What books do you have?

 Morgan Spector's "Clicker Training for Obedience" is a good one. 

 Thanks, guys. I'll get both of those:)

 What is the Koehler method? It's right next to the clicker book, so I thought it might be useful. I haven't bought it yet, but I'm thinking about it...

I believe it's an old school, force based method.  I second the vote for Spector's book. 

For obedience training, I like Competitive Obedience, A Balancing Act by Byron and Yunck.

An old favorite of mine is Playtraining Your Dog by Gail Burnham

Ew. No force.  

Thanks so much for the suggestions, everybody. I'm ordering stuff with Christmas monies, and I'll be set to read for a while:) 

 Koehler is more for hard dogs using the old methods of punishment. I have it but I do not recomend it unless you are working with a very hard dog and have a lot of dog experience and nothing else is working.

Nah. I'm a novice trainer working a very soft PRT. I'm not working with a problem dog, but a competitive obedience dog. We're in this for fun. She's my novice a dog, and I'm learning TONS. Next dog will be raised differently. I'll know a little more of what I'm doing

Ah well, we're always in practice for our next dog. 

Always!!! I'm reading Playtraining Your Dog, right now, and really enjoying it, so far. I like the ideas she has, and I train similarly to what's being described (all of the talking and making it a game, and keeping sessions short and sweet).

I *really* want to get Emma into regular obedience, but I've decided to wait for a while. I'm going to train her through Open before I enter her in her first Novice trial. We're doing Wild Card Novice, next weekend (with no stand for exam), but it's going to be a *long* time before I really feel like she's ready to deal with a stand for exam. 

Morgan Spector's "Clicker Training for Obedience" is the one I like best.  "Click Your Way to Rally Obedience" is the only one I know of specifically for Rally.  That's by Pam Dennison.

I don't know if you are referring to the back in heel position or backing away from the handler, but you might Google around for Mary Ray's books - she's a freestyler, and they do a lot of backing up maneuvers.  Or, maybe Carolyn Scott's books or tapes.  Also a freestyle competitor.

methods I've seen used for backwards-heeling is you heel the dog up so the dog is sandwiched between you and a solid barrier such as a wall, to prevent the dog from spinning, and then you take one or two steps backwards. A dog who really understands where he's supposed to be while heeling will often hesitate and then just offer that backwards step, and you click and reward and repeat. Other one, you have the dog in front of you and you sort of move forwards into the dog's space; many dogs will back up. Some will sit, however, or spin, or just stand there, so it's not foolproof. Or, you encourage the dog to move forwards between two pieces of furniture, say the couch and the coffee table, block the front exit and just wait for the dog to back out of the channel.

Backing into her... was not successful. Actually, it made bad things happen, LOL. I think I marked the wrong thing.

I think backing up is actually HARD for her (which is weird for a small, agile dog). It's going slowly, but she is making progress. I'm having a good time reading!