August 5 is Work Like a Dog Day. I don’t know about your pooch, but Bunny doesn’t work very hard! Yet there are some ways that we can take lessons from dogs about working safely.

Hydrate

We’ve written about this before, but it’s really important to drink water. The body is 60% water and the brain is 75%, so both of them need plenty of water to stay active and perform well. 

Though I’m pretty sure Bunny doesn’t know how important it is to drink water, she just does it.

Take naps

It’s not always possible to do when you’re working in the office, but if you’re at home or working remotely you might be able to take a quick nap in the afternoon that will refresh you for the rest of the day.

Bunny can nap for far longer and still be bright-eyed and waggy-tailed, but people should nap for about 10-20 minutes to get a brief energy burst and still be refreshed.

If you sleep for 30-60 minutes, you’re more likely to wake up groggy and you won’t feel like you got enough energy. That’s because you went through part of a sleep cycle but not the whole thing. But, if you extend the nap to 90 minutes, you get through an entire cycle and so you’ll wake up alert and rested.

In other words, either go short (no more than 20 minutes) or go long (an hour and a half) but nothing in between.

Proper positioning

I don’t know about your dogs, but when Bunny’s sleeping she’ll just flop down anywhere and snooze. Head on a shoe? Sure. Half in and half out of the bed? Definitely. But when she’s active, she holds herself up straight, legs underneath her shoulders and hips.

Just as we should when we’re sitting at the computer! Though we do have a few more things to make sure we’re doing properly to be ergonomic and avoid injuries. Wrists straight at the keyboard, elbows and hips at 90 degree angles, and feet flat on the floor.

Get moving

Even couch potato pooches don’t spend all day binge watching TV or in front of the screen. They’re up and about, checking things out, getting into trouble, running around, playing with toys. 

Similarly, even when you’re working from home you need to stay ergonomically correct while you’re sitting down, but you don’t want to sit all day either. Get up and move around. 

Better yet, alternate between sitting and standing while you’re at work. If you don’t already have a standing desk but you do have a folding table, you can easily set up your own with some folding table risers to lift the surface up so you can stand. Choose risers that are easy to slip on and off as you change from standing to sitting.

You can also try changing your seat to give you a little extra wobble, which provides more movement.

How are you working like a dog? Let us know in the comments!