Back Safe and Sound

Finally I have a few minutes to write about our 4-day Obedience Camp. It was fantastic, beginning with caring friends waiting for me along the side of a highway so I could caravan up with them, to meeting other friends there to ensure we all sat together, and of course the great instruction, food and good times. If you're an Obedience nut this is the camp for you. It's detailed, technical and 8 hours straight, 4 days of Obedience heaven. Many thanks to Gary and Kathy Platt for their wonderful instruction and friendship.
To my surprise Moto did much better than I anticipated. Blitz's health did not permit his going so we were in unchartered territory as Moto has never been a single dog. He loved it and I allowed him on the bed every night which he enjoyed a lot. He didn't appear to miss his doggie friends at all and seemed to relish his Mommy time.
My notes to self from the 4 days - as I've known for a while his Long Sit has begun the famed "Sheltie Slide". Kathy showed me an exercise to strengthen his core and help teach him a strong sit. It involves coming from behind and tucking in his rear paws with my feet, grabbing his collar and pulling his front feet under his shoulders, and gently pressing the back of his skull to shift the weight onto his front feet. We've been doing this daily and to my amazement I can see him now doing it himself.
On heeling: Moto can hang back if he's tired/hot/unmotivated which is quite often. To help with this when I release I need to quickly back up and call him to me, then restart the heeling exercise. Repeat until I have nice heeling. Moto loves this and we are getting nice results. Most exciting is he seems to understand attention AND correct placement now and he's even begun to prance!
One of the exercises I need to do regularly with him is serpentine heeling to enforce him working his rear. When turning to the outside I need to pat the front of my thigh as opposed to the side of my leg to encourage him to not lag and to speed up. Ditto on Figure 8 - he won't work his rear so for now I need to do squares when on the outside as opposed to loops.
Dumbbell retrieve: Moto is lackadaisical when picking up the dumbbell. Kathy taught an exercise called "tying the bow" which really surprises him when he picks up the dumbbell. Not only is it positive reinforcement it helps with a quick pickup. Also do motivational restraint on the retrieve. That one isn't committed to muscle memory yet but we're getting there. I have to backchain quite a bit and we're only on a 3' retrieve for now.
Finishes: on the swing, he's not driving deep enough so I need to step back with the right leg, reach back with my left hand and feed at the farthest point back and lure to heel. On the Around he needs more drive so when he is coming to heel I need to alternate between running forward or turn right. I love seeing his surprised expression when he has to hurry up!
Go back exercise - Moto's long back is making a tight turn difficult. I've been remiss in working the spinning exercise and need to do this more often. I need to start with him turning in a chute (two poles placed through the fence) and as he gets better I need to make a small platform or rug for him to turn and sit on.
At the end of the 4th day I thought he'd be exhausted but instead he was on a "high" and eager for work. He really brightened up and enjoyed the seminar in its entirety. In fact Gary said he turned out nicer than he thought and believes he can "do it for me" (meaning the OTCH). Of course that's uncharted territory but that is our goal!