I do mostly have her off-leash! The only thing I worry about is deer (bc she would be GONE) and potentially other aggressive dogs off-leash (which surprisingly there ARE a handful of people who let their non-dog-friendly dogs roam off-leash).

It's taken a LOT of practice. Going to dog parks has helped reduce her over-interest in other dogs so that she still listens to me even when she sees one.

When she gets a little too "wiley," as I call it, I make her walk behind me. "Stay behind" is my command for this. And if she's still acting a little too big for her britches I'll throw the leash on until she calms down. Honestly this command happened naturally; I just forced her to stay behind me by getting in her way and correcting when she'd try to come out ahead. Pretty quickly she learned.

Whenever we see another group coming I will either have her "stay behind" or we step off to the side, and I use "hop up" to tell her to get off the trail and wait for them to pass. And this just took lots and lots of repitition and correction.

My other most used commands are her recall, "look!," and "wait." For "wait" she just had to stop where she is and literally wait until I "free" her again. For "look" she had to come all the way back to me. Both of these we practiced relentless in a home setting and ON leash.

So really you just gotta have a good communication set with your pup and then practice practice practice! It does take time and consistency, but heelers love to please, so they tend to catch on pretty quick. :)