I love our office dog. He does more for my well-being at work than many of my colleagues.

I like scratching him, and he likes being scratched. He’s a small one, so for the best scritches, I lift him up. He usually likes that and often climbs onwards onto my desk. Which kind of works but is a bit awkward because he cannot easily get up or down on his own.

Hence: the dog podium. A pouffe? An ottoman? A kind of padded low seat, in any case, that I moved from our guest area/lounge to where I sit. The dog got my point immediately.