Companies large and small allowing pets.

BALTIMORE - Ever prepared, executive assistant Marian Smith stocks her desk with all the trappings of a modern office: Paper clips. Sticky notes. Pup-Peroni.

That last one? It's the only thing Smith's officemates at the Maryland Institute College of Art actually beg for.

Coscimo, for instance, a white bichon, regularly wanders from one vice provost's office to join Smith for snacks - his little coffee break. And there's the rescue dog that's a regular in the alumni relations department.

Though most companies still forbid dogs, officials say the workplace is warming toward pets. According to a recent survey by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, about one in five companies allow pets. And 3 percent of dog owners have brought theirs to work up to a couple of dozen times.

And it's not just mom-and-pop gift shops with cats in the window.

Dogs are now welcome at megacorporations including Amazon and Google. Even at North Carolina's Replacements Ltd., the nation's largest vendor of china and crystal, pets accompany the workers who tend to the fragile merchandise.

The growing allure of the office dog can be attributed to money, suspects Jennifer Fearing, a former economist for the Humane Society of the United States. It's an inexpensive perk that goes a long way with the workforce.

"Most dog owners feel guilty about leaving them alone all day and feel tension between trying to get what we want done at work and being the guardian to our dogs we think they deserve," says Fearing, who's now the Humane Society's California director. "From an employer standpoint in this era of benefit-cutting, this is something employees value, but costs us nothing to provide."

Though proponents of dog-friendly offices offer enthusiastic endorsements, the idea of pets at work doesn't charm everyone.

A cat owner, writer Chris Landers has nothing against animals. But as someone who has spent the last few years working from offices in Baltimore and Virginia, he'd rather not run into them at work. First, he has allergies. But he also doesn't trust owners to know their dogs' temperaments as well as they think.