USDAA Trial #2

2012 is going to be Vito's year.  Vito was signed up for 1 day of agility today at the USDAA trial.  It's our 2nd USDAA trial and I am enjoying the venue.  The exact opposite of NADAC but I guess I like opposites.

Video.  And yes, I forgot my shoes at home:

First up was Pairs and I wasn't sure how Vito would feel about needing to be put on a stay and having my attention diverted from him.  But being in the ring while the other dog was running got Vito very excited.  Some screaming occured and he didn't mind at all when I went to get the baton.  Unfortunately the other dog decided to join us on course.  Thankfully Vito did an excellent recall and didn't seem phased by the 2nd stay he had to do.  I think he actually RAN too!  So needless to say I was ecstatic over how anxious free Vito was on this run.  Video may be being sent to me soon.

Our second run was standard.  It was a little harder to get Vito focused on me during our tugging warm up but once he did focus he remained very into it.  Before going into the ring he stared at the leash runner but was able to focus nicely once we were actually in the ring.  He wasn't quite as confident on the run as I would like but it was still a very nice run.  He even tried super hard to get the weave entrance after his running dogwalk contact but since I didn't want to decelerate before he got his contact he entered at the 2nd pole. 

Last run was jumpers and probably his best jumpers run to date.  I'm not sure if a course comprising only of jumps is more stressful for him or just because it's usually the last run of the day, but we usually have slow and stressy jumper runs.  Today Vito was happy in jumpers!  I screwed up by thinking I wouldn't have time to do a front cross when I clearly did.  I know Vito doesn't like rear crosses in trials but I did one anyway and pulled him off a jump.  Luckily it didn't completely demotivate him and he started to speed up a little bit again.

I am starting to feel better about Vito's trialing.  Maybe not super confident yet but it feels like we're getting there!