The eBook is much easier to use than the Blog since each session is in date order, the descriptions are cleaned-up, and the videos are much improved.  Each session has a description, and many include a track map.  And 55 include a link to a video of Gretzky running the track.   Highly recommended.
Of course, the originally posed blog is still available below.

.Distraction-filled TDU-like Tracks.
6/28/2018
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The last few sessions I have focused on working on his distractions issue by putting in TDU-like tracks in parks with activity.  The previous session had the track in an active Frisbee-Golf park and there were distractions all through the 5 legs.  This session started the track so it would pass an active skateboard area on the first and second legs and the remainder of the track was through a currently inactive area.  Of course, the whole area is used by dog walkers and is filled with tempting pee-posts.  The track had four corners as shown below.
 
Video Part 1.  Gretzky starts out nicely but quickly becomes fascinated by a pee-spot in the grass that is right on the track and pee-posts along the tall grass to the side of the track.  He does get back to work and tracks nicely between tempting pee-posts.    I re-scent him frequently.  He does really nicely passing about half the skate-board area but the combination of noisy skaters and pee-posts is hard for him to ignore.  He does a nice job of recognizing the corner right at the corner and choosing the right direction.
 
Video Part 2.  This leg crosses 30 yards of crushed-rock gravel with a turn just 5 steps past the gravel.  He is 5' to the right of the track when he transitions to the gravel and that is enough for him to break off and work the transition.  He has not done this kind of gravel before so I help him rather than let him get even more focused on the skaters.  He finds about half the tiny-treats.  He wants to go to the tree which is past the corner but I stop him to "enforce" a no pee-post "policy".  He comes right back and takes the next leg.  He finds the sock nicely.  After a short party, I restart him.  He does nicely but remains concerned about what is behind him (a long way back). 
 
Video Part 3.  He sneaks in a leg-lift on the third corner and circles around to find and commit to the fourth leg nicely.  He continues to be distracted but willing to go back to work.    He transitions onto the hard sparse dead-grass area and shows loss of scent at the fourth corner finding the leg easily but not quite committing to it right away.  By this time he was showing frustration from all the stress of not being able to over-mark the pee-posts along the way.  He does find and reject a baseball in the grass.  A good finish.
 
I hope to work Gretzky through the distractions breaking his tracking-focus by doing this kind of track and using restraint (or constraint), encouragement, and frequent treats along the track.  Of course, we will mix in simpler, less stressful, field tracks.

Postscript - I have given Gretzky a 30-minute-old TD-like track and a 45-minute-old one in a very nice silage field with little other activity and he has rocked them.  Nice to see the young man stay focused.

After Gretzky's distracting TD attempt, I subsequently did numerous urban TD-like tracks to have us work through more distractions.  Then he went off to the conformation ring and finished his Championship in fine style at our Roving National.  Since he came back we did some more urban and natural TD-like tracks at various locations including repeating the same track he had failed on in the March test. 

​Today I decided to add some obstacles to a TD-like track so it is a mixture of a Phase 9 track and X1.1.  It's obstacles were crossing through a barbed-wire fence, crossing over two down trees with a turn just 10 yards beyond and back across two puddles.  The cover was nice calf-to-knee high pasture grass and unlike the Google picture below, there has been no cows in the pasture since October.  I aged it 50 minutes.

​Gretzky started out confidently although he tracked 5-6' to the left of the first leg even though a gentle wind was blowing from left-to-right.  I suspect this is because the gentle wind had been blowing from right-to-left on the first leg when I laid the track.  This leg was downhill and he overshot the corner by perhaps 15' so I stopped just short of the corner.  Gretzky circled around, found the second leg and was off with confidence.

The second corner was straight-forward and he crossed under the fence with confidence.  I apparently disrupted him while I clambered through so he broke off and circled the far side of the fence for a minute or two before going out and committing to the leg.  He never misses the treats shown as an "o" on the map above and then stopped nicely to nuzzle his intermediate article.  A nice hotdog party and he was off.
​He handled the third corner easily and followed that leg nicely.  As he approached the down logs, he stopped because the upturned root-ball looked threatening.  He watched it for 30 seconds, then circled around the logs to the far side and went up to the tree-line. He circled the far side and came up to the other end of the logs which were also imposing.  He studied them for another 30 seconds before proceeding with his circle to find the next leg and commit to it nicely.  I managed to snap the photo below which shows him circling away from the logs heading to intercept the last leg.

A TD in the Park, what could be more tranquil?
5/3/2018
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I had put in a Scent Work exercise for Twizzle in this new-to-me Riverfront Park and thought I might put in a track for Gretzky while I was waited for her hides to age.  The park was not busy although it was 4 pm so people might show up after work.  So I laid a four turn track (Dog’s Head) in the lawn between the parking lot on one side, baseball fields on the other, and a farmer’s field with equipment working on the third side. 
As I finished laying the track, I saw a small boy riding an electric bicycle all over the lawn and track – “Distractions Money Can’t Buy” I thought.  But I decided to run the track right away because I was working on distractions with him and I didn’t want too many – gulp.
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As I approached the start, the bicycle-kid's mother and sister were standing on the track yelling at the kid.  It is worth watching the video below.  Gretzky started nicely, was lured off to follow a bicycle trail but was willing to come back to the track with restraint.  I needed to help Gretzky on the first corner but I was very pleased that he got going on his own on the second leg while there were kids yelling just behind us.  I needed to restrain him on the second corner but he found the third leg on his own and ran down it.  A nice storm drain distraction was easy to get past.  Shortly before the third corner, he was distracted onto a set of four boy's tracks who had cross the field while I was laying the track.  Once past, he did a nice job on corner three.  He was distracted by something in the grass a little before the fourth corner but did get back to work and committed nicely to leg 5.  I expected he would be distracted by the stump just ten yards before the glove but he did not notice the stump or the glove.  All the activity of yelling going on in the park was pretty stressful for him.  But he did finish and have a good time.

