How To Keep A Dog Quiet When Working From Home: 20 Tips That Actually Work

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Dogs. Man or woman’s best friend. If you’re anything like me you probably sometimes prefer the company of your pets then you do of normal people (introverts unite!). What happens when you’re working from home? Is it possible to get anything done? 

How do you keep a dog quiet when working from home? What steps work best? I’ve found the following 20 steps work best: 

(Just a heads up a lot of people reading my blog are in the process of designing their own home office. If you want to save some of the painstaking time I did in designing my office, you can find my recommended products here)

Train your dog to bark on command

Okay you’re probably thinking, well that seems obvious, and you wouldn’t be wrong. Training your dog to only bark on command can be one of the best things you can do if you work from home or from a home office. 

This works especially well with smaller dogs like Maltese poodles and terriers as it is within their nature to bark at things in their field of view and so training your dog is really like having a switch when it comes to your pet. 

How do you train your dog to bark on command? 

• Get someone to recreate the situation that will cause your dog to bark 
• When your dog barks briefly acknowledge it by going to the source of the noise then come back to your dog and grab its attention 
• When your dog stops barking give it a toy or treat, then repeat each time gradually waiting a little bit longer to give your dog it’s treats 
• When your dog is quiet you can then assign a command or cue so it will know to stay quiet

Exercise your dog for at least 2 hours 

You don’t need me to tell you that exercise is super important for people and the same can be said for any pet. I mean think about when you’ve sat in one place for too long or unable to leave the house for a prolonged period of time and how that makes you feel. 

For dogs this can be exacerbated with bad behavior being a direct result with lack of exercise. On top of this some owners are actually not owning up to their duty of ownership with thousands of dogs not being walked enough. 

So why two hours? Well although two hours is the recommended amount of exercise for larger dogs, smaller and medium sized dogs might actually get tired out quicker. 

To help find your dog I’ve made a graph below which should help: 

Type of Dog	Amount of Exercise needed per day
Bichon frise, chihuahua, maltese, king charles spaniel	30 minutes
Bull terrier, pug, english bulldog, cocker spaniel	1 hour
Siberien husky, Malamute, Labrador retriever, german shepherd	2 hours

Keep your dog in the quietest part of the house

Keeping your dog in the quietest part of the house is something you can probably do right now with the least amount of cost and time but will have the largest amount of impact. 

Doing something as simple as leaving your dog downstairs whilst you work upstairs can really put your mind at ease. Just make sure your dogs are comfortable!

If you live in an apartment or don’t have a lot of room then leave your dog in a small area or try to soundproof an area specifically for your dog with soundproof mats like these

The best option for dealing with unwanted noise in my opinion is a good pair of soundproof headphones. Luckily I’ve wasted a lot of my hard earned cash on headphones that don’t work so you don’t have to. My best recommendation has to be the Sony WH1000XM3 which you can find out more about here.  

Use play times to your advantage 

I mean who can resist playing with your dog right? Having a quick game of fetch will not only help break up your day, but similarly to exercising your dog will help keep them stimulated and avoid feeling agitated.

On top of this you can use play times to set up a schedule which will get your dog in the habit of, well, doing habits which should help when training them to bark on command too. 

To ensure you stick to it, make sure your time is in your calendar or diary. 

Teach your dog to be quiet when you’re not present

It’s likely that if you have a problem with your dog barking, it’s not just when you’re working from home. 

One of the ways to get around this is by using a barking set up where you make your dog think you are going about a normal day but then leave the house for a few minutes. 

The general idea is you leave your house for a few minutes, and if your dog doesn’t bark then you return home with praising the dog. 

If your dog barks however you can’t return until they are silent. 

The general idea is to build up your dog’s tolerance to you being away and before you know it your dog will be well behaved when you are out of the house. 

Give your dog time to bark

There is going to be no situation where your dog will never bark again, as such it is worth taking your dog to parks and just letting them be themselves for a few minutes everyday to get any bad habits out of their system so they are angelic when they are at home 

I mean imagine if someone said you weren’t able to speak to anyone ever again, it would likely drive you mad so by doing the same thing to your dog it’s no doubt that you’re going to have a badly behaved pup

Close your curtains and blinds 

Most dogs feel a lot calmer when they are in darker environments. By covering your windows or mirrors means there is nothing for your dog to get distracted by meaning that if your pup is feeling restless you won’t have to worry about it barking. 

Blackout blinds could work great here to stop any light coming through, however if you have room definitely consider investing in a kennel or something similar to really give your dog their own space. 

Create a separate dog free work space

Your reading a blog about remote working and home offices so bare with me whilst I say that having a home office or separate space where you work which is dog free is going to have a huge impact on not only your productivity but also sets your dog up for a routine. 

