Vito's Walk of Shame

Another trial held at our home club location.

Saturday- Rally
Our second time in Rally Excellent.  Vito was fairly excited outside the ring and a bit sassy too.  But as soon as we entered the ring he fixated on our nice judge and could not take his eyes off her.  I even delayed our start for a second to give him some time and he would not look at me.  So on my first step I told him to come, which he did willingly but still staring a tiny bit the judge.  By the end of the first sign and as path took us away from the judge Vito started to heel very nicely  and with a decent level of energy that I like.  But then any time the judge was nearby Vito had to look and stole quite a few glances by the time we were done.

But on the positive side, in between staring at the judge, Vito gave me some lovely work with quite a bit more drive and enthusiasm than our last trial a few weeks ago.  And while I did need to give him verbal sits at certain signs, and reminded cues to heel, Vito had snappy responses.  Leg #2 with a score of 99.

I chose not to take him into the ring for awards based on both his worry the last time during it and his obsession with the judge.

Sunday- Obedience
My original plan was to do Open B at this show and upcoming ones, but based on Vito's lackluster performances lately I went back to Pre-Open, no stays, no pressure.

And then Vito had the worse run of his life.  Same judge as Saturday's rally run and Vito was even more fixated on her.  Super obsessive and just could not look away.  Heeling had some moments of good but also more staring and needed additional cues to stay with me.  So much staring.  At the start of the figure 8 was more of the same and Vito left me the first chance he got.  By the second go around I gave timely praise to prevent him from leaving and then he still left me again on the halt.

I thought about exiting the ring after the heeling/8 but thought for sure that Vito would be able to handle the rest of the exercises just fine.  I thought wrong as Vito wouldn't even set up for mem left me again and I as tried to prevent him from leaving my overly sensitive doggy yelped.  Ultimately the judge excused us.  Walk of shame.