Structuring your day to meet your dog's needs and your job's needs

Are you finding it hard to work from home with a dog?

Being easily distracted by your dog is really common

• They’re cute

• They’re soft

• They love your attention and give you an instant dopamine hit. I mean really, who will love you more than your dog?

• They can also be loud and energetic making them hard to ignore even if you want to

So how do you get work done and raise a well-behaved dog?

You make a daily schedule that factors in your dog’s needs and your job’s needs.

Start by writing in your dog’s needs including:

• Potty breaks

• Nap times

• Playtimes

• Training times

• Mealtimes

• Dog adoration times

Every dog is different, so I always recommend that you factor in a buffer zone to allow for surprises.

If you have a new puppy and you aren’t keeping them in a playpen and you’re letting them have free rein of your house while you’re working (which I don’t recommend for new pups) then your surprises may come in the form of pee and poop everywhere and destruction.

On the more serious end, giving them free rein could result in electrocution or choking on something inedible – so you’ll need to factor in a vet visit.

Once you’ve got your dog’s needs onto your schedule, add your job’s needs.

If you have a new puppy, you’ll need to consider what you’re capable of achieving throughout the day, bearing in mind you may not have had a full night’s sleep and you may get constantly interrupted while you’re teaching your puppy to settle into your home.

To avoid overwhelm, I encourage my clients to break down their work into tiny tasks. When tasks are tiny, there’s less resistance to doing them. Assign a timeframe to them and then put them into the schedule.

This method ensures that you can just focus on the task at the scheduled time and you don’t have to spend time ruminating on what you should or could be doing, you can just get straight into doing mode.

When you’re able to focus, you’re able to get more creative because you’re not getting caught up in any mind drama.

You don’t need to negotiate with yourself because you’ve decided ahead of time what you’re working on and you know how this fits into the big picture.

If you don’t do this, you’re more likely to get overwhelmed, confused, and then cross with yourself because you haven’t got anything done.

Make working from home with your dog easier by planning out your day and week and factoring in the needs of your dog and your job.

Do you find that puppy parenting is proving to be more challenging than you anticipated?

Is your adorable bundle of fluff acting like a bit of a maniac at times?

Are they:

·         Refusing to sleep in?

·         Jumping up on you?

·         Destroying all your favourite things?

·         Chewing your hands, feet, and clothes?

·         Peeing and pooping all over your house?

Then check out "The Calm Puppy," a 5-part program designed to transform your energetic puppy into a well-behaved and delightful companion