Children at the park, and Urban Ore.

Friday and Saturday were extra long days at work, so Chimera spent all day at the daycare with me. Saturday morning included the puppy social, and one of his best friends was there -- Kira the tiny yorkie. Cai still needs to learn manners. When he wants to play, he runs straight up to the other dog (or my cat) and jumps on them with his front feet. So rude! I gently push him off when he jumps on them (with the cue "off"), which helps, and beyond that I'm counting on other dogs to correct him and teach him manners. If he happens to jump on them from behind, it sometimes triggers humping behavior, which I definitely want to stop because most dogs take offense to it.

On Sunday morning we went to a park which is popular with families with little children. We walked around and I gave treats to Cai for looking at children doing "strange" things. We saw kids roller blading, wading into a pond, running, swinging, hitting a large rubber ball against a wall, and pushing or pulling wagons and such. We heard hids yelling, laughing, and crying. The only thing that spooked him was a girl who was wearing roller blades and a helmet and was swinging on a swing, facing toward us. We moved farther away and then played Look at That. He's getting the hang of it -- sometimes he looks at people and then pointedly looks toward me and steps toward me.

This morning's socialization trip was to Urban Ore, a scrap yard/second hand store for all kinds of home construction and decoration items, such as toilets, sinks, doors, windows, scrap wood, chairs, etc. We passed by a tiny rocking chair and I asked Chimera to put his front feet on it for a treat. He did, and then decided on his own to jump all the way onto it and sit down! I started feeding him handfuls of treats to reinforce the behavior and get him to stay long enough to take a picture:

Good boy!

So cute!

I brought home a couple of flower pots in just the size I was missing, and one ceramic tile that I will use as a foot target for Cai.

Back at home, he went into his crate for three hours while I did dog walking. He didn't cry when I got home, even while I showered, until I was done and went into my room and he saw me. Progress!