Bailey's big day

Today Bailey was out and about. After reading more about puppy socialization, I realized that I had to find ways to get Bailey into new situations even before he had all of his shots. Between the ages of 8-12 weeks, puppies are little sponges, slurping up every experience and storing them in their little hard drives. They are hard wired with this information for life. 
Puppies are most accepting of new experiences between 3 and 12 weeks old. After that age, they become much more cautious of anything they haven’t yet encountered. From about 12 to 18 weeks old the opportunity to easily socialize the puppy ends—and with each passing week it becomes harder to get the pup to accept and enjoy something that he’s initially wary of.
ASPCA

The plan is to take the puppy to places where there are not usually any dogs. So I decided to start with Home Depot. They are dog friendly. But you don't see a lot of dogs there. I have take my other therapy dogs in training there. There are so many sights, sounds and people.  I was hoping it wouldn't be overwhelming for Bailey.
We hadn't even walked across the parking lot when we heard squeals of delight. We were headed to the garden entrance and the Home Depot greeter was so excited to see Bailey. She loved on him and he happily wiggled around. Then I put him in a cart on a towel and pushed him around the store for about 10 minutes. Then back to the exit for more pictures and snuggles before we headed home. Bailey passed the first test with flying colors.

Later in the afternoon, our neighbors came home. They have an 11 year old boy. I called to them to come over and meet Bailey. They were delighted with him. Ethan played with him for quite a while. Then I heard our other neighbors out in their front yard. They have two little girls ages 4 and 6. I walked Bailey over to see them. They were all giggles and cuddles. The loved playing with Bailey. 
Bailey is one tired puppy. I think he learned a lot in one day!