Summer Training

Yes I said Summer. After weeks upon weeks of cold and rain all of a sudden we left spring behind and plunged straight into summer. The heat will break records today with highs in the 90's. It's 10:00 a.m. as I write this and already 81 degrees. Summer.
Thus I resumed my summer schedule which is the flipside of my winter schedule: I get all the outdoor stuff done first, then follow with indoor chores. My favorite outdoor activity is training Pinch and Moto, and we had a blast this morning.
I decided to heavily backchain Moto's scentwork and started Pinch on his. The two work so differently and each present their own challenge.
With Moto I realized I went too far, too fast. He's an insecure boy and needs to thoroughly understand each exercise before I make it more challenging for him. We went all the way back to using just two articles and the payback has been very gratifying. We are now up to five articles and he is doing his exercise beautifully. He goes out confidently to the scent pile and works his way through it. He is correct 100% of the time and comes trotting back with the right article, clearly pleased with himself. I am too extremely pleased.
Pinch has been trained on scentwork since he was a baby, by placing a treat under a folder. A bunch of folders raised like tents, with just one containing a treat, this little guy would tear through it at lightening speed and you could hear his nose working. The transition to articles has been quite, um, different. He is SO thrilled to see TWO articles and wants them both and tries to bring both back. There was no scentwork involved, only "oh boy! TWO toys to bring to mommy!" I had to think of a way of slowing him down.
He is a slow eater, so I put a small glob of squeeze cheese on the right article. He will sniff at it, gently lick while I give soft praise. But then problem #2 arose: once the cheese was gone we went quickly back to "that was yummy! Now I need to get these two toys back to Mommy!" So we went back to being on leash for now so I could have a bit more control. Once the cheese is licked off I say "find it", and I give a quick pop and back up quickly. This helps keep him to the task at hand. It's worked like a charm. We have graduated to three articles and a Flexi leash. He's a little lightning bolt and has kept me thinking out of the box.
We're now less than two weeks away from our Sheltie specialty. We work one day at home and one day someplace new. Moto still experiences anxiety when we go to a new place but so far he's stayed on course with being able to work. This is huge progress for him.
Pinch is also staying better focused and his attention is coming along nicely. He will be in Rally Novice.
I don't expect either to set the obedience world on fire. My goals is for Moto to qualify and try hard, and for Pinch I still just want him to learn the ring is a fun place to be. Not lofty goals but I feel reasonable ones and a great starting point.