You’re on an important call, when the dog walks into your office, begins to bark, and then purges on the carpet — what do you do? Taking care of a home office dog while working at home means setting some ground rules. Try these tips when your pet starts to bark or needs you.
Your Home Office Dog
With the world completely changed due to COVID and many professionals working from home, and possibly increasing work-from-home days forever, managing pets has become increasingly more important.
Dogs can be difficult to control when you work at home — you don’t have the time to play, or give them the attention that they want. But if you lay down some ground rules from the beginning and adhere to them, caring for Fido will be easier than you think.
Since you work at home, you may have to conduct meetings with clients and associates in your home office. Some of these visitors, as many people are, may be allergic to dogs and cats. So the first thing you’ll want to do is to set up a place for your pet to be while you’re working.
Let the dog run around in the back yard or on the other end of the house. Separating the dog is also important considering the number of people who are afraid them. Even if your dog is the sweetest pup in the world and would never hurt a fly, people may still be scared. Best to avoid this complication by simply keeping the dog out of sight.
Set Ground Rules So You Can Work
Dogs, as smart as they are, do not have great reasoning skills. If you normally let your dogs sleep on the couch in your office, it will not understand why you yell at it to get off just because you have company. You should sit down with your family and establish what the rules for the dog will be. Will the dog be allowed in the house? In the office? To jump on visitors? These are all questions that need answers, and the whole family must strictly obey the rules that are set.
When you change your dog’s lifestyle, be prepared to go through a few weeks of whining and barking. This is the dog’s way of expressing resentment with the change. But after the transition period is over, you shouldn’t have many problems with the household dog.