​In the picture below, the X's are articles (start is on the right) and the O's are tiny Treats (Lamb Lung).

Gretzky on 8C-style Zigzags.

In the previous several tracks, Gretzky had wandered well to the side of the track several times without any urgency to get back to the track.  On a blind track (these tracks were not blind), it would be disastrous.  While there were environmental and distraction excuses why he did so, that is beside the point.  So I decided to do 8C-style zigzags with fewer distractions to provide opportunities to refresh his close-to-the-track skills.  In the 2010 seminar series, I came up with the phrase, "It is never wrong to do 7F" which has become, with the new book, "It is never wrong to do 8C".

On the 15th, we did a conventical two-track 8C in a silage field and things went pretty good although he did get distracted right before the second glove.  Otherwise, he stayed fairly close to the track and when he did deviate, he responded to line tension nicely and returned to the track quickly.

Today, May 26th, I put in a single zigzag in a never-mowed area near a river with grass that was up to my shoulders.  I aged it 30 minutes.  There were no real distractions other than pee posts from other dogs but no visible dogs or game while I laid the track or he ran the track.  I used 5 hotdogs per leg as described in Plan 8C.

Gretzky started out confidently in the tall grass (see first picture below).  Each time he found a false channel to the side of the first leg, he corrected himself within a few feet of the track.  Good dog.

There was a mowed path close to the river edged with a dirt pathway.  The track turned 90 degrees to the left just over the pathway and right before a 3' drop into a lower dirt area fringed with berry bushes (the river was down the bank past the berry bushes).  Gretzky followed the track out into the short mowed grass, swung wide (circled early) before the corner and went down into the lower dirt area beyond the corner.  He circled back up to the left (upper right picture), found some pee posts in the short mowed but eventually got back to the next leg in a short and committed to it (Lower left photo).  He followed the track in the short grass and committed nicely into the tall grass (lower right photo).

Again he stayed close to the track in the tall grass, followed the next corner to the right, and stayed close to the last leg even though there were some deep cross-channels in the grass along the way.  Overall, a good experience for Gretzky and a good tracking session.

Gretzky Seminar Demo Dog for TD

At my June 2-4 TD/TDX Seminar, I ran Gretzky as the TD Demo dog so the participants could see my line handling style in practice.  I had Kathleen Ball lay the track and mark it so the participants could see the track and better interpret what was happening.  I happened to use the same silage field Gretzky was certified in last February but of course the cover was very different.  It was a warm sunny day and the track had several mid-leg treats on each leg.  

Gretzky started out nicely and kept self-correcting as he hoped through the heavily furrowed grass on this upwind leg.  He appeared to try to turn early well before the first corner and I increased the tension quite a bit and he returned to the track (Video 1 @ 0:03:06).  When he got to the actual corner, he worked it tightly and committed nicely (Video 1 @ 0:03:50).  I let the line out until all but a few feet were left, questioned him and then climbed up the line.

The second leg was crosswind and he followed it 2-3' downwind but merged up to the treats and then stayed on the track (what a good poster boy).  He worked the second corner very nicely and committed to the upwind third leg with confidence.  This leg was following a farrow and he slipped to the downwind farrow then self-corrected from time-to-time back to the correct one.  He worked the third corner very nicely.

I had asked the gallery to stay well back far enough not to be a distraction and they ended up staying quite far back.  So they were on the first corner as Gretzky was tracking the fourth leg.  Once Gretzky was past the two flags, he noticed them and it gave me an opportunity to work on his going back to the track with a distraction nearby.  (Video 2 @ 0:02:44).  So I let him look and when his attention on them faltered, I asked him to go back to the track.  He did a full circle, committed to the track and immediately found a treat (what good treat placement).  He remained aware of the gallery and had to check them out (Video 2 @ 0:03:44.  He went back to work quickly and got to the corner which was another opportunity to try to go visit the gallery.  He returned to searching quickly when I asked, circled behind me and got to the last leg in front of me very nicely (0:04:56).  Good commitment onto the new leg. 

This leg was at a slight diagonal to the furrows so you see him following a furrow a few years and then self-correcting over to the track.   Good stop at the article and a nice party at the end as the gallery walked toward us for the past track debrief. 

While I did not plan to use the gallery as an intentional distraction, it turned out to be a great opportunity to work with him on going back to the track with a distraction in the field - and he did much better than I feared.  Nice to see him getting better and better.

​Sadly, the video had to be split into 3 parts to upload.  ​

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