How to stop your dog barking while you work from home or take calls

Dogs bark during calls for attention: you’re speaking in an animated voice and none of it is for them, and if barking ever got a reaction mid-call, it got stronger. Tire him out before important calls, give him something to do on a mat near you, reward quiet while you talk, and never answer a bark with attention. VCA’s rule for attention barking is strict: don’t reward it, even occasionally.

Why calls, specifically?

The AKC points to two things. Your voice changes on a call, louder and more excited, with nobody visible. And calls are when you’re least able to respond well, so he’s learned that barking during them produces something: a shush, a treat thrown to buy silence, eye contact. Each of those is a payment.

What do I do before the call?

1. Exercise first. A proper walk or a game before your longest meeting, not after.
2. Toilet and water, so the barking isn’t a legitimate request.
3. Set up the mat within sight of your desk, with a long-lasting chew or a stuffed, frozen food toy that comes out only for calls.
4. Remove the other triggers: close the blind on the street side, put a note on the door for deliveries.

And during it?

• Keep a few treats on the desk. When he’s lying quietly, drop one without looking at him. You’re paying for silence while it’s happening.
• If he barks, mute, say nothing, look away. Wait for a few seconds of quiet, then pay. It gets worse for a few days before it gets better; that’s the old habit testing the new rule.
• Use your quiet cue only if you’ve trained it. An untrained “quiet!” is just more talking.

How do I train it when it isn’t a real call?

Fake one. Put your headset on, talk to a dead screen for two minutes, and pay every ten seconds of quiet. Stretch the gaps over a couple of weeks. It’s the same desensitisation idea VCA describes for any trigger: the thing that sets him off, at a level he can handle, followed by food.

What can the software hide?

More than it used to. Zoom, Teams and Google Meet all have background noise suppression; set it to high. A headset microphone close to your mouth picks up far less room sound than a laptop mic. None of this helps your dog, but it takes the pressure off you, and a calmer you shushes less.

This only happens when I’m home

Then it’s attention barking and the plan above is the whole answer. If the neighbours say he also barks when you’re out, that’s a different problem with a different cause; find out what’s really happening first. That is the situation DogHush is for: answering barks with your recorded cue when you aren’t there to do it.

This guide is general information about dog behaviour, not veterinary advice. A sudden change in barking, or barking with signs of distress, is a reason to see a vet.