No No HEEL and she does it anyways

Hi there, thanks for the post and sorry for the delay in replying. I have been overseas the last few weeks.

I am glad to hear you are working with her as much as you have been. She sounds like a very well behaved dog most of the time except in these occassions.
I will do my best to add onto what the book says and fix the problem but i promise it will take time, effort and probably a lot of input along the way.

The way i deal with distractable dogs and have done for years is to introduce them to animals at a distance and slowly get them closer and closer.

If you have a back yard this is the best place to start but otherwise in the lounge will do fine.
Have your girl on the lead and sitting calmly.
Once you have her attention get a friend to bring a dog to the other side of the fence or to the door of the house. It is best if your girl can't see the other dog but can smell and hear it. Have her on a lead so she will respond.

Give her a few moments to be excited then give her a command. Start with sit and once she has mastered this move onto come and wait.
If she responds praise her and give her heaps of attention like you normally would do. If she does not listen give her a short sharp tug on the lead and a strong AHHHH reprimand. Then repeat the command.

If she doesn't respond another tug and possibly a squirt with a water pistol is in order. With each command she doesn't respond to increase the level of reprimand. As a side she may work well with a few treats (bribery often beats reprimands )

Keep the session short, say ten minutes and then take her away.
Repeat this a couple of times a day for a week.

After a week of these exercises allow the "strange" dog onto the property. Have the other dog at the opposite end of the yard. Again ask your commands praising and reprimanding as appropriate. She may work well if she stands in front of you and when you tug her pull her head round to you and away from the other dog.

Do the same as above over and over. After a few days get the dog slowly and slowly closer, say a metre every few days.
Once you have the other dog only a metre away change the way you are training her. You need a very thick nylon line on the lead - still an attachment for you but she cant see it.

Now we want her to get better at a distance. Give her a metre lead at the start. Ask commands and praise and tell off as needed. Every few days give her another metre of line as long as she is behaving and following your commands.

With cats you can either have a cut out at a distance or borrow a cat that you can put in a cage by the window and work your way closer

Getting her well behaved on your property and then moving out and about can be hard. Start in quiet parks with the line and do just as above. As she learns to behave get her into more and more built up areas like dog parks and the like of places. If she gets worse at all go back to the step where she was behaving and following your commands.

Hopefully these ideas will hit on with her but if not ask again and i will do my best to help out with some other ideas. She is a young dog but with patience, training and time i am sure she will learn. Good luck

Todd