The mere presence of a dog in the office can help people collaborate better, leading to a more productive workplace, according to research by scientists at Central Michigan University.

The findings were reported at the 20th Biennial Conference of the International Society for Human Ethology. The researchers are finishing data collection and will be soon be submitting the research for publication.

There’s plenty of research that shows dogs help their owners forge close, long-term relationships with other people, but there’s little about how this effect translates to the workplace, according to an article in The Economist. Christopher Honts and his colleagues decided to see if dogs’ presence in the office is as helpful as it is elsewhere.

You can read about the research methodology in The Economist article, but the results so far have been just what any dog lover would suspect: Dogs add to the bonding of people who work together, and their mere presence aids their collaborative efforts.

What a fine story for a dog-lover’s Monday morning! It might be worth sharing with your manager if you want to be able to bring your best friend to work with you in the future.

In a comment below The Economist article, Honts invites anyone interested in the team’s findings to email him and his team at cmudogstudy@gmail.com. “We welcome any and all inquiries,” he writes. (How cool is that?!)

(An appreciative arf to Janine Kahn for sending this tasty tidbit my way.)