created TYDTWDay, she saw it as a unique way to give back to the pet community from which PSI’s members earn their livings. PSI is the world’s leading educational association for professional pet sitters. For any day pets can’t be at work or if dogs need midday walks on TYDTWDay, pet owners can search PSI’s Pet Sitter Locator (www.petsit.com/locate) free-of-charge to find a local professional pet sitter or dog walker.
• PSI feels that through the events, non-pet owners are able to witness the special bond their co-workers have with their pets firsthand and be encouraged to adopt a new best friend of their own.
• An estimated 300 businesses participated in the inaugural celebration of TYDTWDay. Since that time, America’s love affair with pets and interest in TYDTWDay has grown to an all-time high.
• PSI cannot track the day’s participation rates because companies are not required to register in order to participate. However, media coverage and web traffic indicate growing support of and participation in the event across the U.S. and abroad.
