First off hello! I’m new to the forum and kind of new to POGO. I started in 2016 when it came out and stopped 6 months in cause I got bored (not a lot of content back then). Started playing again last October and it’s been a blast. Okay, now that introduction is out of the way, here is my question. Last month I got my zarude to level 40 (woo!) And decided I wanted to walk him enough to get his cp to 4000 (with BB). I’m at 8 XL candy now, when I discovered how to make your buddy excited without a poffin (yes I’m just finding this out now). Walking the full 20kms, I always got an XL, everytime. So when I found out how to get him excited, I was pumped. Get him to 10km or so, then get him excited, get my XL right? No… I tried this trick three times now and no xl. So either I got luck on the last 8 xls or you can’t get an XL when you are over the excited range (10km) and get him excited. Do you have to get him excited before you hit 10 km and then walk him to 10 to get the XL? To be clear, I’m still getting the regular candy just no xl. As an example: My zarude is at 12.5km out of 20km. I get him excited reducing the distance to 10km. Bar show 2.5km out of 10km and regular candy found, but no XL. Am I just unlucky, or is XL not guaranteed unless you walk him the distance vs being past 10km and then getting him excited while not moving. I hope I was clear enough and sorry to the admins if I posted to the wrong section.
Your question seems clear enough to me; but I haven’t got a clue. My guess would be that you need to excite your buddy beforehand, kind of like we have to pop the star piece before completing a field research task to get its stardust bonus multiplied. (As opposed to the way lucky eggs do their thing, where we can reach best friend status and still get the XP multiplier, as long as we get the egg in before the game sends the best-friend-bonus notification.)
My thoughts as well vorgriff. Oh well, the thought of going through the rounds exciting my buddy while enjoying a beer at the end of the day to get my XL is just too good to be true 
I think your question is quite apparent, but I’m at a loss. My guess is that you must first enthral your companion, much like how we must first pop the star before doing a field research mission in order to multiply the stardust benefit. (As contrast to how lucky eggs work, which allows us to achieve best friend status and still receive the XP multiplier, provided we place the egg before the game notifies us that we have earned the best-friend benefit.)