HRH Visits the Common Folk and Rides a Trolley

Last Thursday was our monthly local meeting and it involved a ride on the Jolley Trolley and a trip down the Clearwater Beach Boardwalk to Coneheads Ice Cream (located in the Red Roof Inn on Clearwater Beach. They are big supporter of SEGD, so please support them! Plus their ice cream rocks!).

As we gathered near the trolley stop the first trolley came screaming by, saw the huge group of us with our dogs, never slowed down, and took the left curve with what I thought was an amazing amount of luck considering that physics should have had him on two wheels and screeching! We debated as to whether we should wait for another trolley and experience the same rudeness or walk to Coneheads and take a trolley back. We decided to explore the pier a bit and try another trolley.

The wooden pier was in and of itself quite an experience and Berkeley didn't at first find it to her liking. I wasn't sure if it was the smell of fish, the birds, or the weird planking that made her nervous, but you can see by the photo that she had her tail tucked and was taking things very cautiously.



We've learned to not coddle this behavior but to power on and be matter of fact about things. So we continued down the dock. Fortuitously, we ran into a very nice boat captain (and I am sorry to say, I didn't catch his name) who kindly let ALL OF US get on and off his boat. Talk about a real interesting experience. Berkeley wasn't big enough to do the jump onto the boat, but once we got on the boat I let her explore.



She wandered around and then sat under the benches and took a breather. I think she was wondering if this was one of those ill fated 3-hour cruises! 8-) But soon enough another trolley happened by and this time a very jolley man was driving it and he was quite happy to take the lot of us to Coneheads.



Berkeley got on without too many problems and fell asleep at Fred's feet for the rest of the trip to ice cream. Then we walked back to our car with Princess and Stephanie, making it a royal walk of sorts. 8-)

The next day, we took HRH Berkeley out for an official outing, since she had had her 12 week shots and could be about in public now. We started at Panera, where she was a dream in line, sitting and laying down as necessary.



Then we moved to Lowe's. I was really pleased that within one day she went from a fully tucked tail to one that was only turned down a bit at something new. She did pull away a bit from Fred, but other than that, there was no tail tucking. She walked beautifully on the leash as well.



All in all, HRH made a grand outing in society.