Cats and dogs often act out with bad behavior, especially when there is a change in routine such as a parent suddenly being home more often. In a nut shell, working from home with pets can be challenging.
Consider this: Paul Alfieri once set up a Webcam to see what his cat Shatner did during the day. No surprise: the four-year-old medium-hair black and white feline slept most of the day.
But now that Alfieri, a corporate communications professional who lives in the New York area but telecommutes with a West Coast company, works at home, he has seen a different side of Shatner.
“He actually wakes up from his nap to participate on conference calls. He hears the speaker phone, comes into my office, jumps up on the desk, and meows into the phone,” Alfieri said.
His other cat, Snuggles, ignores Alfieri, and goes about her daily routine. But not Shatner, who beams himself into the job mix.
“It’s sort of a running joke now that we have to get execu-cat approval. I usually have to mute the line to put him back down on the floor. This is usually followed by him jumping on my lap and purring/rubbing his face against mine.”
With more and more people working at home and invading their pets’ roosts, battlegrounds can emerge, especially over the telephone and the computer.
Attention-Getting Behavior
Sophia Yin, DVM, who devotes her practice in Davis, Calif., to animal behavior issues, says the dog that barks excessively while the home worker is on the phone or the cat that pounces on a computer keyboard while the home worker is trying to write a report have something in common: attention-getting behavior.
“This is one of the most common problems people have with their pets,” said Yin, author of “How to Behave So Your Dog Behaves.”
She says dogs and cats quickly learn that when the person is busy with a phone call or focusing on the computer, that it is the easiest time to get a reaction by barking at or climbing on the person.
