According to Alexandra Horowitz, author of Inside of a Dog, dogs examine and understand the world through their noses like we see and make sense of the world with our eyes. The area in the brain that processes the data picked up by the nose is 40 times larger in dogs than humans. A dog’s ability to smell is a function of their intellect.
...I guess Alexandra has never met a coon hound. Instinct in spades, intellect, not so much. Just kidding... I digress.
Many breeders are already using the prenatal period to develop their puppies. The prenatal period is the first couple weeks of a pups life. When scanned, their brains show minimal function, their eyes and ears are sealed shut, they can only communicate through the most basic squeals and mews. They have little control over their body temperature and they even need help to pee and poop. These baby puppies can only feel, taste and smell. But despite their outer appearances, a lot is happening inside those little heads. Neonate puppies brains are undergoing massive changes as they go from a limited newborn to this active puppy in less than three weeks. For example, its brain is quadrupling in size, and it's also becoming more complex by differentiating into key components and undergoing significant chemical and structural changes.
We will take advantage of this development stage and by using the pup's sense of touch through early neurologic stimulation or Bio Sensor. ENS was part of the US Military "Super Dog" program. It was introduced to dog breeders in 1995 by Dr. Carmen Battaglia. ENS is thought to strengthen the dog's physiology by improving its cardiovascular performance and strengthening it's adrenal glands. It also provides the dogs with greater resistance to disease and improves stress tolerance and resilience. One pup at a time is held upright, upside down, on it's back, tickle the feet, and placed on a cold towel for 3-5 seconds each. These very minimal stressors now aide the pup to be a more stable dog that will handle stress more adequately.
The other thing we take advantage of at this time is their sense of smell. Dr Gayle Watkins developed a program call Early Scent Introduction. ESI is done at the same time as ENS. On each of these days, we present each pup with a new scent, one that it's never smelled before that we have near at hand. We head outside to get natural items such as grass, dirt, leaves, bark, moss, flowers, and more. We then hit the kitchen to find other items such as pungent fruits, herbs and spices, including orange, banana, lemon, apple, lime, rosemary and mint, cloves, cinnamon and even anise. We dig through our training gear to find working items, which for us include game birds, sheep wool, raccoon hide, and the other tools we use such as wood and leather. And finally, if we have them available, we offer the pups miscellaneous items such as a tolerant barn cat and rabbits. We also may include essential oils.
Then one pup at a time, we hold these scents just in front of, but not touching its nose, allowing it to sniff them for five seconds. We're looking for one of three common reactions: Some items they love, some items they hate, and some they just don't care about. When they like it, the pup will often try and bury its nose in the object, snuffling, staying engaged, and despite their inability to move well, they'll even try and move towards it. If they hate it, pups will turn their head away and keep it there, sometimes blowing hard out their noses as if to clear it, and even screeching. Sometimes they just don't care. The pups will do little to nothing besides take a tiny sniff.
Sport dogs raised with ESI have consistently shown significantly more accomplishments in scenting activities, and most of these accomplishments have come in the more complex events. And in fact, the ESI cohort is accomplishing these titles from two and a half to five years younger than the non-ESI compatriots.
More information on the Biosensor and the Early Scent Introduction programs can be found in the Puppy Files page of our website. When I conduct these, I plan on having one of my daughters grab some pictures or even a short video so you can see it in action.
Comments