Why your dog pesters hardest during calls
From your dog's side, working from home looks like you being home and inexplicably unavailable. You are present, warm and seated — prime attention conditions — yet you stare at a screen and talk to nobody he can see. Dogs who were used to resting while the house was empty have lost that long daytime sleep, and dogs adopted into home-working households may never have learned it. Nudging, barking at the window and bringing toys are experiments: each one that earns a stroke, a laugh or a game teaches him to try it again during your next meeting.
Spend the energy before you need the quiet
Schedule the day's main walk and a bout of play before your first meeting, not at lunchtime. A dog who has run, sniffed and explored settles far more deeply than one given a quick toilet loop. Follow the walk with breakfast or a food puzzle so the transition to rest includes something absorbing. Then show him his workday bed — beside your desk is fine, and often better than exile to another room — with a long-lasting chew or a licking mat, and let the first hour of work be his deepest sleep.
Build a rhythm he can predict
Dogs relax into patterns they can forecast. Keep breaks at roughly the same points each day: a mid-morning toilet trip and stretch, a proper lunchtime walk or garden game, and a short afternoon play before your last work block. During work blocks, respond to quiet settling with calm praise and the occasional treat placed on his bed, and meet nudging with boring consistency — stand, redirect him to the bed once, then return to work without a game. Keep your own arrivals and departures low-key on the days you do go out, so your presence alone stops being an event.
When the house has more than one worker
If two people work from home, agree who is on dog duty for each block, because a dog who can shop between two desks will interrupt both. The off-duty person closes a door or works away from the main room, and the on-duty person handles the breaks and the settling rewards. Keep meetings that matter most in the dog's deepest rest window — usually after the morning walk — and warn regular callers that a short pause may happen, which removes the panic that makes owners either over-indulge or sharply scold a dog who is only asking for the pattern he was taught.
Protect the boundary kindly
Close the door or use a gate for the calls that truly cannot be interrupted, and give him his chew before the call starts rather than banishing him mid-nudge as a punishment. Rotate toys and chews so the workday selection stays interesting, and keep water within his reach. A dog who is suddenly far clingier than usual, off his food or restless at night may be unwell rather than demanding, and that change is worth a vet conversation. That profile, meanwhile, can be viewed by a sibling or parent you select once you share it in KinsLe Family Sharing.