“Vincent” is my little black Schipperke dog.

“Vincent” or “Vinny” as I generally call him, looks like a little black fox without a tail. He is 15 inches tall at the shoulder, weighs about 18lbs and has an amazing sense of humour!

Vincent has been practising hard (sort of!) in readiness for his first Championship Obedience Show.
This is an account of Vinny’s first time in the Championship Obedience showring

I had to register Vinny with KC before I could even think of showing him at any Obedience shows, so I registered Vinny as "Lord Vincent of Amati", Amati being my KC Affix.

Lord Vincent was very pleased with his new name and he spent the next few weeks with his nose in the air practising his good mannered behaviour in case he had to take part in any royal commitments! He makes a very good "Lord" and his general manners are normally well worthy of his title.

When I announced at our training days that I had named him "Lord Vincent" AND had entered him for a Champ. Ob. show, all of the other handlers and myself, had a good chuckle about it and they threatened to have a tannoy announcement over the show ground when he was about to enter the ring!

Even when I asked the lady who runs the training days, "How do you think I can get him through a round?" she eagerly "PASSED" on any answer.  This lady is a top handler and ran her dog at Crufts this year!

Obedience can be quite stunning, exacting work and there aren't many other breeds in Ob other than Border Collies! So no matter what we do Vinny *has* to compete against the "cream of the cream" as it were, even in the lower classes.

I have also found out that Vinny is one of only 3 Schipperkes in this country that are currently entering Ob. shows, there may be others but we don't think so.

The show classes are as follows with the lowest first: -
Pre-Beginners (not at all shows) 
Beginners
Novice
"A"
"B"
"C"

I entered Vinny in Beginners! There are strict rules as to which classes you can enter so we had to enter this one. All breeds compete against one another so if you choose to compete with a Yorkie it competes against all of the other breeds entered in that class on the day!!! Also, most of the shows are held outside in fields so you are always at the mercy of the weather!

The Beginner Class has the following exercises and maximum of points for each exercise:
Heel on Lead 15 points
Heel off Lead 20 points
Recall 10 points
Retrieve 25 points
Sit Stay (1 minute) 10 points
Down Stay (2 minutes) 20 points
Total 100 points

So on a Sunday in June I loaded my little fellow and his sidekick (Jarry the Yorkie) into the car with dog bowls, bottles of water, spare leads, spare collars, treats, food, car covers, window shades blah blah blah!! You name, I had packed it and we were only going 15 miles down the road!

The show was in Slough near Windsor and of course *I* knew the way to the show ground but had also taken the precaution of taking the printed directions (as one does! )

It didn't take me long to get lost and go around the same roundabout about 5 times before I checked the printed directions which said (at the bottom of the page) "at the roundabout, take the" ???? So I looked for the next page and found I hadn't packed it!!

After 1/2 hour of driving around I found myself behind a convoy of cars with dogs and cages in them so I tagged along behind them and finally arrived at the show ground 1 hour later than I had planned .... By which time it was 8.30am and it was already getting very sunny and hot!

Now, at this point, I ought to tell you that, although I have been training Vinny, he hasn't actually been to doggy club much and after about 8 visits to one club, I decided that they hadn't got much to offer in the way of Ob training a Schip, so I stopped going.

Since then we have been on 4 "whole days" training days whereby Vinny had never been asked to complete even one Ob. exercise, let alone a whole round of exercises! He has also never done Heel Off Lead either.

All of our training has been little parts of the exercises done on the lead. He hadn't even been taught to "wait" while I walked away in the recall OR to "wait" before he went out to get his dumbbell! So I quickly taught him to wait 2 days before the show!! Vinny hadn't done many stays in amongst other dogs either!!!

So, as you can gather, I'm "batting on a sticky wicket" even thinking of taking him into a show! There was also the possibility of him Nascaring off through all of the rings during his off lead bits, which anyone owning a Schip is at risk of !!!!!!!!!!

So there we were at the show ground which was in 2 huge fields, one for parking cars and one for the show rings. I parked up under the trees and got Vinny & Jarry out of the car and set off to find the Secretary's tent to get my catalogue which would tell us which ring we were in, the time of the "Stays" and which dogs we were competing against.

