How critical is timing in marking getting the desired outcome. Positive or Negative?

I think it's very important. Rewarding a behaviour 1 second after marking compared to 3 seconds after the marker slows learning greatly, in my experience.

So when a dog, goes an inch ahead of you when walking at heel, you should??????????????????????????

Stop? Say "Watch"? Say "Heel"?

Timing is bugger especially for the inexperienced.I am sure i trained in some bad stuff with Oscar early on because my timing was off.

When he had guarding issues i also wonder if the behaviour escalated in the beginnning because inadvertently we was "rewarding" the unwanted behaviour due to timing (hence why i moved to a "Time Out")

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best if you remind the dog of where its supposed to be when it is thinking about moving forward, however this will only work if you have taught your dog where the position is and you can read the dog well enough to know what it is thinking.