In addition to their own dogs, at least six others belonging to employees showed up for last year's Take Your Dog to Work Day, and, after settling in, all seemed to get along fine.

"Its real purpose is to promote adoptions -- for people in the workplace to be exposed to dogs and see how calming and relaxing they can be," Denise said of TYDTW Day. "That's the reason my husband started bringing them in in the first place. If he's having a stressful day, it kind of took the edge off."

The magazine has had one employee who was fearful of dogs, but he eventually came around, she said.

The dogs of Baltimore Dog Magazine have it pretty good: air conditioning, dog beds, a brick doghouse out back (though none uses it), and plenty of grassy patches in the company's fenced-in parking lot,

Tyson and Star spend much of day in Denise's office, while Astro lays around until lunch hour, then starts cruising trash cans for leftovers. If food is left out, Astro will generally find it -- as we found out during our visit with Denise. We were interrupted when an employee stepped into her office:

"Uh, whoever left brownies on the counter by the coffee machine ... "

Just then Astro walked in, licking his chops.