Radical Canines

This past week was my first week back to work in person since March. I’ve been fortunate to be able to continue working full time from home throughout the pandemic but now I’m faced with returning to work in person and despite my efforts it’s been a bit rough. Ryder and Rumor are old pros at staying home alone and are really adjusting to me going back to work no problem. Rugby on the other hand, is struggling. With me working from home, I did my best to try to help with the transition knowing I would be going back in person eventually.

My first day back in person, I left a google meets open on my computer at home and ran it in the background on my laptop while I was working at school so the boys could hear me. Rugby barked throughout most of the day. The next day I tried gating him in the laundry room off the kitchen where he had spent a number of days during remote learning and remote ESY. He barked, on and off all day, and also peed and pooped all over the laundry room. Epic fail and lesson learned. Rugby needs a crate. The next day, I tried doing a morning working including training and ball for some mental and physical exercise and crating as usual. Normally, our mornings are pretty low key because I am about as far from a morning person as someone can get. He still barked on and off all day. The good news is the frequency and duration of the barking does seem to be decreasing a little each day. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking. *Sigh*

Ordinarily, I’d just let him bark. Eventually, he will relearn to settle quietly through the day and just chill out in his crate. Much like he did before the pandemic. Unfortunately, I have a neighbor upstairs and I try my best to be considerate. A barking dog is quite the opposite of considerate. Next week, I’m going to leave music playing so he has some background noise and hopefully that helps.