How to Prevent Your Dog from Barking During a Video Call
If you work from home and have a pet dog, you’ve probably faced the uncomfortable situation of hearing your dog barking while you’re trying to have a work video call or a video conference. In those moments, your peace of mind goes up in smoke, and you get tense because you don’t want to ruin the meeting, nor do you want your coworkers to make bad faces at you.
Therefore, it is understandable that you are looking for a solution to this problem that affects your work and your relationship with your colleagues or business partners. The good news for you is that you’ll find various tips/strategies in this article to make your dog behave properly during your video conferences.
Find out how to stop your dog from barking with these 6 tips, and recognize why it does it as soon as your video call is established!
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Let’s explore these tips below.
Table of Contents
Identify why your dog barks
So that your dog doesn’t distract you, put you in a bad mood, or generate discomfort with its barking during a work video call, it’s important that you understand why it gets upset while you are on a call. Find the root cause – eliminate the problem.
Don’t forget that it is normal and necessary for dogs to bark. In fact, it would be strange if they didn’t. In addition to body language, it is their way of communicating with each other and with their owners. This way, your pet will let you know if it’s hungry, feels threatened, or needs to urinate. Therefore, knowing how to identify what is wrong is the first step to calm a pet down.
Identify the Type of Barking
There are different types of barking, classified as follows:
Short and high-pitched: in case someone or something has bothered your fur baby, it can emit a high-pitched and low sound, indicating its discomfort.
Repetitive and high-pitched: it expresses surprise at a situation, such as the arrival of a person. It is manifested with a cheerful tone.
Continuous and fast: if your pet barks persistently, in a medium tone, and emits fast sounds from its mouth, it indicates that it is in a state of alert. There may be something or someone within his territory that is disturbing them.
Prolonged and uninterrupted: if you hear this type of barking as if it were a howl, it means that your dog is lonely and wants company.
Short and moderate in tone: in this case, your doggy friend is looking for your attention and probably wants to play with you.
Continuous, slow, and in a soft tone: this means that your pet feels threatened. They are likely to adopt a defensive posture where they might attack. Their body tenses up, and their barking is persistent but slow and low in volume.
Ways to Keep Your Dog from Barking During a Video Call
Once you identify why your dog is barking, it will be much easier for you to calm it down and continue with your video call. But if they still don’t stop barking, here are 6 tips you can put into practice at your next meeting.
- Create a pet-friendly environment
Before joining the video call, make sure you do all the necessary tasks to make your pet comfortable. For example, ensure your pet has food and fresh water, and has urinated. Also, make sure your home is free of any distractions that may disturb him: close the curtains to minimize external triggers and place the pet’s bed in a quiet place away from noise.
- Mute your microphone
We know this may seem obvious, but we still want to mention it. In these cases, it usually can help writing in chat to avoid the sound of barking in the room when you need to say something quickly, and just mute the microphone if you don’t need to say anything. So, you can inform your colleagues about the situation if you have to get actively involved. And mention that you may turn your microphone off at certain times to avoid unwanted noise.
- Keep your dog busy
If your pet gets annoyed and won’t stop making a fuss around you. You can try giving your dog a toy that can entertain it, or give it some food in slow feeders. These containers are designed to make your dog take a long time to eat, which can be an excellent distraction and an effective way to keep them busy.
- Take a walk before your video call
Puppies tend to be very energetic animals. That’s why before the meeting, try to take a walk with your pet outdoors to discharge all the accumulated energy. Remember that the walk should last for a considerable time so that your adorable four-legged friend can get tired. Otherwise, they may become more stimulated and insist on going out again.
After the walk, your dog may be more relaxed and willing to rest. This will give you a calmer environment to conduct your video call without distractions or annoying behavior.
- Set physical boundaries
If you have multiple spaces/rooms in your home, you can opt to leave your pet in another room or in the backyard while you conduct your meeting. Separating your dog from your meeting area will reduce the likelihood of barking and allow for a quieter, uninterrupted video conference.
Make sure that the room or the place where you will leave it is comfortable and safe. Ensure it has water, a bed or blanket, and some toys to keep it entertained.
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- Do some training beforehand
Another option is to train your pets to familiarize them with the situation. You can make some test video calls in your dog’s presence so that it gets used to it gradually.
Reward with praise and treats when it stays calm and does not bark. This way, it will understand the benefits of staying quiet. As your pet becomes more comfortable, you can increase the length of the video calls to achieve the results you are hoping for.
Final words:
Now that you know how to prevent your dog from barking, you will be able to have uninterrupted video calls. Don’t forget that it is essential to identify the reason behind their behavior and understand the cause. This way, you will be able to take the necessary measures to keep your pet calm during your virtual meetings.
Remember that if you try everything and still can’t calm your fur baby down, you can re-read this post as many times as necessary and put into practice the 6 tips we prepared for you. Keep in mind that every pet is unique and, therefore, may require different approaches.
Patience, consistency, and love are fundamental in this process. With time and dedication, you will be able to get your dog to behave in the right way and avoid annoying barking. Alternatively, you may also hire a professional behaviorist or trainer to get this habit of your dog fixed.
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