Dog won’t settle when you’re working from home?

Have you got the kind of dog that just curls up under your desk while you efficiently work all day? Nope, me neither! What to do if your dog won’t settle.

A while ago I was preparing for an on-line two-day conference. I really wanted to be able to focus on the event, as if I was there in-person.

So, it got me thinking about the preparation that I go through for days like this. If you’re struggling to work from home, and have a dog or puppy, I hope you find this helpful too. Think ‘calming activities for dogs’.

A little background first. We’d had Bodie for 18 months. He was an 8-month-old, over-excitable puppy with a bit of baggage when we got him from Battersea Cats and Dogs Home. We’ve done a lot of work with him, and he’s made great progress. But he’s certainly not a low maintenance dog.

He’s a Collie Lurcher Cross so he’s bright, energetic, busy and very over-excitable. Even though he’s just turned two. He is not the kind of dog to just settle down for the day. So I needed to prepare!

Preparation before the event date (the more time you have the better)

If you want to do some preparation before your event, here are some ideas to help your dog get used to being at home, but not having access to you and attention from you whenever they want. If your dog takes themselves off to sleep in another room for most of the day, you’re probably not reading this blog looking for tips on how to get more done?

Dogs get better at what they rehearse, so here are a few ideas to start building more calmness into their day.

1. Building up their ability to be calm every day is really powerful. I’d strongly suggest getting in a couple of lick mats if you don’t use them already. Licking is a very calming activity for dogs. There’s a link at the bottom of this post, or they are widely available in good pet shops, Amazon etc. You can spread anything wet that they like to eat. Some ideas include – natural yoghurt, wet dog food, mashed banana, sweet potato, carrot, dog-safe peanut butter and coconut oil.

2. Long-lasting natural chews are a daily part of my dog’s diet. The act of chewing is also very calming and tiring. There are some great natural chews of lots of different types (rabbits’ ears, lambs’ ears, cows’ tails, pizzles etc.) so you can choose ones that are the right size for your puppy or dog. There’s a link at the bottom if you want to buy them on-line.

I love giving Bodie these when he’s in another room and then pulling the door to. It’s building up his ability to be in another room because he’s chewing on something super tasty and then tends to fall asleep afterwards to get some good quality rest.

3. You can reward calm behaviour and good choices at any time. You get more of what you reward. We tend to ignore our dogs when they’re not doing anything. But this is a fantastic time to reward them!

If your pup is settled down quietly at a time when they might normally be running around or barking, this is the time to praise them and pop some food down as a reward. If they normally follow you from room to room, but once in a while, they stay where they were, praise and reward!

4. Ditch the food bowl and make their food an experience! Our dog’s daily food has a lot of value in it. We can use their food to keep their brain busy, reward good choices, help calm them down. If your dog or puppy’s food is gone in no time, there is another way!

You can even scatter their food on the floor, patio or garden for a more natural eating experience. Dogs did not evolve finding their dinner in a nice shiny bowl in the corner of kitchens. They had to use their noses to search it out around human encampments.

5. Boundary games are a great way to teach your dog to settle on a bed, towel, crate, chair, cushion etc. and they learn to switch off and relax. I have a series of videos that go through the early steps in my Facebook group. The link is at the bottom if you want to know more.

6. If you think your puppy or dog will really struggle to settle all day, have a look at other options. Can you enlist some help from a local friend to take them for the day? Perhaps you’ve got useful kids or a partner that can be briefed to keep your day free from the role of dog entertainer?

If you haven’t used a professional dog walker or daycare, this is something to research with sufficient time. I wouldn’t trust just anyone with my dog and the good ones tend to get pretty booked up.

On the day itself (if you haven’t managed to do any preparation at all, these things should still help)

1. A good exercise session to start their day before you need to start work. But this isn’t all about getting them physically tired. Bodie would love to chase a football or a tennis ball but, afterwards, he’d be so wired he struggle to switch off (like an over-tired child that is fighting sleep).

Swap the high excitement activities for sniffy walks and lots of brain-tiring games. You can take their breakfast with you and reward them as you walk around.

2. Think about snacks – popcorn for me / lick mats for Bodie! As above get those lick mats pre-loaded with the toppings ready to whip out of the fridge or freezer whenever you need them. Freezing them can make them last a lot longer if your dog doesn’t get frustrated by this.

3. Put your recycling to good use. You can use any clean and safe recycling to put their daily dry food or treats in. Think about a loo or kitchen roll inner with the ends folded in loosely with the food inside. Or a milk carton or egg box with dry food inside. If your dog is an expert at food-finding you can cut holes in the sides and screw the lid back on. If this is new to your dog, I would just leave the top off.

If your dog likes a challenge, you can put tasty treats in a larger box, with some of the clean recycling in it so that they have to rummage around for the food (this a game called noise box). Get creative! But do make sure your pup is confident enough to do this. We need to make sure they don’t get scared of anything moving suddenly or make a noise that they’re afraid of.

4. You can buy snuffle mats. Or make your own by scattering some food on a towel or tea towel and grabbing the centre with open fingers and rotating your hand around several times until you have a swirl of fabric with the food nestling in the folds. Or you can place food on the narrow end and roll up the towel like a swiss roll, adding in a little more food as you go.

5. If you feed raw or wet food you can stuff this into a Rylo, Kong or puzzle feeders, or spread it onto lick mats, to make their food last longer.

6. Have one or two long-lasting chews to give them during the day (make sure you’re not giving them something for the first time in case it gives them an upset tummy). Natural chews are great for helping keep tartar build-up down on their teeth, and chews with natural fur and hair on them are great for their tummies.

You can have a whole series of brain tiring activities lined up ready so that you can space them out throughout the day.

7. If you’ve been playing Boundary games in the run-up to this event, you can have a pot of their food to hand so that you can carry on playing the game while you’re online.

8. Make use of the breaks in your event to make sure you both get adequate toilet breaks! Pop the kettle on, let them out, have a wee yourself, and play a few minutes of games before you settle back in for the next session. The act of moving around and a little fresh air in the garden will reinvigorate you as well.

They might have a few more calories today than a normal day. If it’s an occasional event, it’s probably not going to be a problem, but one to watch if it’s a regular thing. Hopefully, if you are working on calmness a little every day, your pup will spend more time relaxing naturally and need less food motivation.

As an aside, some of these suggestions could also help with preparing our pups for Fireworks season. But if your dog or puppy suffers badly from fear of loud noises, I do suggest working with a good trainer or behaviourist to help.

Useful links

For more easy dog training tips, and to be part of a community of dog-lovers, join the free Facebook group Pup Talk with Niki French

To harness the calming power of licking, I love the K-9 Calm lick mats. You can get 10% off with the code PUPTALK.

For an amazing range of long-lasting, natural high-quality chews I love Friends and Canines.