Friday is Bring Your Dog to Work Day, but some pooches come more often

They have a doggone good time at work and have a “paws-itive” effect on their co-workers.

They’re the canines who accompany their owners to their jobs.

On Friday, Pet Sitters International sponsors the 16th annual Take Your Dog to Work Day.

For some dogs in the Valley, going to work is routine.

Marley, a 6-year-old Golden Retriever, is a member of Sam and Donna Boak’s family and his “work family” at Boak and Sons, 75 Victoria Road, Austintown, specialists in commercial and residential roofing, siding, windows, insulation and gutters.

“She’s come to work with me since she was a pup,” Boak said.

“She brings smiles to work. She has a calming effect on people.”

At Christ Episcopal Church in Warren, the Rev. J. Jeffrey Baker has a soulmate in Sammie.

The 21⁄2-year-old female Labrador retriever has run the halls at the church since she was a puppy. She even attends Sunday service.

Father Baker said dogs are a wonderful teaching tool. “They give us unconditional love ... same as the unconditional love God has for us,” he said.

Having a do “helps us understand and cope with death” because their lives are short. “Dogs are God’s gift to us,” Father Baker said.

At Brittain Motors in East Palestine, Cory Brittain, who works in sales at his father Tom’s dealership, brings 5-month-old yellow Labrador retriever, KC, to work. “She’s been here since she was 8 weeks old,” he said.

“Customers like to see her.” (She’s even been in the company’s advertising.)

Bill Cross, owner of Modern Office Products in Boardman, said his wife occasionally brings Kacee, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, to visit.

“We have a dog of the week,” Cross said of the business’s partnering with Friends of Fido and Mahoning County Dog Pound to promote dogs that are up for adoption.

Read more about the benefits of dogs at work in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.