Berniece Tries Out New Places

On Saturday, Glenn and I took 3-month old Berniece to the Auto Show at the Tampa Convention Center. One of the things that I noticed Bernie likes to do is explore new surfaces. Often dogs are a little afraid of new surfaces, but not Bernie. She tried out the gratings, and in some places rubber mulch, around the trees as we walked on the sidewalk to the Convention Center. She tried out shiny linoleum and aluminum surfaces on the floor. She even insisted on getting up on a mirrored surface and looked at herself. She wanted to get in all the cars and check out the passenger well to see if we both fit okay.

Then, today, Glenn and I took Berniece to IKEA, in Tampa. We had a lunch of Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes and Lingon while Bernie lay quietly under the table.

After lunch we went shopping. Bernie was quite overwhelmed by all the new smells and kept veering off the beaten path trying to discover where the newest smell was coming from. Also, there were a lot of children in the store and she always has a very hard time ignoring children. But she had some wonderful exposures to new things. She got to ride in a huge freight elevator and walk down an enormously long staircase. We shopped in the Swedish grocery store and many of the odors there were also ones we'd never experienced before either.

Now she is home and on a tie-down. Everthing is calm and back to normal.