I personally think a dog that works close to his handler is a plus and not a minus. I train mine to stay within half that distance. It can make life a whole lot easier and avoid the worry of a dog that disappears for hours.

I rarely work my hound off a long leash when scent tracking. I put the long leash on him and he knows what is expected and puts his nose to the ground, he is nose dominant anyway.

I've got three Terriers now, one is sound dominant, one is nose dominant and the third is an earth dog. Two are so much alike you can hardly tell the difference (father and daughter), but they have different dominant senses. They work together and the whole is better than the parts

What kind of dog is it?

Dogs usually key on the pack leader, especially young ones.

Getting side tracked is normal. Working him (or her) on a leash may help, likely better than a shock collar. After a while on the leash they get immediate feedback, they can feel what you want. Most dogs want to please you, but the constant no, no, no (from a shock collar) can confuse them. They want to please you, so a yes, yes, yes often works better and helps avoid the internal conflicts.

A Flusher or a Lurcher works fast naturally. Nose dogs will often work in spurts, especially if there are crisscrossing fresh scent trails.

All dogs aren't created equal and trying to produce a cookie cutter robot dog is likely to have mixed results. All a dog breed does is give you an indication of the likely dominant traits, but each dog in that breed is a little different.

I had one gun dog that was nose dominant, mostly a Hound by nature, but he pointed by instinct (genetic) and was really good at it. None of his parents, brothers or sister pointed as well as he did. He was a moderate to poor retriever, I learned to live with it, it just wasn't his thing. I worked him to his pluses and dealt with shortcomings. All in all he was an outstanding dog. He also had one other oddity, he was extremely protective and was an outstanding personnel protection dog. He was born hating Foxes and would abandon all other duties to trail and kill a Fox. I've seen him wake up from a sound sleep and show his teeth and found A Fox with my binoculars, at close to five hundred yards, looking at me and him, which I found amazing. Needless to say I did a lot of Fox hunting. Point is learn what his talents are and maybe you will have to modify your hunts to fit his strong points, instead of trying to modify him to fit your hunts. Dogs are pack hunters, much like people are and the pack is a collection of talents that make the whole better than the pieces.

I've had dogs that tended to roam in loops away from me and then circle back and then run another loop. I usually labeled them stock Dogs for lack of a better name. Works out really well when you are Rabbit hunting. I had one Lurcher who would run Deer and Hogs and would slowly turn them back to me, she got really good at it. I learned to hunt her way and it worked well.