IKEA, Big Distraction

We had been hearing about the Ikea store in Tampa and how it is a great exposure for puppies.  Whether we hear somebody talk about it at our puppy raiser group meetings, or we read it on somebody’s blog, everyone that has taken their guide dog puppy there has recommended it.  So we loaded up the boys and the dog and went on a new adventure.  When we got there, I noticed the large number of people walking in.  It was a pretty good crowd.  The first thing you see when you walk into the store is the escalator that takes you up to the showroom floor.  Since we can’t take guide dog puppies on escalators, we looked around for the elevator that we knew had to be there.  Right next to the elevator was the entrance into the marketplace.  We decided to check that first.  This was where they kept most of the smaller household products like kitchen products, bedding, etc.  When I heard people talking about this place, they mentioned the elevators, the crowds, and the smells.  What smells?  There isn’t anything here that has any smell.  And this place is so clean, it is almost sterile.  But, walking thru the bedding, Joey got a whiff of something that got his interest.  He found the down pillows.  There is his hunting dog heritage again.  Then, I found something that I just had to have.  They had coat hooks that look like the back half of a dog with his tail sticking up.  There were some black ones there, so I grabbed a couple to put in our boys’ rooms. 

We worked on “find the elevator” with Joey and went up to the showroom.  Working our way around there, we again found that a lot more kids than adults know about not petting the guide dogs.  After the first couple hundred people reach out to him, it is hard to stay polite.  Before I starting smacking people with the leash, we reached the end of the show room where they had the restaurant.  The kids were whining and it was getting close to lunchtime, so we went in to see what they had.  I took Joey to a table where he did his usual perfect “under, down”.  Cindy and the boys soon joined me with the food.  She was very impressed with the prices.  Lunch for 4 for $20.00!  But Joey was not impressed, he just laid there under the table sleeping. 

After going thru the checkouts at the end of the warehouse, we did encounter smells.  There is a small section there that sells foods from Sweden and has a small snack bar.

Joey did wonderful but I was completely distracted by the heavenly smell from those amazing cinnamon rolls.