Here Be Dragon: Trip to downtown Berkeley and playing with a friend.

On Sunday morning we took a trip to downtown Berkeley to a comic books store. I usually take the car when I'm traveling with Dragon -- it's convenient and it's a hybrid so I don't worry about the cost of gas -- but for the sake of socialization we took the subway this time. Dragon had ridden the subway for the first time last week, just one stop down and back, to make sure that he would be able to cope of the noises and movement. He was a champ. He settled down in his crate and quietly watched the other commuters going to and fro.

I put on his coat just for the sake of dressing up! For this picture I asked him to hop up onto his crate, which I had never done before. Thanks to the reinforcement history I've created for climbing on things and holding position there, he automatically stayed balanced on top of the crate until I cued him to jump off.

It was a beautiful day, with lots of people bustling around. Dragon confidently strode through the crowds. This was his first time in Berkeley.

Bringing the camera along meant that I was frequently prompted to ask him to sit and stay in new places. What a great training opportunity!

At the comics store the clerks "ooh"ed and "ahh"ed over him and he rubbed against their legs like a cat, which is his favorite way of soliciting attention. Then we headed over to the campus of UC Berkeley.

Dragon saw a homeless man carrying a large trash bag over his shoulder, for the first time. He was suspicious and drew in deep breaths as he investigated the strange man from a few feet away, snorting out the air in warning puffs. I gave him treats for being brave and curious, and he soon forgot to be suspicious.

Dragon was game to do his sit-stays and down-stays in strange places as long as the treats were delivered every 3-5 seconds. Considering that we rarely practice them when we're out and about, I considered this a success. That is, until he saw squirrels running by, and his brain melted out of his giant ears.

Before he would sit and stay next to this statue, he politely approached its rear and investigated. Then he came around to the front and slowly, carefully, sniffed the jaws of the bear. Finally he was satisfied that despite its fierce expression, it would not harm him.

At this point I realized that if we didn't get back to the subway right now, we would be late for our Control Unleashed class in Walnut Creek. Oops! We hurried back (I carried him past more squirrels) and made it to class 10 minutes late.

This was the second week of a four-week session. We are taking the class as a foundation for focusing among other dogs. This week the instructor coached us through the Look At That and Give Me A Break games. We also rewarded a default behavior of returning to and lying down on a mat, and, of course, reinforced relaxing in a crate.