So far so good, Vinny seemed to be taking everything in "his stride" as a true Lord would, he didn't even" turn his head" to the few hundred dogs around him! "What next?" I wondered, as I browsed through the show catalogue ... Oh NO!! I remembered we had been sent a running order! This meant that we *had* to be the 10th competitors in the ring we had no choice in the matter.

In UK Ob shows they randomly draw the first 10 dogs in the ring in each class to start the proceedings off, the only way you would know If you had a running order was if they sent it to you by snail mail ... and we had been sent one weeks ago, I had just forgotten! So I set off to find our ring and "booked in" at the ringside. 
"Name Please?" the Scribe asked ......
"Hollingdale!" says I,
....er......breed of dog? The Scribe asks!??
"Schipperke" say I,
"Skipperwassit???" the Scribe asks!!?????
"SCHIPPERKE!" says I again!!
Then because of the blank look I got I begin to spell it out...."S-C-H-I-P-P-E-R" "Stop!!" says the Scribe, "I've put him down as a "Skip, 'cos there isn't enough space in the little box to put it all down!"

Next was a run back to the car to drop Jarry off and back to the ringside with Vinny to await our turn in the ring. Vinny and I both sat down on the grass beside the ring and watched the other competitors practising outside the ring. None of that for us, we like to rest and watch the others and Vinny *needed* one of his treats from my bag so we both had a munch for a few minutes.

We didn't have to wait long before the lady judge and her steward called us in. "OOOooooooo! a Schipperke!! I've never judged a Schipperke before!!" The judge said enthusiastically. "and, I've never owned one before!" I replied, and we stepped into the ring .......!

There's one thing I forgot to say which was that I had entered him for Beginners and "Novice" as well. The rules say that you *must* enter the lowest class that you are eligible for and you can enter for one other class if you want to. This is based on the dog and the handler, so in my case I as a handler have won one Pre-Beginners before so I can't ever enter that one again and I've won one Beginners before but you're allowed to win two Beginners before you're out of that class forever!

When I started Obedience in the 60's I tried "not" to win a second beginners, I wanted to keep one in hand for whenever I felt like returning with another dog. Pre-Beginners and Beginners are exactly as they say, they are for Beginners only and are the only two classes that you can win out of and never ever be able to return to. They are handy classes for not meeting up with the very top class handlers who would have won out of them and *must* start in Novice. So there is, in effect, a very large jump from Beginners to Novice not necessarily because of the dogs but because of the handlers

WELL! There we were in the ring together!! Little Vinny's coat was shining so brightly in the sun and he was wearing his new, thin, "blue with yellow flecks" half choke and lead that I had just made him for the occasion. HE certainly looked the part to start with so HE'D look good if we went wrong or he "died" on me in the ring! I did say to the judge that if Vinny needed an extra bit of help from me, which would turn his round into a training round, I'd like to give it. The lady judge said that was fine, no problem whatsoever!

The judge and steward then *both* directed me to the corner of the ring to the start of the "Heel on Lead", they were both smiling and the smiles were so big that they filled their faces!
"Start Here" they said .....
We got into place .....
"Not there, you're on the ropes!" they said.
We shuffled over!
"Are you ready?" the steward says.
"Yes" I answered; checking that Vinny was sitting straight at "heel"
"Forward!" the steward says.
"Vinny close" (please?) I ask of Vinny, and step off (with my left foot) which is his cue for the fun to begin!

Well ..... Vinny leapt into action immediately, is the only way I can describe it!. He hopped and skipped all the way through this exercise! His lead *had* to be *slack* at all times and he *had* to be "on my leg" at all times, even on the turns. In heelwork, Vinny follows my eyes, strange as it might sound, so for the purposes of getting him around the course, he has to be able to see them. I have to tilt my head towards him for him to be able to see them which makes walking a straight line quite difficult but we didn't "crash" through the ropes thankfully.

I could talk to him at any time, but not touch him, so I made full use of my voice! On each turn I gave him extra encouragement to keep him with me and he kept leaping up on his hind legs as we turned!
"LEFT turn!" says the steward.
I say "Vin close", Vinny bounces up, and we turn left and carry along the next leg of the straight.
"HALT!" says the steward.
I stop and Vinny bounces round to my front, I calmly put my hand out at waist level and from my waist point my hand palm facing Vinny, tip my hand back (Vinny's signal if he's ahead of me, to flip back into the heel position) and Vinny pops back at heel and into the sit. He's not very good at stopping when he's in full flight!

