Puppets won't collide as they can't "meet"?

I want a puppet to collide with furniture brought into the scene in the Timeline panel.  The puppet & furniture appear to be on different layers of the animation in Ch, so they won't collide as they can't "meet".  The puppet drags fine across in front of or behind the furniture.  I even tried bringing the puppet into the background, with the furniture on the same layer level, in the Puppet panel.  If the puppet is above the furniture in either the Puppet panel or the Timeline panel, the puppet is in front or behind the furniture respectively.

Is there a video which shows a puppet walking through leaves?  It is referred to but I haven't seen anything like that.  I have watched even the new Physics-Adobe Character Animator CC Tutorial by Okay Samurai.

Is there a video to show a puppet walking through leaves or anything similar?

Any help will be appreciated.