Reddit mentions of Social, Civil, and Savvy: Training & Socializing Puppies to Become the Best Possible Dogs

Oh wow! That's a big decision to make on an impulse. If you've never owned a puppy totally on your own before, check out r/puppy101. There's a lot to learn about when and how to socialize a puppy (there is a right way and a wrong way, not all socialization is good socialization). The book "Social, Civil, and Savvy" is a fantastic resource.

Take your puppy to a vet ASAP to have it looked at. Not to be hyper critical, but my guess is that you may not have gone through a super reputable source to get this puppy. Most reputable Aussie breeders I know wouldn't sell to an impulse buyer. Getting it taken to a vet will be doubly important if that's the case. You should know what diseases they are at high risk for and what to look out for in your pup. Here is a list of recommended health screenings reputable breeders should do to give you some background info.

Aside from that, as others have said, they're a smart and high energy breed. They'll need a lot of training and activities to burn off mental and physical steam every day. Getting your puppy enrolled in a puppy class is a great place to start. A lot of young herding breeds will also go through a reactivity phase, meaning they will bark and lunge at things like people, other dogs, cars, bikes, etc. It is really important you set your puppy up for success with these things and know how to handle it before it happens so you are ready when it does.

Good luck!

My favorites:

• Perfect Puppy in 7 Days by Sophia Yin
  
• The Puppy Primer by Patricia McConnell
  
• Social, Civil, and Savvy by Laura VanArendonk Baugh (note: I'm only partway through this book, but so far I really, really like it and plan on using a lot of the principles as they're explained here in future puppy classes)
  
  They're all quite affordable if you get the kindle version, but if you can only get one, I think that I'd probably have to go with Perfect Puppy, but honestly depending on how it goes when I finish reading Social, Civil, and Savvy, it may be that one.

At it's core, socialization is safe exposure to a variety of stimuli (sights, sounds, smells, tactile sensations, creatures) to help the dog learn that novel items that it has never seen before are not necessarily scary.

I think the book Social, Civil, and Savvy describes the process and the reasoning behind it pretty well, I think. It's also inexpensive.

That's great you are taking him out places! Dogs are also allowed in to a lot of other stores like banks, apple store, pottery barn, nordstroms, farm and garden places.

I would also recommend reading this book

https://www.amazon.com/Social-Civil-Savvy-Training-Socializing/dp/1631650068/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527590978&sr=8-1&keywords=social+puppy

And this PDF has a lot of useful information

FDSA is fenzi dog sports academy, they run a lot of online classes and primarily aim towards those that are working towards training for different sports and competition, but they recently released a series of articles that are very informative to anyone.

https://fenzidogsportsacademy.com/images/fdsa/Growing-Up-FDSA-eBook.pdf