Nationals Over, now onto the Specialty

We are in training mode now as our Sheltie Specialty is less than one month away. I've taken the plunge of entering Moto in Novice, as the location of our Specialty (and subsequent all-breed trial) is in the same place as our club's obedience trial last month. He'll be almost 3 by then, he's trained through Utility, it's time. I *think* I'm beginning to understand him. I'm a slow learner that way. Even though he is a low energy dog, because of his lack of self-confidence he needs to be trained every day, right up to show time and have a fairly thorough warm-up before entering the ring. This helps him.
While Pinch needs 1 more leg in Beginner Novice, it's too big of a jump for him, so we will do Rally. He still needs verbal help in the ring. I discovered a HUGE training hole with him - he doesn't understand heel position. EEK! I discovered that when doing an impromptu heeling session with him, no collar, no leash. That's a big one. So, our training will be some major backchaining and piecemeal work. As always it's my fault, I get greedy and go too far too fast. The nice thing about Rally is that it's about performing the exercise (which he can totally do), not the accuracy of it. Some judges may knock you here and there, but largely they do not.
While it's a big undertaking I am enjoying training two young dogs. Pinch becomes enraged that when it's Moto's turn to train and makes himself known. Early in the game Moto used to lay quietly and watch, but as of late you can see he is uncomfortable with Pinch getting his turn at training. I sense Moto is understanding that training is a priviledge, something he "gets" to do. That is cool!
Can't say I'm excited about Moto's Novice debut, I'm more curious. I think in time he will be a consistent performer. He's way closer to that than say a year ago as he's made huge strides in being able to work in what he sees as scary situations. So..here we go!
We'll do our homework between now and then, and have lots of fun in the meantime!