How did you teach off leash heel?

 I used luring, faded the luring, kept the treats and then faded the treats.  I also believe in time off.  If you have a good heel and overpractice you end up with a frustrated dog, sometimes.  So, I'd give a break (anywhere from a few days to a few weeks).  And when I started up again, I began heavy with the treats. I always found I had way more attention and focus after a break, I think it required a few days to let it settle into their brains, at least with my dogs :o)

Mark/reward using either food treats or a toy (tug or ball) and my "yes" as the mark.  Worked it off leash from 8 weeks, so there was never a transition.  In fact for the first part of the BH routine and for Rally Novice we need to practice having a leash ON.  Now that the dog is an adult and we are polishing for actual competition, I will use a prong collar but there are *always* rewards, no matter whether we take 5 steps or do the entire BH routine.  I used clicker and food on a perch to work rear-end awareness for left turns and flip finishes.  I used food and luring to originally teach the sit and stand out of motion.  I used negative reinforcement to teach the down out of motion. 

Right now I'm trying a new method where I set the ball on the ground and when I am most satisfied with the heeling, release the dog to the ball.  He brings it into me and we tug.  Once he's sufficiently rewarded, I have him out the ball and we heel away again.  This was mainly because I feel I'm seeing too much luring with toys and food (myself and others I train with) and wanted to make sure the dog is actually understanding the intensity and eye contact I'm looking for, plus it's just more fluid and less things for me to mess up if all the rewards are off my body.

I use....whatever works for that dog! *G* I have taught all three of my dogs heel (well, two and a half...we're working on one half!!) all a bit differently. In one case I used almost all entirely shaping, starting out with rewarding my left side, then closer to my leg, then the proper position, and eventually doing turns, starts, and stops. With another dog I used more luring than shaping, and with my third dog I used a combination of luring and shaping. I've also used targetting (a form of luring but also different than direct luring) and fading a target to get a heel behaviour as well.

All were done through clicker work. I worked hard to ensure that the behaviour was being reinforced regardless of leash as a cue - so I may have used no leash one day, a leash the next, and no leash again the next, so that there is no specific discrimination (and therefore no transition) to one from another. I learned the hard way when I taught a beautiful heel off-leash, and then tried to transition it to on-leash and it all broke down.

  I do that, too, Kim. The leash isn't a factor, for them, because I never use it to move them. They wear it, sometimes, and other times, they're totally naked for their training sessions. They walk beside me, regardless, unless they're told to "Go play!"

With both, I started with major food incentive. I loaded their kibbles into a nail apron, and fed them meals for walking in heel position.  I worked my way from there. If I had it to do over again,  I would have taught them to find heel position before I ever moved. I had to go back, and do it, and it's taking Jewel forEVER.

 This gives me stuff to think about, thank you!  My problem is that Neiko is very handler focused which is some what detrimental to our search and rescue training. He needs to be rely less on my decision making and more on his own.  On the other hand, I need him to do off leash heel work to pass our search and rescue level tests. So, I need to train the off leash heel with turns and pace changes but I don't want to train it so much that he becomes even more handler focused. I only need enough to pass 2 tests! If that makes sense ;p

I hardly ever have him on leash, so the leash or off leash thing really isn't an issue.

 He's naturally very velcro so I never did too much heeling with him in his early years. I can just say "Neiko here!" and he's instantly with me no matter what he's doing.

 I'm thinking that I would rather lure with him on this instead of free shaping because I don't want him throwing out heels on his own. I only want the heel when I ask for it.

 I am using a variety of things: clicker shaping, a little luring, and also teaching the dog what to do when the leash tightens (make it loose) using a modified "Silky Leash" (there's stuff on youtube and at Ahimsa Training's website). 

Perhaps Neiko would benefit from the Silky Leash stuff because you could just use a short lead and he'd be responsible for the leash behavior vs. you.

 Ooops - forgot this was off lead stuff. The Silky Leash method may not be all you need since it does need a leash but I do think it helps our off lead work as well as on lead stuff.

 It doesn't sound like you need a "heel" so much as you need your dog to walk with you off leash - is that right?

  I would use the 300 Peck method, which is part of how I teach competition heeling. Start by determining your criteria for the "heel". Then start with Neiko on your left side, take one step, click give a treat. Two steps, click give a treat. Three steps, click give a treat. And so on. You will add one step each rep before click/treat until Neiko isn't within your criteria for the full step count. When that happens, go back to one step, click give a treat and start adding one step each rep again. When you consistently get to 10 steps, 10 becomes your new baseline and when he isn't within criteria, you go back to 10 instead of one. When he consistently gets to 20 steps, 20 becomes your new baseline. Then 30, 40, 50, etc.

 This method clearly explains to the dog what you are looking for and begins offering random rewards for it from the begining, which make the behavior stronger. Your criteria could be anything you want - you don't have to train for heel with attention. You can reward him for staying next to you only or specifically for heeling without looking at you.

If you're talking about training heel work for competition, I start by teaching heel position and getting the dog super confident and excited about finding heel position, before I even think about taking a step forward.

I also find training back end awareness (i.e. using the elephant trick/phone book method) fun too.