Managing your dog while you’re working

The Basics

4 Mar

Managing your dog while you’re working

Your attention is precious to your pup

Dogs love nothing more than attention from the humans that love them. It’s a valuable resource to them, and they will quickly learn the best ways to get it.

Some dogs really value your interaction – your voice, physical contact with you, or both. We can use our interaction to reward behaviours that we want, by giving our dogs attention when they’re doing something we like.

Often, dogs may seek attention through behaviours that we don’t want, such as stealing our slippers or barking at the neighbour. When we react to our dogs doing this by telling them to stop it or be quite, we’re giving them the attention they’re looking for. Although we don’t see it as positive attention, it’s still an interaction, and your dog will do this behaviour more often in the future.

We won’t always be able to give our dogs our full attention while we’re at work. The reports aren’t going to write themselves!

Next time you sit down at your desk, be prepared! Have an enrichment item to hand and be prepared to reward their calm settle. To begin with, this is easier to practice when you’re not working, so start at home. Reward your dog with a few of their favourite treats.

Below are some key tools to have at hand to manage your attention-seeking dog. Click each image to find out our top tips.

Enrichment feeders

Have a selection of ready filled enrichment feeders to hand so that when you're unavailable to your dog, you can give them one.

A safe place

Have a safe place set up where you can put your dog when you’re going to be busy. Make sure you’ve put some fun activities in there so they can entertain themselves.

Practice settle

Practise your settle at times when you’re busy and unable to give your dog attention. This way, your dog will learn that when there’s no attention available settling pays off.