When remote work first became widespread, a lot of dog owners assumed it would be good for their dogs. More time together. Less time alone. Less guilt about leaving for the office. For some dogs, that turned out to be true. For many others, the shift created a different set of problems — ones that didn’t exist, or didn’t surface, when the household ran on a more predictable schedule.
Dogs are creatures of routine, and the transition to work-from-home life disrupted routines in ways that most owners didn’t anticipate. The issues that followed — separation anxiety, demand behaviors, boundary problems inside the home, leash reactivity that developed or worsened during pandemic-era walks — became some of the most common presenting concerns in dog training over the past several years. Many of those issues are still showing up in households today.
When More Time Together Creates Problems
The intuition that more time with your dog is automatically better makes sense on the surface. But dogs don’t simply benefit from proximity — they benefit from structure, clear communication, and a relationship in which they understand what’s expected of them. When an owner is home all day but working, the dog exists in an ambiguous middle state: the person is present, but not available. The dog learns to seek attention constantly, escalates when it doesn’t get it, and never fully settles because the environment never fully signals that it’s time to rest.
Demand behaviors — nudging, barking, pawing, jumping — frequently intensify in work-from-home households for this reason. The dog has more exposure to the owner, which creates more opportunity to seek attention, and an owner at a desk is far more interruptible than an empty house. When a dog learns that nudging a knee during a video call produces results, it nudges more. The behavior gets reinforced not through any intention on the owner’s part, but through the simple logic of what works.
Separation Anxiety and the Return to the Office
The dogs most affected by the shift to remote work are often the ones acquired or raised during that period. A dog that grew up with its owner home most of the time didn’t build the tolerance for being alone that dogs in more traditional households develop. When owners return to offices — even part-time, even a few days a week — those dogs can struggle significantly.
Separation anxiety produces real distress in dogs, not just inconvenience for owners. A dog that barks continuously, destroys furniture, refuses to eat, or fails to settle when left alone isn’t being difficult. It’s experiencing genuine anxiety that training addresses more effectively and more humanely than most owners realize is possible without professional help.
Marc Goldberg’s Boarding School program addresses separation anxiety as part of comprehensive behavioral work, building the skills and confidence that allow a dog to be comfortable alone — which benefits the dog whether the owner works from home, in an office, or somewhere in between.
Leash Behavior in a Work-From-Home World
Work-from-home life changed the pattern of how many dogs got their exercise. Walks became less structured, more frequent in some households, and in others simply less consistent. Dogs that previously had predictable walk routines lost them. Dogs that were acquired during the pandemic were walked in a world with fewer people and dogs on the streets, then suddenly encountered a more populated environment as life returned to normal.
Leash reactivity — pulling, lunging, barking at other dogs or people — is one of the most common issues that developed during this period and persists now. For work-from-home owners who are home more and walking their dogs more frequently, a dog that pulls hard or reacts to everything makes those walks a source of stress rather than the benefit they’re supposed to be.
The Drop ‘N Shop program addresses on-leash manners specifically, producing reliable leash behavior and off-leash recall in a concentrated format that fits a busy schedule. For owners who walk their dogs daily, the improvement in that daily experience alone changes the relationship with the dog significantly.
Training for the Reality of How People Work Now
The household a dog lives in today looks different from what most training advice assumed a decade ago. Owners are home more, schedules are less predictable, the line between work time and personal time is blurrier, and dogs have adapted — not always in ways that work well for either the dog or the person.
Training that fits this reality addresses the specific dynamics that work-from-home life creates: how to establish boundaries within the home, how to build a dog’s tolerance for being ignored while present, how to create the structure and routine that dogs need even when the schedule varies. The Pack Leader Session gives owners a clear picture of why their dog is doing what it’s doing and a practical plan they can implement at home, which is exactly the format that works for people whose challenge isn’t access to the dog but knowing how to handle the dynamic that’s developed.
The ForceFree Method that Marc Goldberg uses across all programs produces lasting results without force or intimidation — an approach that matters in a home environment where the dog and the owner share space all day, and where the relationship has to be sustainable through all of it.
For more information on any of Chicago Dog Trainer’s programs, or to discuss which option fits your dog’s specific situation, call 224-407-2131 or reach out through the contact form on the website.
