Barking mad: Can office dogs reduce stress?

London (CNN) -- If you are wondering how to improve morale, encourage collaboration and limit stress in your workplace -- without spending too much money -- maybe you should consider getting an office dog.

At an architecture practice in East London, director Vivian Chan believes Tiger, a long-haired Jack Russell, is good for morale.

"Architecture is quite stressful, so having a dog around is very therapeutic," she says. "After we have a phone call with a difficult contractor, for instance, sometimes we just talk to Tiger about it. You can't really be all that serious when Tiger is jumping between chairs."

Far from interfering with the company's appearance of professionalism, Tiger appears to be a useful marketing tool. "When we have meetings with clients, he falls asleep on their shoes," Chan says. "Some clients talk to me while they're stroking him. Some even bring treats for him."

Having a dog around is very therapeutic
Vivian Chan, architect

See also: Is good karma good for business?

Next door, at a web and app development company, a four-year-old border collie accompanies his owner to work every day.

Project manager Imke Siefkes says Rabobi (which means "Spiderman" in South Africa's Xhosa language) doesn't cause any problems. He walks himself around a nearby park when employees go outside to smoke, responds to commands spoken in English, German and Polish, and has even managed to win over employees who suffer allergies and a fear of dogs.

"At first she found it a bit hard," Siefkes says of a dog-phobic colleague. "She was cool about it, though, and now she really likes it."

Siefkes believes Rabobi also has a de-stressing effect on the office environment, but not "at an instant level."

"It's not like, 'Where's the dog? Let's stroke him'," she says, "but his presence is pretty calming. He's friendly and he creates a friendly atmosphere.

"Sometimes we go to the pub after work and everybody knows him -- it's nice. When we go out together, he's always circling around us, making sure everybody's there."

According to a preliminary investigation published in March in the International Journal of Workplace Health Management by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Business, employees who bring their dog to the office can cap the amount of stress experienced during the day, and improve job satisfaction for all.

Randolph Barker, a dog-loving management professor, monitored the stress levels of employees at a retailing and manufacturing business with a 14-year history of allowing dogs in the workplace.

On any given day, the firm would have 20 to 30 dogs and 450 to 550 employees working across a facility about the length of five to seven football fields, Barker says.

A sample of 76 employees were studied -- some brought their dogs to work, some didn't, and some didn't own dogs. The study found that while everyone started the day with low baseline levels of the stress hormone cortisol, those who didn't bring their dogs to work reported drastically higher levels of stress by the end of the working day.

Those who had their dogs with them had low levels of stress throughout the day, and about half of that group felt that dogs were important to their productivity. Of the two groups without dogs, 80% felt that the dogs in the workplace had no negative effect on productivity.