Paw-ternity Leave: BrewDog’s Paid Leave for Puppy Parents
BrewDog Starts Puppy Parental Leave
Photo via BrewDog

Puppies are adorable, have distinctive breath, and are a lot of work. BrewDog Brewery understands all of this, and to help new owners out with the latter (and to help them fully enjoy the former) BrewDog is starting a new policy: Puppy Parental Leave. Or Paw-rental leave, if you’re into wordplay.

The Scottish brewery is giving one paid week of puppy leave for all BrewDog employees, including those who’ll be at the new American brewery in Columbus, Ohio. Should anyone be surprised? The company literally has “dog” in the name, and it already lets employees bring their dogs (both puppy and adult) into the work place.

Still, this paid leave policy makes BrewDog Brewery more progressive than the United States federal government, which doesn’t even mandate paid maternity leave for mothers of newborn human babies.

“Here at BrewDog, we care about many things but have two main focuses about all others — our beer and our people,” BrewDog writes on its website. “And over the years we have noticed that our people also care about many things but have two main focuses above all others — our beer and their dogs.”

Puppies, BrewDog writes, “can be stressful for human and hound both.” The prime puppy buying period — seven to 12 weeks — is also where a puppy learns house breaking and “the permanent man/dog bonding begins,” as University of California, Davis, puts it on its Breeder Caretaker page.

The move for Paw-ternity Leave is right in line with BrewDog’s ethos. It’s known for pushing boundaries with ultra-high alcohol by volume beers and $50 million crowdfunded gambling campaigns. Offering paid leave is an inclusive policy we can all get behind, though, and maybe other companies can follow the brewery’s lead.

“We always want to raise the bar when it comes to offering our staff the best possible benefits,” James Watt, BrewDog cofounder, told USA Today. “We care about two things above all else. People and beer. We also just really like dogs.”