If your dog is not allowed in your work space, and you can reinforce this, then this can easily address the problem of your dog barking when you’re in the middle of a call. 

So how do you set up a dog free work space? Luckily for you I’ve pulled together a list of items I think every home office needs as essentials. I’ve put them together here. 

On top of this, if you’re interested in learning how to stay productive as you work from home you can check out a post I wrote with a live experiment here. 

Keep your dog busy 

So we’ve covered this quite a bit in this post already but keeping your dog busy on a daily basis is going to lead to less frustrations as the day goes on. 

Care.com have a great list of 101 things to do with your dog so feel free to pinch a few ideas from there. 

Develop a behaviour schedule

Behaviour schedules are a great way of tracking your dog’s behaviour. Using something like a journal to match out your dog’s behaviour every day will allow you to see patterns and see if there are certain times of the day if your dog is more unsettled than others. 

If so, track this for a week and you will be able to identify and pinpoint the reason for a loud dog. 

Journaling can be one of those things that will be beneficial not only for you but your dog too. I know a lot of us feel as though we might not have the time to do this so I make a habit of doing this just before I go to bed. 

Play static noise

Static noise and white noise can have a huge impact on your dog. 

When you’re not at home the house will be completely silent making them more restless. Having something in the background like a radio or your TV will help them settle. 

Heck you can even use the video below and play it on in the background as you get going 

Block your dog’s view of property lines 

Similar to blocking out your windows, if your dog can’t see any desirable features like other houses, cars or people walking past it is less likely they will feel alarmed and bark the neighbourhood down. 

Your dog is trying to protect you at all costs and things that are man made can often seem unnatural to them so ensure that you put things into their perspective when you leave them in the house unattended. 

Now if you’re interested in learning more about how your dog sees the world check out this article by business insider. 

Impart your scent

Okay so this is just straight up bribery!

 If you have a busy day at home and need your dog to be quiet, go all out and buy your dog a bone or meat of some kind, handle it for a few minutes so your scent is on it ( which should ease your dog) 

Your pup will hopefully be distracted the rest of the day with the treat that they have whilst still feeling comforted by you being there through your scent. 

Dogs possess over 300 million receptors in  their nose so ensure you take that into consideration as to how important smells are for k-9s. 

Be matter of fact with your dog 

Let’s face it, we’re terrible at giving in to those puppy dog eyes, but you need to be strict. 

Your the alpha of your house and so by telling your dog to stop barking with a stern voice and face will send a clear message that this type of behaviour is unacceptable 

Buy engaging toys to stimulate your dog’s mind 

If your dog has only started recently acting up it’s probably because there isn’t enough to keep your dog entertained anymore or they are no longer interested in their old toys. 

Buying them something bespoke like this will help get them back in your good books. 

Keep your dog tired 

A tired dog is a quiet dog, unless of course you wake them up during nap time in which case, why!

Making sure you tire your dog out before your work day begins can be a great way of getting them to be calm during the day. If they are playing up in the morning, ensure you take them for an extra lap around the park which should help them quieten down. 

Tired dogs are much less likely to be noisy, most dogs sleep on average between 12 and 14 hours per day so aim to tire them out before your work day. 

Invest in anti-bark collars 

So these are very political, so I’m not going to go into them too much here, however these have been proven to be effective in getting your dog to stop barking. Use at your own discretion. 

Consider neutering your dog 

Again a very political issue (can you tell why I left them at the bottom of the post). Neutering your dog has both supporters and naysayers alike. Neutering your dog can help with improving its behaviour and reduce it’s barking. 

A tough decision to make but a decision that you will have to make yourself. To hand this over to more experienced people then me on this topic check out dogs trust post on the topic here.

Hire a dog-sitter

Okay I’m well aware that this option will definitely not work for everyone as one of us have the money to pay someone to look after your dog every day we are at work ( a boy can dream) 

I would personally suggest trying to find free dog sitters in your area or even rent out your dogs to people who want a dog for a day to get the experience of owning a pet, without any of the drawbacks. 

Be patient

Without sounding too self help book-ey the truth of the matter that with a little bit of repetition and a lot of patience eventually you can train even the worst behaved pup to be a good boy. Often what let’s down a dog is the owner gives up on it before they get the desired results leaving all parties frustrated. 

Just take your time, fall in love with the process and you’ll be working from home with your dog in now time. 

Wrapping things up 

So that was quite an extensive list of ideas on how to keep your dog quiet, when working from home  but I’d love to pick your brains and see if you have any secrets. 

Finally a lot of people reading my blog want to know what products I recommend for a home office/remote working. You can find out my recommendations here and learn how I make money whilst working remotely on the side here.