Spots

My day started at 4:30 AM when I was awakened by a stuffed bunny shoved in my face. Tiffin wanted out. I did ENS early because I had a new adventure for the pups to try. I started ESI which stands for Early Scent Identification. This is something new for me, but I believe some of the Golden breeders have been doing this with their litters. Here is what I learned about it.

Early Scent Introduction is a concept developed by Dr Gayle Watkins, a Golden Retriever breeder, scientist, researcher and competitor in a range of dog sports.

When?

Perform these exercises once a day from days 3-16.

What you need
13 scents
Pen and paper

How many?

Use a selection of 13 natural scents, no chemicals or meat products. You can use herbs and spices, things from your garden, or training items to make up your collection of scents to introduce.



Hold the scent in front of the puppy’s nose for 5 seconds per day.

Make a note of the responses to each scent;

+ is a positive response when the puppy actively tries to sniff the scent.

0 is a neutral response when the puppy does not respond in any way.

– is a negative response when the puppy turns its head away from the scent.



ESI should be performed at a different time of day to ENS. If the puppies are feeling mild stress from the ENS, you do not want them to associate that stress with the novel scents you are introducing.

Why?

Scent is the way puppies experience the world. Introducing natural scents early on can help:
Introduce puppies to new scents in a controlled way.
Improves scenting ability in later life.
Enhances confidence and stability as adults.
Reduce behavioral issues in the long term



Research has shown that when puppies are exposed to scent at this early age, they have an association and a recognition towards that specific scent.

If your puppy is likely to be used for a service role, detection role or perhaps as a working gun dog, then you can introduce them to “job specific” scents and increase their association with that scent, even at this age.

Today was the first day I tried this with the puppies. It is day four but yesterday was way too stressful for them. They had ENS in the morning and then a car ride to get their dewclaws removed. I didn't think another thing was using good judgement. So today, the first scent I used was birch. Because I have never tried this before I did not know what to expect. Only a couple of them responded at all. I'm sure they and I will learn this together.

Tiffin was nice enough to let me take a 2-hour nap in the afternoon! She is doing much better but I am having a hard time getting her to eat. On a happy note, the little patched girl Shiver gained an ounce today!!!!!

I didn't take many pictures but here are a couple. As you can almost see spots are starting to peek through. 

The heat light makes the pictures look yellow

Happy momma