Jessy Wellmer, the 46‑year‑old moderator of “Tagesthemen” would love to bring her Labradoodle into the newsroom, but station regulations stand in her way. “I would really like to take the dog to work, but NDR forbids dogs” she told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. “And I abide by that rule”.
She looks back wistfully at a kinder era when her own station still advertised with a walrus and even allowed office dogs. “Back then there were still dogs in the NDR office. It probably stopped with the introduction of the open‑plan offices” she recalled. While she admits there have been attempts to bring pets back, she remains skeptical about the practicalities. “We recently had a petition to bring pets back to work. But the idea of having three or four dogs roaming the large ARD office while we regularly broadcast the ‘Tagesschau’ seems difficult even to me. It would still brighten up the workweek, though”.
Her pet, Juni, a Labradoodle, also serves as a conversational partner. “The dog filters out my daily sighs. Normally I don’t talk to myself; that would feel odd to me. When the dog lies on the sofa I don’t have that problem because someone is there. The conversation isn’t empty. The dog breathes, it reacts to my voice, there’s a resonance”.
The absence of her dog is keenly felt during periods when she commutes from Berlin to northern Germany. “I notice the difference: every other week I’m in Hamburg without the dog. I don’t do that myself” she explained.
Wellmer also shared details about the dog’s social life. “Kim Fisher lives next door. She has a dachshund. Occasionally we meet up. It might happen more often. I just need to give myself more time”.
The decision to get her first dog came after a stay in the United States, where her family grappled with allergies. “When we were in New York and saw that all those hyper‑allergic urbanites still kept dogs, my husband said, ‘If they can do it, we can too.’ In Central Park you also meet many poodle mixes, and they’re hypoallergenic”.
