Taking care of a puppy takes a lot of time and energy. People who work from home have some huge puppy care perks. When you don’t have to leave your bundle of joy alone for a huge chunk of the day, you can spend lots of time together and forge a close bond. Also, working remotely spares you both from experiencing foreseeable separation anxiety. Nevertheless, you can reasonably anticipate that taking care of a puppy is going to present some unique challenges while you’re working remotely. If you’re concerned that your new furry family member is going to hinder your productivity, here are some tips that can help you navigate caring for your puppy while you work from home.
Make Training a Priority
Everything that you need to do to take care of your puppy is time consuming, but it’s crucial that you make time for training. After you can get some of the basics down, your puppy will be more responsive to commands to lay down or be quiet when you’ve absolutely got to focus on a time-sensitive work issue.
Consider enrolling your dog in a local puppy class. You’ll get helpful pointers on potty training, leash manners, and how to stop puppy biting during teething. In addition to getting great training guidance, it’s a fantastic opportunity for socialization. Being well-socialized will enable your fur baby to enjoy spending time with other dogs. If your dog grows up to be super sociable with fellow canines, going to a doggy daycare may be a great way for it to spend some of the workday.
Deal With Attempts to Distract You Strategically
Puppies typically want their owners to be hyper-aware of their presence, and they’re pretty smart about finding the best ways to get your attention. For a lot of puppies, even negative attention is preferable to no attention. They’ll bark at you, try to destroy things, or steal anything they can get a hold of to initiate a game of keepaway.
When puppies are acting out to get a rise out of you, the best way to deter this behavior is to play it cool. Shouting or having a big reaction is going to reinforce that type of conduct. Simply ignore your dog as best as you can so it will learn that its antics aren’t effective. If keepaway is your pup’s go-to play for attention, don’t indulge it by giving chase. Teach your dog the “drop it” command as early as possible. In addition to making your work and homelife more manageable, it could help you stop your dog from ingesting something dangerous.
Be Your Puppy’s Programming Director
Giving your puppy something engaging to watch is a fantastic way to entertain it and inspire adorable wonder. Check out YouTube videos that feature hours of 4K footage of backyard squirrels, chipmunks, and birds. Great videos will enthrall and delight your puppy while you’re busy working.
Get Your Puppy Tired
In general, a tired puppy is a good puppy. Build some time into your day to play with your puppy so it can release some of that seemingly boundless energy. Plenty of exercise and even just mental stimulation will help your puppy tire out and settle down for a nap.
Ultimately, it’s important to recognize that being productive while working from home doesn’t come easily to everyone. Any type of disruption in your home environment could prove to be problematic. Welcoming a new puppy into your home is just about the most wonderful disruption imaginable, but it’s definitely not going to do wonders for your productivity. Be conscientious about trying to balance puppy rearing with work obligations and be ready to adapt. You may really struggle if you try to keep doing everything exactly the same as you did it before. Adapting to the changes in your environment and demands on your time is going to help you strike the right balance.
