My family thinks I'm crazy

[Leslie, Yogi & Maci Bear]

Yogi turns 12 weeks soon so I've stepped up my efforts to socialize him.
He's met many women and children, but not many men,so...... I took him to a truck stop today!

The patrons probably wondered what the heck a woman was doing standing there holding a puppy near the semis at the gas
pumps, but we met a lot of men today ;-), they all stopped to pet him!

What did you do to socialize your pups that might seem extreme?

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

With Lucy and Sophie we went out somewhere in the public where they would meet lots of people every week-end.  We would do Lowes or the outlet malls, county fairs, festivals, parades, dog events.  Any place we could find we went.  With AnnaBelle this has been a little bit harder because our area of Ohio is where the mystery illness that everyone has been talking about originated.  We have tried to be really careful where we took her so as not to encounter a lot of other dogs.   We didn't do a lot of the dog events.  We have taken her to many other festivals and parades and shopping and things like that.

[Vivian & Mojo]

When Mojo was a young pup we would stand outside the Post Office entrance as most people would pet him and if they didn't I would explain I was socializing him and would they please say hello...all did except for a guy on a motorcycle.

[Bonnie and Kona]

You are crazy like a fox! What a good idea. ;o)

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

LOL...hanging out at the truckstop may just be a first! We have brought Enzo EVERYWHERE possible since the day she came home. Home Depot and Lowes are great for " meeting men". Coffee places with outdoor seating, lunch with outdoor seating, just sitting in a park, you will find you will draw a crowd pretty quickly. We have some pretty loud cars and our son has a motorcycle, so she has been brought up hearing all loud noises...nothing fazes her.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

You win the unconventional prize I think!!!! Congratulations on being so inventive.  Vivian, I never thought of the post office. Great idea!  Our family also has motorcycles so we made sure our dogs were around to hear them.  I guess the most direct thing we did was to sit at the railroad crossing so Ned could get used to trains.  We also deliberately walked on 'grates' so he wouldn't be afraid, but since we encounter grates so rarely, I am not sure it that exposure will last forever.  We also took him on elevators - not unusual for city apartment dwellers, but unusual for Southern California.

[Vicky loves Chachi]

I take Chachi to my daughter's dance classes. He is exposed to lots of kids at one time petting him. He loves to sit and watch her Tap class. I wish I could take him grocery shopping with me, wouldn't that b awesome.