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Event creator Pet Sitters International encourages businesses worldwide to participate in this fun event for a cause on Friday, June 21.

KING, N.C. (May 28, 2024) — On Friday, June 21, companies from a wide range of industries will welcome employees’ dogs for Pet Sitters International’s 26^th annual Take Your Dog To Work Day^® (TYDTWDay), and the event creator is reminding participants not to forget the special cause behind the fun event: to encourage people to adopt dogs from local shelters, rescue groups and humane societies.

Pet Sitters International (PSI), the world’s leading educational organization for professional pet sitters, established TYDTWDay in 1999. Since that time, PSI has encouraged employers across the United States—and around the world—to open their doors to employees’ dogs for one fun summer Friday each year to celebrate the great companions dogs make and promotion their adoption.

“Our pets bring such joy to our lives, yet in the ‘90s I saw story after story about the rising intake rates at shelters across the country and was torn apart thinking about the millions of shelter pets euthanized each year,” said PSI Founder & CEO Patti Moran. “I wanted to find a unique way for PSI to give back to the pet community from which our members earn their living, and Take Your Dog To Work Day was born.”

An estimated 300 businesses participated in the first TYDTWDay, and the thousands of posts that now flood social-media feeds annually the Friday after Father’s Day testify to the growing popularity and enduring appeal of the event. Since 1999, PSI has also added Take Your Cat To Work Day^® (Monday, June 17 this year) and Take Your Pet To Work Week^® (June 17-21, 2024).

“With recent shelter data indicating that more animals are entering shelters than leaving them, celebrating the human-animal bond and highlighting the importance of pet adoption has never seemed more critical,” said PSI President Beth Stultz-Hairston. “We hope businesses will find a way to partner with their local shelter and rescue groups this Take Your Dog To Work Day to help pets find their forever homes.”

PSI encourages businesses and pet parents to visit www.petsit.com/toolkit to access a free 2024 TYDTWDay Event Toolkit that includes a variety of celebration tips and ideas—as well as a sample "dogs at work" policy, employee participation form templates and more downloadable resources.

“We believe that through this fun event, non-pet owners will be able to witness the special bond their co-workers have with their pets firsthand and will be encouraged to adopt a new best friend of their own,” Moran said.

There are a variety of ways that businesses can celebrate on TYDTWDay, from planning a silent auction and donating the proceeds to a local shelter to holding a pet and owner look-alike contest to add fun to the day. For businesses whose employees work remotely, PSI encourages these companies to host virtual celebrations to allow employees to show off their pets remotely and still support animal shelters and rescue groups. Both in-person and virtual celebration ideas are shared on the PSI website.

“PSI also encourages participating businesses to partner with local professional pet sitters and dog walkers to learn more about pet-care options for their employees on the days that their pets can’t come to work,” said Stultz-Hairston. “We believe every pet should be a wanted pet—with a professional pet sitter to care for them when pet parents are away from home.”

To learn more, visit www.takeyourdog.com or the Take Your Dog To Work Day Facebook page.

Pet parents who need a professional pet sitter or dog walker to assist them during their event—or any day of the year—can search for a PSI member pet sitter at www.petsit.com/locate.

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