Finger Follow (New & Expanded)

I am 65 years old. I started in the world of obedience in 1971 with my first dog, an American cocker spaniel (I was 13 years old and definitely the youngest in the obedience class at the German Shepherd Club in Ottawa). Fast forward to the later 70s and 80s: I obtained another American Cocker and with her, successfully obtained her CD. Since I was involved with horses and later had children, although I continued with obedience classes with my next dog which was a Labrador-Golden cross, and worked a bit with my brother’s labs, I’ve been out of the world of dog obedience since the year 2000.In 2021, quite by accident, I ended up with a long coated chihuahua named Fish. I never planned to get such a small dog much less a chihuahua! I started him with obedience here in Ottawa, then decided to try him in scent detection and agility. We are trialing in obedience and scent (CKC and SDDA) and hope to trial in agility in the future.Fish is now just over 3 years old and an interested mix of outgoing and confident, anxious, high energy, distractible and very agile. He has a huge personality! Teaching him to focus and generalize behaviour has been very challenging but one I have enjoyed since we are learning and growing as a team.I decided to watch Janice Gunn’s Finger Follow webinar because I watched the intro to it and thought it made a lot of sense. The finger follow method has been a GAME CHANGER for us. Of course we still have a long way to go, particularly with our specific skills HOWEVER this method has been hugely helpful to get Fish to confidently focus and engage, not only to go in and out of the ring and between exercises, but even when we are out walking somewhere and I suddenly need him to focus to avoid his tendency to be reactive. This method calms Fish and I believe helps him feel safe. And we have only just begun!!.And the fact that Fish is a toy breed has not been a problem with this method. On the contrary, he pops his nose up to look for the finger and looks me right in the eyes, which is what I want! Thank you so much. You have renewed my motivation to keep working with him to go as far as our work and relationship will take us!