We’re hearing about a problem shared by people who are working from home and/or home schooling with their kids.
The problem: The dog! Dogs interrupting on-line meetings. Dogs interrupting you when you’re trying to work. Dogs begging for attention while your child is trying to learn on-line, and the like.
Dogs are not used to the profound changes that have occurred in the last couple of weeks. Suddenly everyone is at home 24/7, feeling their way through this new (temporary, we hope) “normal”. Stress often leads to dogs acting out with undesirable behaviors. Plus they respond to our stress—and lord knows, we’re feeling pretty stressed!
Here are some ideas to help you prevent and deal with canine interruptions:
- To prepare for an on-line meeting, give your dog something to occupy his/her time. See our previous instructions on using a snuffle mat as one idea. We’ll provide more in the future.
- Train your dog to settle on his/her bed as Larry is doing as I write this. We’ll be posting a how-to in a future Alchemy du Jour post.
- Take your dog for a walk or play outside for 20 minutes prior to going to an on-line meeting. Then give your dog a chew toy or something to occupy him/her during your meeting. We’ll be giving other ideas in a future Alchemy du Jour post.
- If you absolutely must, crate your dog briefly while you attend to something else. Use this sparingly. It’s much better to train your dog to be quiet and not bother you than shut him/her away.
Stuck at home: If you have a specific idea that would be helpful to you during this pandemic crisis, please email it to info@alldogsgym.com. We’ll try to address it in a future post.
Help for remote businesses: If your business needs ideas to help your staff who are working from home and having issues with their pet, let us know. We can quickly tailor a program for your staff so they can maximize working remotely. Email info@alldogsgym.com.
We are here to help. We are available for remote training lessons and boarding-training where we’ll teach your dog what you need him/her to know.
