Vito's Meltdown

My club's annual obedience trial is this weekend.  Vito entered in Open B for his 2nd attempt and Lance in Utility B.

Lance
Let's start with the good news, the Corgi.  Lance did his signals!  With zero stress as he sassily barked at me on the sit cue after doing his beautiful down. Other major points lost were for dropping the glove as he does the pickup so happily and fast it just slips out of his mouth- a common problem with Lance.
We were also hit hard for forging which I didn't really see.  And of course fronts.
Qualifying!!!

Vito
And now the bad news.  Vito didn't get his drugs on time in the morning due to Daddy not setting his alarm.  Very anxious car ride.  Seemed OK at the trial, just a little bit stressing high.  Nothing horrible.  Ring entrance not the greatest as soon as he saw the judge.  But he did come with me to the setup spot nicely.  More fixation on the judge who had to come give me back my dumbbell for the retrieve as the first exercise.  I ended up telling Vito to stay and taking a few steps to meet her.

Retrieve on the flat was a very high Toller and he needed a 2nd command to retrieve since he was still thinking about the judge.  Knocked it with his feet.  And then jumped up on the judge after she came up to re-take the dumbbell from us.  Still not that bad and I chose to heel him down to the drop on recall spot as I thought he needed the focus work.

Pretty good setup for the drop on recall with only 1 glance to the judge!  Came in like a rocket and actually did down, yay!  Thought about fronting, but just couldn't do it so went to heel.  I was a good handler and told Vito to stay as I knew he couldn't handle the judge approaching to give us back the dumbbell.

More complete fixation on the judge as we setup for the retrieve over the high.  I actually tried to throw it as far away from the judge as possible, but my aim isn't that great so it was still fairly close to her.  When release he shot straight at her and punched her hard.  I called Vito to me and called it.
It was certainly not going to get better.



The run itself makes me a bit sad but that wasn't the worse.  Upon leaving the ring Vito was insane.  Started panting very hard and just could not calm down.  I went to a corner and had him do his "sad" trick of chin rest to the floor to see if that could get him to relax.  It didn't.  Took him outside and unfortunately someone had their dog off leash and was throwing a ball.  Vito got even higher. (And then I had to approach and tell the person to put their dog back on leash as I was trial chair and it was an AKC trial).  Back inside Vito was still panting hard and started trembling.  I had him out a good 20min, maybe 30min and he was still insane.  Refused to go into his crate.  I wanted to cry.  I called Adam to have him drive over and pick Vito up as Vito was just having a huge meltdown.  But then I had to take Lance into the ring so literally shoved Vito in the crate and grabbed the corgi.  Vito was just starting to calm down when Adam arrived to take him home.

Vito had to come back later to the show as Adam had to go to work and Vito can't be left alone.  Vito arrived very calmly and remained calm for the rest of the show.
No idea why he was in such a panic earlier today.
Vito getting worried in the ring, nothing new.  Vito freaking out on trial grounds, very unlike him.  Vito is always super relaxed at dog shows, even more relaxed then he is at work with me!

Fingers are crossed that Vito is a sane dog tomorrow.  He will be getting his drugs on time so hopefully that will help.  And maybe, just maybe, we will actually try showing again.