28/08/2026
🐾 Apollo’s Big Puppy Socialising Adventure
Today I took Apollo, a 16 week old gentle giant, out for a structured puppy socialising experience — the kind that builds confidence, calmness and good judgement, not chaos.
We visited a mix of places so he could experience different sights, sounds and people:
• Tattoo shop — new smells.
• Frame shop — tight spaces, unusual objects
• Reptile shop — tanks, movement, and reptiles.
• Happy Mondays — dogs, people, and lots of distractions and a scary noisy coffee machine.
Apollo handled it beautifully — taking everything in at his own pace, watching, sniffing, thinking.
🐶 Who he met (and who he didn’t)
A huge part of proper socialising is teaching puppies discernment, not “run up to every dog and person you see”.
So today:
• Some people were invited to say hello — calm, friendly, safe energy
• Some dogs were perfect for a quick sniff and move on
• And some interactions weren’t right for him, so we simply walked past and practised neutrality
This is the bit most owners don’t realise:
Good socialising is about learning to feel safe, not learning to be over‑friendly.
Apollo learned:
• How to observe without reacting
• How to walk past dogs politely
• How to check in with his handler
• How to cope with new environments
• How to make good choices even when excited
🐾 Why this matters
Experiences like today help puppies grow into:
• Confident adults
• Dogs who don’t panic in new places
• Dogs who don’t drag you to every person or dog
• Dogs who can think instead of react
Apollo was a superstar — curious, and taking everything in, straight into the good boy club !
If you’d like your puppy to have a structured socialising experience like this, drop me a message 😊🐾