We completed the heelwork course in this style and I was so surprised at his enthusiasm despite the tremendous heat and his lack of practise! Phew! Was I glad when we had finally finished the heel on lead, at least we had made a good impression on the judge and steward and therefore showed them that Schipperkes are a "force to be reckoned with" (at least in HOL if not in the other exercises!?)

Next was the recall. By this time we were getting into the swing of things, well Vinny was anyway!
"Over here" says the steward.
We get into position,
"Sit and WAIT!" I say to Vinny as I move my hand upwards in front of his face, (his wait signal) Vinny sits!
"Are You Ready?" says the steward.
"Yes" says I, checking that Vinny is still there .... With that Vinny lays down!
"Oh he wants to do it from the down!" I said to the judge and steward "so ..... I'll let him do it *his* way".

The recall can be done from either the sit or down positions so it didn't matter so long as he didn't stand up. "Leave your dog" says the steward. I give a last "WAIT" to Vinny and step off (with my right foot) with each step that I took I also said an extra "wait" to Vinny to make sure that he didn't follow me.
"About turn and halt" says the steward.
I turn to face Vinny and look down at my feet to make sure they are correctly in line and spot that Vinny is laid there like a "coiled spring!" OOoooo! This looks dangerous, I think to myself!

"Call your dog!" says the steward, not realising that I should have been wearing crash helmet and shin pads as protection!
"VINNY! ... come" I call .....
Vinny took off from his "down" with such speed and commitment for this exercise that he came at me like a speeding bullet!
"Oh! Hells bells!" I think, as I try to slow him down by getting my hands down low in front of me as a guide for him, I also gave him a few *extra strong* "come" commands in my futile attempt to slow him up! Of course, Vinny was having none of this and kept gathering speed as he ran, I could see that glint in his eye and his wide mouthed grinning pant as he hurtled towards me.
"Uh Oh!" I thought, "he's gonna crash!"
But No!, his carefully plotted plan worked and he shot straight through my legs at great speed and popped out behind me! Then he shot around in front of me and sat neatly in the correct position! By this time the judge and score steward were grinning, smiling and trying to suppress their laughter at his enthusiasm!

Next was his "heel off lead" exercise which was exactly the same course as his "heel on lead" had been, which is the normal way in Uk Obedience.
"Here we go! he's never done this before!" I thought, "cross your fingers, say a short prayer and hope!" I could see that by this stage of the proceedings Vinny had realised that he had an audience to play to and was showing off way beyond his normal "show off" capabilities! I have to watch him because he's liable to do his "head over heels" roll; start chattering if I look at him, nascar off, or anything else he thinks looks "cute" in front of people!

We got into position and I unclipped his lead and clipped it around my body.
"Are You Ready?" says the steward.
"Yep" says I.
"Forward" says the steward.
"Vinny close" (purleeeeessse?) I say and off we went again, Vinny hoppity skippity and me with my bent head! HA! I needn't have worried about the off lead work because Vinny took it all with a "pinch of salt" like he had never done anything BUT Heel Off Lead! Except for the fact that he *had* to have his "moment of glory", he couldn't resist it, he went into "clown mode" and ducked down behind me (while I was walking!) poked his nose between my ankles and with his mouth open, looking like he's going to grab my ankles, and followed my ankles, step for step, for about 4-6 paces!

"DON'T panic!" I thought as I could feel him at my ankles. But, true to form, he popped back up and carried on as if nothing had happened! We finished the Heel Off Lead and I bent down and gave him loads of praise. We aren't allowed to carry any food or toys whilst in the ring, which I think is a Universal rule in Obedience, so lots of verbal praise and stroking was the "order of the day" for Vinny.

That just leaves the Retrieve and the stay exercises for us to do. WELL, we've made it this far but, is Vinny showing off too much to be able to listen to me? Will he wait while I throw his dumbbell? Or does he think that a Lord is allowed to show off as much as he wants to!!!?

"Hmmmm!?" I think as I walk over to the judge's table with him to get his dumbbell. I could also sense that the judge and steward were wondering what he was going to do next and they seemed transfixed by him and his antics, so much so that they were both sporting that "look" at Vinny, like a child when it wants to get at something but isn't allowed to touch it?! My little Vinny , so I'm told, has so much "presence" in his little body that he's a "people magnet"

The Retrieve!
As I walked with Vinny to get his dumbbell, the judge and steward waited in quiet, smiling anticipation, in the middle of the grassed ring, their eyes firmly fixed on Vinny. Vinny stood on his hind legs and put his front paws up on to the judge's table to see what I was getting for him (note the bit, for him, he thinks everything is *for him*!)

