BOTH boys in Rally

Aww, I forgot to un-draft my brag on the boys last weekend!  I was very proud of Vito so here is my late brag!

The boys were also at the trial last Saturday but were in WCRL rally instead of obedience.

Vito
It's been 12 months since Vito has last been in a trial for obedience/rally with his last experience ending in a total panic attack after I excused us from the ring.  Granted that AKC obedience which is a harder environment for him to be in than CDSP/WCRL trials.  I debated about entering Vito quite a while before sending in the entry as I don't know that we have really made much progress in Vito's willingness to start work lining up with my timeline.  I was pretty sure general trial stress wouldn't be an issue in this environment as he had started to do really well in CDSP trials before his awful AKC meltdown.  But I decided to enter Vito in WCRL rally so that the work would be way easier for him. After entering the rally trial I looked and Vito hasn't done WCRL rally since 2013 when he got his level 3 title.

I don't really think of Vito as a "rally" dog like Lance and Zumi can be.  I think of rally dogs as "doodle" dogs getting more excited with all the rear end awareness tight pivoting, and ok with all the starting and stopping.  Whereas some dogs are more "flow" type dogs.  I wouldn't say Vito hates all the pivots and stopping but he doesn't seem to get as excited by it as the other two.  It's mainly the easier work and not having to deal with transitions that made me choose rally over obedience for him.
I was very much doubting my decision to enter Vito at the trial but decided that he would let me know if he wanted to try it or not.  If I couldn't get him to do a happy and engaged ring entrance than we would just be done.

It actually turned out that Vito was very excited to work and eat cookies before his turn.  He even barked at me a few times and we did several mini "Squish" practice with releasing to play then his cookies for his turn.  Our ring entrance was very excited!  And then he did look around a little bit so I waited to start.  But on our first step he forged!
And then of course he glanced away and found the food bowl distractions set out at a later sign.  Such a hungry toller!  I got him back, after he shoved his head completely in one of the bowls and quickly had him do 2 hand touches in play with him before continuing.  Vito was half with me at that time as his brain was still really on the food bowls.  Our 90 degree pivot Vito pivoted far enough so that he could stare directly at the bowls.  Starving Toller!  I chose to re-do it and then give him a cookie for his effort.  And then Vito realized that Mommy having cookies was way cooler than cookies he didn't know how to get from under a trap in a bowl...
By the time we got back to the bowls Vito was mostly back in good dog mode and did fine.
Despite Vito's little adventure I was extremely happy with Vito's run.  He seemed very relaxed and happy in the ring, not at all stressed about the judge or people outside.  Vito kept working after making a mistake and didn't lose any motivation.

There's another WCRL trial next Friday that I might do with Vito.  And then I had sent in a single rally entry a few weeks ago for my club's AKC trial.  With both I'll just have the same plan of evaluating how he is outside the ring and letting Vito tell me if he wants to continue or not.

Lance
The Corgi came along for 2 rally runs.  He loves coming to trials and hamming it up with everyone.
Trial #1 was extremely nice.  Great focus and really working some precision.  Just did a fun bonus jump towards the end when we were doing a "fast forward from sit" and Lance thought that would be a good time to run extra fast and out over the nearby jump.

Run #2 Corig was sassier.  Much more forging.  Several barks.  Very proud corgi.