Office heroes chew the fat at Flagstaff

Office heroes chew the fat at Flagstaff

By Spencer Fowler Steen

It’s not often you get a two-for-one dog deal at Flagstaff gardens!

CBD News was lucky enough to meet a boisterous bulldog hell-bent on making studying almost impossible for his owner, and a Jack Russell who loves fraternising with city barristers.

Svenson Barristers director Anna Svenson brings her Jack Russell, Hank, to work once a week to spend a day in the office where he does his best to ensure no one gets anything done.

“People in the office love him, they love having a little canine visitor,” Ms Svenson said.

“He brings a bit of joy and happiness to everyone’s week, so he’s a lot of fun to have in there.”

Although he can be a little cheeky at times, Ms Svenson described Hank as bubbly, loyal and inquisitive with the “waggiest tale in the world”.

“I get a little bit of a reprieve because sometimes my staff or barristers like to take him for a walk,” she said.


Hank was busy socialising with another six-month old British bulldog, Winnie, while her owner Chris Webb was having a chat with CBD News.

He said it was one of Winnie’s first adventures out to the park because she had recently been sick with aspirational pneumonia, a common condition for bulldogs.

“She’s just the biggest attention seeker,” Mr Webb said. 

“Whenever we walk anywhere, she shoots over to people and lies down with her belly up. She’s super lovely, just really slobbery and friendly.”

Mr Webb said Winnie enjoyed basking in the sun most of the day on the balcony of his city apartment, where he spent a lot of time studying psychology remotely. 

But during his Zoom tutorials and lectures, Winnie sometimes likes to make things difficult.

“Studying from home with a puppy is horrendous, it’s almost impossible,” Mr Webb said.

“Anytime you do any sort of lecture online, she can hear me talking on Zoom at Melbourne Uni, she’s like ‘oh they’re talking to me and we’re doing things, perfect!’”

“However, everyone loves her and I get away with doing so little work because I just hold her up to the camera and say ‘look at this!’ I don’t know what we’re doing, but hey!’”

Visit Hank’s Instagram page @hank.the.jack

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