I picked up his bright fluorescent orange dumbbell and headed back across the ring towards the judge and steward with Vinny bouncing up and down trying to see what I had in my hands!
"Over here" says the steward, as she directed me to our starting place.
As we neared our start place I showed Vinny his dumbbell as I rubbed my hand around the middle dowel bit, this was to show him that he was about to go and do "holdies" with his dumbbell. Vinny obligingly *caught on* quickly and his little eyes lit up again!

We got into place and I got Vinny at "heel" and told him to "wait".
"Are You Ready?" says the steward.
"Yes!" says I, as I align my feet so that Vinny *couldn't" shoot through my legs again!
"Throw your article!" says the steward.
I'm still allowed to speak to Vinny and give him hand signals BUT not to touch him so I keep telling him to "wait".

Back goes my right hand with the dumbbell in it at the same time as my left hand goes slightly forward, then as my right hand goes forward to launch the dumbbell, my left hand comes back downwards to Vinny's face, palm open with another "wait" command. Vinny waits by my side in excited anticipation!

The idea in the retrieve is to throw the dumbbell so that it lands in an exact straight line from your front, thus giving your dog a simple straight line to follow and return down. It's also a good idea to throw the dumbbell far enough from you otherwise the judge will kick it into the right place at the correct distance away from you.

It is quite common when a judge kicks the dumbbell for a dog to either lose all interest ..... or .... To zoom off unexpectedly in an attempt to gather up its dumbbell quickly from the "marauding stranger" so a goodly, underarm *chuck* is the way to do it.

Well! .... I gave it a goodly chuck all right, Vinny's dumbbell nearly went into orbit!
The judge and steward gaped, open mouthed, waiting for the "orange UFO" to land, which, fortunately hit the ground and came to rest in exactly the right place!

A few nerve wrecking seconds later ....
"Send your dog!" says the steward
"Hold it" I whisper to Vinny.

Vinny took off with a leap from his hind legs and ran "hell for leather" to get his little orange dumbbell! Bless him, he even went slightly past it and turned so that he was facing me as he picked it up, just as he had been taught!

WOW, I thought, he's fast! as he began to forge his way back to me. Oh dear! How will I stop him! Will he shoot through my legs!? Will he leap into my arms crashing his dumbbell into my face!????? or what ????

But he didn't do either of those things! Instead, as he was forging towards me he suddenly deviated, veered off course, and NASCARED!!!!

He began to zoom in a circle towards the ropes of the ring, my heart was in my mouth!! If he shot through into the other rings, God alone knows what disasters he could cause! This was my one fear, Vinny nascaring at a dog show!

All of the "cream of the cream" trying to work their dogs to qualify them for Crufts 2001, no proper dog proof boundaries to the rings and Vinny nascaring through 857 dogs!!!
"Vinny!!!!" I called, as he arced his first half circuit!
Vinny carried on with great gusto!

I think I put my hands up to cover my eyes as he neared the ring ropes!?? but for some unknown reason he didn't go out of the ring!?? he just embarked on a second lap!! I could hear some muffled giggles coming from somewhere behind me but it was not the right time to turn to see who was laughing at us. I just hoped he'd stop as quickly as he'd started!!!!!
Do I call him again?
No! just stay calm and he'll stop when he's had his moment of glory, I thought???. Too much calling sometimes has the opposite effect when he's in show off mode! Then as he was completing his second lap Vinny suddenly twisted in the air and started hurtling towards me like an exocet missile!
Uh Oh! here we go again! I thought. 
I gritted my teeth and stiffened up waiting for the impact, you know all slanty-eyed etc!
But, to my surprise, there was no impact and Vinny skidded into a "down" in front of me with his little orange dumbbell still in his mouth!!

"Take the article!" says the steward, trying not to grin!
I tell Vinny to "give"
Vinny gives me his dumbbell.
"Finish!" says the steward
I tell Vinny "close" and he hops backwards into "heel"
"Exercise Over!" announces the steward.
With that, I CLIPPED his lead up!!!
Phew!!! I was so relieved to have him back with me that I bounced on Vinny praising him and Vinny bounced back at me, we both went silly!!

