I feel your pain! I just got back from another frustrating walk on the EasyWalk harness with Daisy. At one point, she was twirling around on the end of it like a whirling dervish trying to get at a dog barking behind a fence. And she's 18 months old and has been through 2 obedience classes (successfully, at least on paper). I actually posted the previous thread about her lunging at cars. I have to confess that it's somewhat comforting to know I'm not the only one with a wild thing at the end of the leash.
She will heel like an angel in our fenced yard (without any leash) when we practice, and she eventually calms down enough at the obedience class (at least she did last time we took the course. It was about the 4th week of 6 weeks before she actually started heeling. We are doing Obedience 2 this Spring, and if she can't maintain some control around the other dogs until the 4th week, I may have a stroke.) She actually seems to be getting worse instead of better. If I lived in New York, I would contact the Monks of New Skete from Divine Canine. They had a Cavalier named Stella on the show once. I think Daisy would make them earn their money!
I have to confess I completely lost my temper with her today and eventually picked her up (all 25 pounds of her) and carried her while calling her a few choice names (good thing she doesn't speak English, poor little girl). There are two huge barking dogs behind one fence and she literally loses her mind when we walk by there. It's like having a wild animal like a raccoon on the leash twisting and jumping. "Frustrating" doesn't begin to describe it. And yes, I think everyone in the neighborhood thinks she's a complete maniac (and they probably think the same thing about me, too, as I'm carrying this dog and I don't blame them!).
The Easy Walk harness just twists around on her and I don't think it's very comfortable, especially when it's pulled around to the side. I am going to try it one more time with the chest strap tightened up even more and see how that goes. The guy at the store said if it didn't work to bring it back. I hope I have the receipt. I bought it a couple of months ago in vain hope that it would help. She does pull less hard in it, but not less often.
I know I'm going to have to go boot camp on the leash walking. And do the stop or turn around and go the other direction thing every time she pulls. I tried that technique once a few months ago and in a half an hour we had gone about 50 yards (and that was just with stopping, not turning around). I am not kidding. She eventually just stood there and stared at me as if I'd lost my mind. She is a pill on the leash unless I am holding a very desirable treat in my left hand right where she can see it.
I did make her sit and watch me (of course, using a treat) when cars went by today with some success at that (and some failures). She will do anything for treats, so that did work most of the time if I put her in a sit soon enough before she fixated on the car going by.
I love her so much, but she is a very challenging dog. Very smart, very intense, and very independent. Sometimes I think she's half Springer spaniel. She's got an incredible prey drive, that's for sure.
Good luck to you and me both on getting our girls to walk politely on the leash! I'm going to keep working on it. I may contact a trainer. The problem is though that they will use treats, and therefore she'll be perfect, just like she does with me if I have treats, so I'm not sure that would do that much good. I'd like to actually walk her like a normal dog without bribing her with a treat 100% of the time.