Come on, no need to compare programmer hygiene to that of dogs... you'll upset some dogs :-P

Err, in their developer office the desired attributes are "can write C++", "debugging" and "spends time burried in code"...

So back-licking is not that big of an asset.

That said, I've heard that ass-kissing can get you places in some IT companies though...

I love dogs, but I agree that quite often office dogs are not "handled properly" and are poorly trained because there is no real specific person in charge of taking care of him.

You also can't ignore the fact that many people are likely going to have allergy issues. It's difficult to find a dog that a large number of people will be OK with.

There's a difference between hating animals and being uncomfortable around them, or less able to concentrate on your work.

Disclaimer: I like dogs and probably wouldn't mind having one around during work. But if one of my coworkers would have problems with that, that should be taken into account and we should discuss it, work it out. Wording it differently than "people who hate animals" would probably help that discussion :)