It’s the Year of the (recruitment) Dog!

It’s Chinese New Year and this year it’s the year of the dog. To mark this auspicious occasion Recruiter spoke with agencies that can call upon canine consultants.

First up, we have Pugsley (pictured, right), who works at Nottingham-based Cherry Professional. A spokesperson for the agency told Recruiter: “Pugsley is the dog of one of our consultants. We’ve got quite an open door policy. I think everyone in our office loves dogs and they do cheer the team up…

“Pugsley isn’t in every day but the reason Gareth, his owner, brings him in is that it’s an uplift for the team to have just a little pup wandering round. It brings a bit of peace to the office.

“He [Pugsley] is painfully loyal to Gareth. Gareth will walk out the room and he’ll wander round giving everyone else love to fill the void of Gareth.

“He has his favourite pink pig, which is a toy that people throw round the office and his dislikes is when Gareth isn’t with him.”

Next up we have another canine consultant at a Nottingham-based agency Express Recruitment in the form of Betty (centre). A spokesperson for the agency described Betty to Recruiter as a “fun, friendly and extremely independent little lady”.

“We’re not sure she’s quite ready for a career in recruitment yet as she’s still very much in her ‘terrible teens’! This aside, what Betty does bring every day is a happy face and a playful nature, which ultimately lifts the team. Not only is she incredibly cute, but she’s an excellent motivation tool as well.

“In the three weeks that Betty has been part of the Express Recruitment family, she has ensured she’s greeted every single candidate that comes through the door with a sniff, a lick… and more often than not… an attempt at jumping right up on their knee mid interview.”

In terms of her likes and dislikes Betty loves her signature “work coat”, the spokesperson adds.

“She absolutely loves her pink anorak to keep her warm in winter (she has been used to the scorching climates of Lanzarote). We have no tears, tantrums or naughtiness from this little lady… she’s just happy to be where we are! As long as there’s a walk at lunch time, plenty of sniffs in the courtyard, a few treats and a nice drink of cold water (out the water cooler of course, no tap water for this Princess!) then she’s one happy pup!”

We should note, however, that Betty’s real name is actually Medina, which is only really used when she is in trouble – such as the following incident, adds the spokesperson: “One of Betty’s cheekiest moments had to be on day one when she decided to run off and chew straight through a telephone cable, consequently leaving one of our administrators phoneless for 48 hours! Needless to say, she now has multiple chew toys in the office every day.”

Another fan of chewing telephone wires is Bear (left) at London-based Property Recruitment Company, who is known to sit in on conference calls and candidate interviews, say his owner and agency founder Kevin Redman.

He told Recruiter: “He’s sat in quite a few of our meetings with candidates. He always sits in on the final interview and if he sits on someone’s lap, we know they’re a good person for the business.”

According to Redman, Bear comes into work two to three times a week and is repaid by walks around the block. In terms of his likes and dislikes, he’s another fan of the dog and bone.

“He loves snacks. But he also likes telephone wires – chewing them, that is. It’s not a major problem but it causes our operations manager an issue…

“He dislikes being left in the meeting room alone – he gets upset about that. He loves people. He loves to sit on everyone’s lap in the business. He spends all day just working his way round the office trying to get snacks off people. He dislikes it when he doesn’t get any attention.”

• We’d love to hear about any other Canine Consultants out there in Recruiterland! Our editorial email is [email protected]

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