The staff are amazing, the store has enough traffic to make it interesting but not overwhelming and they are happy for me to bring in my new babies and work with them there.
We will do a lot of our early pet friendly Public Access behavior training here. Every trainer handles public access training differently in terms of when and where they go, but for me personally, I don't take pups into non-pet friendly places until they are completely housebroken and have some good core skills in manners and obedience.
Which is why when Luna has a potty accident in Tractor Supply, it wasn't a problem. We had a clean up and moved on, and in all fairness to her, I now know that I was right thinking she was getting antsy because she might need to potty, but I waited too long to respond... Completely my fault there honey!
All too often, I see handlers dragging puppies through Walmart before they are ready and between the lunging, barking fake service dogs and the overwhelming nature of Walmart on its own - it is not a wonder that these puppies develop nervous or anxious behaviors and often burn out or even wash out from service training completely.
Socialization and Exposure are NOT the same thing... And negative exposure can be worse than no exposure. How you introduce a pup to new things - especially around their fear period time frames - makes an enormous difference in how they perceive the world and cope with stress.
Please, if you are unfamiliar with fear periods, socialization protocols, how to create a positive exposure experience (it's not about the treats), how to read canine body language and how to desensitize and counter condition behaviors... Get with a trainer who knows!!
But back to our star...
She did beautifully meeting a variety of people including men in hats/sunglasses and some with beards, people who came down to her level and some who bent over her and she just took it all in stride. She is learning to keep her feet on the floor and offer a Sit when greeting people and she did so almost everytime with no prompting from me. Very proud of that girl!
Then we did some tough stuff - exposure work to unusual sights (giant stuffed dog) and sounds (construction toys) which she did so well at also.
She breezed through the visual one and showed me, we will need to work a little on the auditory one.
Exposure to scary things is an important part of training but has to be handled delicately. I use her response to decide whether we are ready to try again. If she will still approach and interact, take food and isn't shutting down - it is okay to push that little bit. There is a fine line between desensitizing a puppy to something and overexposing them which can create a lasting impression that you then have to work much harder to change later. Keep your sessions short and productive instead of trying to force the issue and stop before they get stressed.
We couldn't leave empty handed so she got a selection of new toys and I may have cleaned out a bit of their treat clearance bin... LOL She also got a new bed for the car which she promptly put to use! All that work tires a baby out. Which is good news on the containment frustration issue - she slept all the way home!
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