I will try doing the run in opposite direction with my walk tonight. I do hide on her sometimes, but of course since she's a real sniffer, she finds me right away. However, I will try running in the opposite direction everytime she gets too far ahead. This sounds like it may work! Since she is very protective of me, she always wants to know where I am.

The funny thing about her is that she has gone all the way to advanced obedience and when we are at the k9 studio, she performs like you wouldn't believe. She can heel both on and off leash, perfect. With a sit as soon as I stop and I can say "closer" and she nudges in to me. However, when I walk her (either on or off leash), you would never know she knew what the command "heel" meant. I guess I just need to drill her on this more and more with distractions. Her nose goes to the ground and she's off. Treats don't work at all when we are outside, she completely ignores them.

She is very attached to her frisbee though, the last couple of walks I have been alone with her and brought the frisbee. This keeps her close (unless she sees a dog) and she basically jumps for the frisbee and brings it back to me the whole walk.

Anyway, thanks again for all the advice and I will let you know tomorrow morning how it went with day 1 training!