Animal Distractions: Working from Home with Pets

Friday, June 22, is Take Your Dog to Work Day. But what happens when it’s not a matter of taking your pet to your office for one day out of the year, but working with your pet in the office every day of the year?

It is, to say the least, an interesting experience.

For some, it’s a dream come true to have the opportunity to work from home. There’s supposed to be less pressure, possibly less stringent deadlines and, if none of the previous are true, then at the least you definitely save on travel costs. But in working from home, there’s always some sort of “X-factor” (as I’ll call it) that adds a delay here or there, and that holds you up when you need most not to be held up.

For me that “X-factor” is the cuddle monster lying beneath my feet as I write this.

My Golden Retriever, Shenanigans, cute as he may be, is possibly the neediest pup on the planet. And I’m not talking about taking him out here or there.

He is (to use some office lingo) a file attachment that cannot be detached, or opened and discarded immediately. He lingers until you pet him just so, nudging his snout against the side of your leg, pawing you incessantly until you inevitably cave in by rubbing his sides with undivided attention and appease his insatiable appetite to be groomed along his belly with a soft brush until a basketball-sized tumbleweed develops.

Affectionate and adorable, yes. A distraction? Definitely.

At times, it’s difficult to balance the work that needs to be done with the doggie-distractions that take place in what I’ll deem my “office.” But are my distractions that much different than those who work in a normal office?

Maybe. I mean, my time killers aren’t Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or my cell phone anymore. My time killers are living, breathing beings that require attention (some, like Shenanigans, more than others.)

Although I’m new to the experience of working from home, I’ll manage. And having had the opportunity to both work from home and work in an office, I can say that I’d spend 10 minutes on a patented Shenanigans belly run over watching YouTube videos at a co-worker's desk any day.

Have you worked alongside your pets? What are some of their work day “Shenanigans?” Share in a comment.