As we played ourselves out towards the exit, the judge and steward came over to us.  The judge was writing at the same time as she was walking towards us.
I wonder what she's going to say? I thought as I tried to gather myself together after our ordeal.........?
Well ..... The judge and steward were both smiling with BIG smiles!
"Did you mark me?" I asked, thinking that the judge might have taken Vinny's round as a training round even though I had tried to stick to the rules.
"Yes of course I marked you!" she said.
"Ooooooo!" says I.
"But did you realise that every time you say his name .... he bounces up?" said the judge.
"Does he??!" says I, knowing full well that I had been aiming to get him to do this to keep his concentration.

In heelwork training, every time I think that he is losing his concentration, I say his name and hold a sweet up over his head as we walk and Vinny has to bounce up to get his sweet!

Well ... it worked didn't it; he stayed with me all through the heelwork including through his first ever go at heel off lead! But I wasn't going to tell the judge *why* he was doing it and give away my training secrets or sound as if I didn't want her advice.

Then the judge and steward both said that they had thoroughly enjoyed watching Vinny!!!!!!  And the judge then commented (still grinning!) that she thought Vinny had great *potential*!!!!!!!!!

I couldn't believe it! The judge's first ever Schipperke to judge and she was impressed with Vinny, and had smiled copious smiles all through AND .... had marked our attempt at Obedience as well!

I was so pleased for Vinny and I told the judge that Vinny had thoroughly enjoyed it as well, which was probably very obvious to her!  Then we got to look at our marks we had lost, which were:
Heel on Lead 3 1/2
Heel Off Lead 4 1/2
Recall 1 1/2
Retrieve 2 1/2
Making a total of 12 marks lost!
Not bad at all on a first outing!

Everybody that has seen Vinny *work* seems to have said the same sort of thing to me about his *potential*.  What they are looking at, and seeing, is Vinny looking *keen*, *motivated*, *precise*, willing to please and very, very happy!

These are all of the basic things needed to be able to succeed in our Obedience Shows and it takes a lot of work to get and keep them all, at the same time as training each exercise.  It is also much harder with the other breeds (other than Border Collies!) to get them as keen and motivated etc. to be able to compete against the collies!

At this show there were 857 exhibits, the majority of which were Border collies. There were a few "other breeds" GSDs, Rotties, Shelties, Belgian Shepherds, German Spitzes, Golden Rets. a few crossbreeds and ONE Schipperke!

Yeahhhhh! My little "Lord Vincent" had certainly made his mark for Schipperkes in the Obedience ring!

Having thanked all concerned, Vinny and I then said our goodbyes to the judge, her ring steward and the score steward, and both of us, sporting big grins, sauntered off to find the stay ring for the most "nail biting" 3 minutes of my life!

Ah yes, the "stays"!!
Well, Vinny and I wandered off across the field in the general direction of the 2 separate stay rings. We arrived at these 2 rings and I couldn't see any signs up saying "Dog Stay Ring" so, being Britain, I knew I was in the right place.

There were a couple of people with dogs lolling about under some trees so I called over to them "Is this the dog stay ring?" .... "I think so?!" came the answer, ..... "we're in Beginner Dog Part 1!" ... I shouted, "so are we!" came the answer!!

With that we went and lolled with the others under the trees until a few more people arrived.  I explained to Vinny that he was going to "do his stays" and that he was going to be a good boy for me, wasn't he? Vinny just gave me his "are you kidding?" look at which made me remember the fact that he had never ever completed a proper stay exercise on the few occasions he had been to doggy club.

When Vinny had done stays at the club, the hall was so small and all of the dogs were so close together that, if any large dog moved or made a noise Vinny got frightened, and .... by the time I had stepped back to him to reassure him, the stays were over!

On that thought, lots of people and dogs arrived at the ringside and the steward called out "Beginner dog Stays in a few minutes!" With that, we all stood up and made our way into the ring.

I looked around at the other dogs and they were all BIG dogs! "Oh dear" I thought, "maybe if I get Vinny on the end of the line of dogs he'll be happier, but then, he might nascar off around the showground!??"
Decisions .... Decisions!!!!!

