Jess and her selective hearing

Hello everyone I'm new to this forum so I'd like to give you a brief introduction about Jess.
I've got her in March when she was 14 months old from a family whom could't look after her anymore (I tried from Battersea first but I guess it's easier to adopt a baby than a dog from them).
Although I've always been passionate about dogs and their behavior and I've been studying them for years, Jess is my first dog so I'm probably making lots of mistake with her.
She's fantastic. Very friendly with people I've never heard her growling and she has never shown her teeth to anyone even when playing. She doesn't chew and she gets along well with other dogs. She has her sympathies though but she is never aggressive.
Although I work full time she gets lots of exercise: 30 minutes with me in the morning, 1h with the dog sitter (which also happens to be studying behaviorism) at lunch time and again in the evening with me.
I used to play fetch with her but I recently stopped cause 1. she become obsessive 2. if another dog approaches she become a little naughty.
Anyways she's perfect in the house but the problem is when we're out. I used a head collar to walk her in the street (which works wonderfully) and a 10m long lead in the park because she is a puller.
What I'm training to get is to have her off lead but at present she's not trustable at all. As soon as she found something more interesting than me ( and that can be everything, a smell, a squirrel, a cat, staring into space) she become deaf to my recall. I usually do what everyone says to do. I call her once, just once so not to teach her to ignore me, and when she finally comes back I give her a prize. Don't works. Also she never looks at me and she has difficulties to look me in the eyes although I'm teaching her to do it. It's like there's something missing between us. Today I lost my patience and I took her by the scruff not strong but enough cause she made a little yelp. After that she was walking nicely at my side looking up at me every few steps.
Now not only I feel guilty but I'm also confused...
Hope you guys can give me a few advice because I really want to understand how to communicate with her.

Hi from me & Katy. Well done on your rescue, sounds like you are doing well with your training. The only thing I can suggest with your recall work is to keep her on a training line & if she does her selective hearing pull her towards you gently, praising her. She will get the idea if something good comes from returning to you. I must say though Katy is very good at selective hearing to

Kuchar's like this too (18 months old). His recall is good, so long as no other dog is in sight. Unfortunately, the prospect of playing with another dog a) renders him deaf to recall b) is so exciting that the greatest treat (liver, play with toy etc) comes a very poor second c) even reeling him in on his line until he is next to me whilst repeating "come here" and trying to stuff some liver between his teeth, won't distract him.

I have no idea how to overcome selective hearing and will be interested to learn how others have overcome this, along with Jess.

well I'm getting there very slowly with Tommy , I think . Though I don't let the distractions get too close and its high value treats , not the boring ones, the ones that he would sell his mother for like liver cake etc . If I can keep him close by and he knows I have something really worth having he pays me much more attention , but I have to say that is the moment I clip him back on to his long line and then keep recalling him.
I don't like him being loose around a load of strange dogs as his reactions can be unpredictable , so for me it's more about developing his recall to get him back on lead if we see a dog in the distance, he will look , then look back at me and then make his decision which way to go, this is the bit I am trying to conquer.
As I realised , it's way too easy just to lose confidence with them and put them on a long line for everything , they realise they are on a long line and I am sure they realise they are restricted and react differently but we have to start somewhere

Thank you for your reply it's good to know that probably the only thing we need is patience
Is anyone of you from London? Would be interesting to know about places to walk her. We usually go to different parks but none of them has spaces where I would feel confident to practice the recall.
Thank you

Sorry I can't help with places to walk but perhaps you could try a training line, I have a 50ft one and this gives me the chance to teach recall whilst still being in control & darcy gets some freedom (use with a harness)

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?index=0&sbk=1&nav=SEARCH&itemId=230883601504

yes we use a long line to but the prob with parks is that are full of trees and I spend most of the time just trying to free Jess from somewhere

She maybe just didn't respect you before cause you were soft. So she thought she was the boss. I don't buy into all that pack leader crap, but i do think that a dog needs to know who is calling the shots and that it is not them!

You need a 100ft line that you can take her out on, that way you can practice recall but she will never be out of your control so to speak. They are very cheap on eBay (and quite good quality too)

Hi Hayley is she good to recall? What have you done to teach her not to be distracted from everything?

This is all good advice, I just ordered a training line on ebay last night as ive been nervous about letting rocky off leash just as yet. Will let you know how it goes