More flea treatment, and trip to OSH.

Chimera is experimenting with offerings sits at the gates when I leave him rather than whining. I like this. I'm rewarding it.

I haven't taught him to sit via luring or shaping. I've simply captured it -- here and there, I praised, petted, and/or gave a treat when I saw him sitting. Today he had a lightbulb moment and started to offer sits and stare at me. He's also trying to figure out how to get the treats from me during formal training. He's coming around to the training game.

The brown at his left cheek is more visible every day.

Yesterday morning I was fighting off a little cold and slept in. He was a very good boy, didn't whine or fuss, just kept changing positions in his crate. Unfortunately, because I slept in and it was a work day, we didn't have time for socialization field trip. (My goal is to do at least one trip every day while he's in his critical socialization period.)

After work I had to give him yet another bath (his third in five days) because he was covered in fleas again!! He was more fidgety this time. I blow dried him for the first time and he tried to climb up my arm from the grooming table but otherwise tolerated the drying.

Today I left him at daycare in the morning because I had to be out of the house for a few hours, and he's not ready to be left alone in his crate. When I was done with my errand I took advantage of the empty apartment to do a thorough flea treatment -- vacuuming, spraying, laundry. I stopped by the pet store on my way to pick up Chimera and found a flea repellant I felt comfortable using on him. It contains only a few essential oils diluted in purified water. I sprayed it into his coat and rubbed it in. Cross your fingers that this takes care of everything.

On our way home, we stopped by Orchard Supply Hardware. It was near closing and the store was almost empty. Cai was more interested in eating things off the floor than in smelling any merchandise. There was a pumpkin and hay setup in front of the store, and I put him onto the hay to walk around on a new surface. Inside, he stopped to watch two male employees. One of them was carrying a large wooden spool of rope, and after watching him for a moment Cai started jumping up and down and barking with a mixture of excitedness and nervousness. I called him and he came with me and forgot about the man. The second employee was standing on a ladder, and Cai just observed him and then lost interest.

Just cruising around.

 We got in some good leash walking practice. Usually Chimera doesn't pull much and just moves with me, but this time he was pulling to reach stuff on the floor. My rules for polite leash walking are:
1) If you feel tension on the leash, move toward me and then we will proceed together.
2) Don't switch sides behind my back. Some people teach that as an agility thing, but for me it's just about the leash not getting tangled around me.

Right ear is down again.

Back at home, we finished up the laundry and he took two trips to the tiny, hot laundry room with me.

He's such a good boy. Almost nothing fazes him. His alone training is coming along, slow but steady. He clearly indicated to me when he needed to poop by going to the gate and whining. And he's so, so cute!

The fur at his spot arranged itself into a heart shape today. How cute is that?!