I needn't have bothered to think about the best place to put Vinny because the steward said "stay THERE! ... No you CAN'T move anywhere else!"
"BUT!" I said; ......"STAY THERE!" the steward replied!
"Ooops!, I'd better stay where I am!", I thought, as I crossed my fingers and hoped. (We were right in the middle of all of the dogs!)
"Get your dogs ready for a 1 minute sit stay!" came the order from the judge!
I told Vinny to "sit" and made sure he looked comfortable.
"When I tell you to leave your dogs you must come and stand behind the stewards (who were stationed halfway into the middle of the ring), you may face your dogs if you wish and NO talking amongst yourselves!" the judge told us all.

Then the countdown started:
"Five!", said the judge
"Sit", I asked of Vinny
"Four!", said the judge
"Siiiiiiiittt" I reminded Vinny
"Three!", said the judge
"Sit and Stay" I asked Vinny
"Two!", said the judge
"Stay ....stay" I told Vinny
"One!", said the judge
"Sit .....staaaayyyyyy!" I tell Vinny
"LAST commands!" Said the judge
"STACEY!” I demand of Vinny!
"Oooo ..... Here we go!" I thought to myself
"LEAVE YOUR DOGS!” said the judge

I stepped away from Vinny with my right foot and walked to the middle of the ring without looking back at Vinny. (We step off with the left foot first if the dog is coming with us and the right foot if the dog is to stay where it is.) When I got to the middle of the ring I turned sideways on to where Vinny *should* be sitting and HE was STILL sitting there, he hadn't moved a muscle! I made sure I didn't make full eye contact with him as I stood peering out of the corner of my eye.

"TIME!” called a steward.
"7 seconds!" the judge called out.

This meant that a dog had "moved" and the steward needed to know the exact time that the dog had moved to be able to deduct the correct amount of points from the dogs score.

Phew! You want to believe how long 60 seconds can be when you're stood there wondering if your dog is going stay in the exact position it was left in! It's agonizing!!
"TIME!” called a steward.
"19 seconds!” the judge called out.
Darn it!
It was Vinny! He’d laid DOWN ...... BUT he was still staying where he was put and he looked very relaxed!  Vinny wasn't the only dog to lay down and a few other dogs had got up and walked towards their owners!

The time carried on ...and on ....and ON ......and ON!

Until .....

"RETURN to your dogs!” called the judge.

Boy was I relieved to hear that! I walked steadily back to Vinny, past him, around the back of him, and stopped and stood with him laid down next to me on my left.
"EXERCISE OVER!" said the judge.
I slowly and gently bent down to Vinny and with him still in the down, I quietly told him he was good and let him lick my face, then I stepped back and called him to release him from his "stay" and made LOADS of fuss of him and gave him a cuddle!

Notice that I didn't make him sit up into the correct position that he should have been in when I got back to him?  This was because he had stayed where he was put and that was enough for him to do on his first time "in the ring". He hadn't NASCARED off!  Nor had he unduly worried about the big dogs when they had moved around him! I was really pleased with him!  Then we had to go through the same rigmarole again for the down stay but this time for two minutes!

I'm pleased to report that Vinny stayed in the down for the full 2 mins. and didn't fidget at all!  After the two minutes down, which was rather uneventful for Vinny, I made such a fuss of him and cuddled him so much that I think he wondered what he had done to deserve it all!.

I think he was also secretly embarrassed at my behaviour when had I cuddled him in front of all of those big dogs ... but I just had to, he looked so cute there in the middle of the line up of big dogs ... a little black half-pint doing the same as all the big dogs, I thought he really needed a special set of cuddles!

All in all, I had been very pleased with Vinny's behaviour in all of the exercises he had performed in his class. We weren't good enough to get a rosette or anything but we had both enjoyed ourselves, I hadn't pushed Vinny to do *anything* just to be able to compete, and everybody that had watched him had commented on how happy he was to do these exercises!.

We had helped to get Schipperkes recognised for their working ability which is badly needed in this country, even a lot of the "doggy people" at the show didn't know what breed he was, some searched their brains and said, "Is he some kind of Spitz?" .... Others declined to guess the breed and said, "Is he a ..... er ...??” hoping that I'd answer with his breed!!!

Only one person of their own accord knew his breed and said so .... and ...... of course ............

...... If Vinny hadn't have enjoyed it, I wouldn't have enjoyed it either!