Rally training question

Since rally does not require total precision, instead of looking at it as the dog actually moving sideways, I would just teach her to go with you and swing her butt back into position to finish the station.  I take a BIG step b/c I have a big long dog.  She walks at me, like on a perpendicular to my side, but then swings her butt back to get in heel.  I am teaching the fuss/heel is a position, not just walking together, so when I say it it means no matter what she did she needs to be sitting at my side.

Also, maybe start by shuffling more than one step to the right, so she has more room.  Once she gets the concept of moving with you and then swinging back into position you could shorten the distance.

 My dogs are small, so they do rally "small dog style" complete with flying left finishes, LOL. I lured, for the halt, side step, halt (I think it's an advanced sign, right?). Anyhow, I brought the treat back, and sort of around to teach them to come into position.

AND that makes no sense.... I lured it. You'll have to move the treat a few different ways to get your dog into position. Once you figure out which way to lure, if your dog is a hand follower, you're golden.  Also, we play lots of "where's heel?" games. That doesn't hurt, at all. I'm all the time stepping in some random direction and rewarding whoever slams themself into a heel-sit first.

I use the lure with a treat method also. With bigger dogs, I think it is important to make it easier for them at first. So a step to the right would start out with a good sized step right, followed by a big step forward (even two if necessary) to get them back into heel position. Then you will gradually make your step forward smaller and smaller. When you get the sideways sit, they do not swing their rear in, don't reward. But you have to make it so they can get rewarded most of the time, hence the steps to help them succeed.

We do a lot of exercises to teach heel position. Steps right, steps left, quarter turns each direction, 180 degree turns, etc. A pivot right starts out with a step forward, turn to the right, and one more step to straighten the dog out. Eventually I can move in any combination of directions away from the dog and directions they should end up facing. That is how a dog learns the true meaning of heel position.

I think a step to the right is harder than pivots. In class we always learned the pivots and turns first. Kind of lays a ground work.

At first you just lead them around by the nose with the treat. Then you start fading the treat. You also keep expecting better and better heel positions, never rewarding the worst efforts. So the first time, I will reward if they are mostly with me.

I think when you're really in the throws of training for Rally and Obedience, a lightbulb goes on for the dog and they understand that HEEL is a place as opposed to an action.  As samshine suggest above, working on heel with pivots and such really does help.

Another suggestion I heard while training was to take a big diagonal step to the right (as opposed to a lateral right) because it gets the dog moved over with you, but gives enough space/motion for the dog to be positioned correctly at heel.  As the dog understand the place to come to heel, you can decrease that step so it's less huge and less diagonal, becoming more and more of a straight lateral step from you.  I also lured Gracie's head in a small arc so that as she came next to me, she wasn't stepping ahead of me, but simply next to me.

Good luck!!! :)

 Thanks for all the advice.  We used the lure method and got her to come towards me than swing her butt in.  I was stuck thinking she had to move laterally with me.  We are trying to do the obedience and rally by ourselves and save the class time for agility. 

I think she believes the heel position really only involves having her head in the right place, but really I think we just need more practice which I can focus on since we will not be trialing in agility until the end of February.