09/06/2026
I’ve mentioned Home Depot in many posts as a great option for changing up the stimulus and getting your dog out without exposing them to hot pavement and the temperatures we’ve been having lately. BUT there’s another important aspect before you ever load your dog up in the car: are they a good fit for this kind of activity?
I know Popcorn (the pup in this post) very well. He’s a VERY friendly boy, but after encountering him while he’s out on walks with his mom and walking him myself, I know that he doesn’t jump on people he doesn’t know and he responds well to correction and direction. Therefore, he is a perfect candidate for this kind of outing!
Something we don’t always like to admit as fur-parents is that we actually don’t always know our dogs as well as we think they do. However they behave within the four walls of your house, within the fence line of your property, with the humans they live with 24/7 and the guests you have over all the time and with the fur siblings they’re used to actually provides very little information when it comes to how they’ll act in a new environment with people they don’t know, sounds and smells that are unfamiliar and potentially other animals.
Even though Home Depot is a dog friendly place, it’s still an enclosed establishment and the employees who work there deal with enough before animals are ever brought into the situation.
Start off at an outdoor space like the park. How do they respond to the other dogs, people and commotion there? It’s our responsibility to know our pets well enough so that we don’t put them in harms way or subject other people to our dogs’ unruly behavior if they just aren’t a good fit for public places.
Thankfully, Popcorn had a great time and was a good boy!
