What is the world is ENS and ESI and why my puppies need it.

So , as promised, here is a little bit more information about ESI and ENS programs, what we use concurrently for neonatal puppies.

Early Scent Introduction program was developed by Gayle Watkins for the working Retrievers and then widely adopted by breeders of dogs involved in Scent , Field trials and Search work. There are a special protocol of introduction of different groups of scents to puppies from 3 to 16 days of their life.The idea behind it is stimulation  of areas of brain responsible for scent processing.

Puppies are born with their eyes and ears closed . They interacting with this world by smell and touch predominantly in first 2 weeks  period  .Therefor , we have unique possibility to help their brain build more neural connection for scent memories and develop better .

Once a day we introduce  new scent to puppies  and keep record of their reaction to each . Scents items can be natural - like grass in these pictures , cloth , metal , birds feathers ,  etc. Selection of scents for this program is  different then in our Socialization to Scents program what we will  run a bit later with these babies.

Another neonatal program is Early Neurological Stimulation  (ENS) - also known as "Super dog  program" and "Bio-sensor program". Based on  scientific research for military dogs , it was then  popularized by 

Dr. Battaglia . Method applies the series of specially formulated  holding positions or light tactile or thermal interaction , which provide right amount of eustress to stimulate  nervous system . Short, few seconds stimulation shapes neonatal development to give puppies more tolerance to stress , greater immune response and resistance to diseases and more .

It need to be done carefully and with individual approach to each litter and each puppy to avoid an over-stimulation. In case of this Zoe's litter - they were  great candidates for ENS to give them extra bonus in their development : this babies were born naturally , quick and easy, Mommy Zoe has plenty of milk and she is fantastic mother , cleaning and licking her pups , nursing with no problem , pups are gaining weight  right on schedule . There is no stress in their little life, therefor ENS is very beneficial  for them. Here is a couple of short videos for you , if you are interested how it is done.

 

"Pearl litter" is 3 weeks old

Our Pearl litter is 3 weeks old.
Babies' eyes are open, ears are open,too. I love the moment when they start open eyes  , it is always very special and touching moment .
They start to walk on their legs , moving away from mom bravely,   and have an addition to their nest now with newspaper covered part - it is time to start potty training.
Kenya is a wonderful mother , taking care of her little ones gently and enjoying being with them. She started , however, spend longer and longer time out of nest box .
No need to supplemental feeding for pups yet - mom has plenty of milk , babies are keeping good weight and  are not hungry. We will start introducing yogurt very soon as their first "real food" .
They did not find their voices yet  -  that's , probably , a good thing :-) . But one was growling today when I clip their nails.
We are done with both early programs - ENS  (Early Neurological Stimulation ) and ESI ( Early Scent Introduction) .  As for this moment 42 different scents were introduced .Scent introduction will continue in a bit different manner now to keep babies adopted to different scents they will be exposed to in real life.
Same with sounds .Puppy place is right in the middle of our living area ,connected with kitchen, so puppies are getting familiar with all typical household sounds. To other sounds they are introduced by recorded sounds - of natures, of animals, different people voices, music, sounds of cars and trains, sounds of  crowd of people , farm , city etc.
Basic of clicker training starts now ,too.
Grooming part - nail are done every 5 days. Puppies are rather enjoying nail grinder light sound , they are very relaxed in my hands when we do nails.  They are introduced to hair clipper sound and vibration, though real part of  grooming with clipper took few seconds - just to make one smooth clipping cut of hair from their little butts, for hygienic purpose , and extra few seconds to run a a comb through their coat.  Ones daily we also spend  a minute near running water - as a groomer, I know a lot of dogs who flipping out when they hear water running , so we are trying to prevent this unfortunate and needless stress for our pups .


And -here they are!

Ghita

Gretchen

Jumani

Mae

Rita

   Enjoy the pictures and  stay tuned for more updates, as most interesting time is just starting and I hope you will share it with us!