Amazon Dogs go to work – does yours?

Working long hours can be a strain if you’re a dog owner, who let’s them out for a walk and to do their business? Well it’s not a problem if you work for Amazon at their US head office as you can simply take your dog to work. It’s a long standing tradition but it’s a large scale enterprise – with some 40,000 Amazon employees in Seattle, on some days as many as 6,000 dogs may be in the building.

If you want to know just how dog-loving Amazon are, you only have to find a dead page on their website and you’ll find that their 404 Error page will greet you with a picture of one of the Amazon dogs.

It all began with Rufus. In the early days of Amazon, a husband and wife team brought their Welsh corgi to work with them, and Rufus became a surprisingly productive part of the team. Employees would use Rufus’ paw to click the computer mouse to launch some of the earliest pages of Amazon. Rufus is still remembered at Amazon, there are photos of him around the campus, and there’s even a building in South Lake Union that was named after the beloved corgi.

There are plenty of fun things for dogs to do on campus. Reception desks in every office building are stocked with dog treats and on the 17th floor of Amazon’s Doppler building there’s a doggie deck where dogs can can run around. The neighbourhood has no shortage of poop bag stations, designated dog relief areas, and dog-friendly water fountains. This year, Amazon also opened a community off-leash dog park in the Denny Triangle neighbourhood for employees and dogs in the community to enjoy – it features rocks and other structures for dogs to play on.

“Having dogs in our workplace is an amazing treat—they make employees smile, and we’re proud this is such a uniquely Amazonian tradition—it’s truly ingrained in our company culture.”
– Lara Hirschfield, Amazon “Woof Pack” Manager

There is also a business side to allowing dogs in the workplace, it’s been found to lower stress and boost morale. The dog-friendly policy also contributes to Amazon’s culture of collaboration as an unexpected mechanism for connection. Amazonians meet each other in lobbies or elevators and stop to talk every day because of their dogs.

Tamebay Readers’ Dogs

It’s not just at Amazon that dogs go to work, we know many ecommerce merchants face similar challenges when they are working long hours so it’s only natural that they too take their dogs to work. We thought you’d like to meet some of them… who doesn’t like a dog photo?

Filipa Filipa is a rescue dog from Romania who keeps Invite designs company in their office and barks when someone is at the door with a delivery.
Pepper Pepper is chief security officer at iPosters. You’ll find Pepper constantly on guard checking on the comings and goings… except when it all gets a bit much and a well earned rest is needed.
Kirk & Neo Kirk is 2 and been working at GlitterStore since he was 8 weeks old. 3 months later Neo joined the company and has been going to work since he was 7 weeks old. NEO is far nosier and helps with everything as you can see! – Both have a very important job during work hours of keeping the rats away from under the containers in the yard!!!