About ENS Training
The first three weeks of a puppy’s life are a crucial time. Puppies are very helpless at this stage. Their eyes do not open until around 10 days, and the sense of hearing starts around 2 weeks. Mama dog does most of the work at this stage, and your job is to keep everyone warm, safe, and clean. The most important way to interact with our litters during this phase is by touch. Our puppies are gently handled at least two times a day, so they learn that human touch is a pleasant experience.
​
In addition, some breeders include the Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) exercises, which are conducted once daily from days 3-16 , a period believed to be a time of rapid neurological growth and development. Even though puppies are very immature during this time frame, they are sensitive and respond to ENS.
The US Military developed this method designed to improve the performance of future military working dogs, according to the Breeding Better Dogs program developed by Dr. Carmen Battaglia, esteemed breeder, judge, seminar presenter, and AKC board member. ENS requires handling the puppies one at a time while performing a series of five exercises. Listed in order of preference, the handler starts with one pup and stimulates it using each of the five exercises. The handler completes the series from beginning to end before starting with the next pup. The handling of each pup once per day involves the following exercises:1. Tactile stimulation – Holding the pup in one hand, the handler gently stimulates (tickles) the pup between the toes on any one foot using a Q-tip. It is not necessary to see that the pup is feeling the tickle. Time of stimulation 3 – 5 seconds.-
​
The process consists of 5 simple and harmless exercises, including:
1. Tactile stimulation – Holding the pup in one hand, the handler gently stimulates (tickles) the pup between the toes on any one foot using a Q-tip. It is not necessary to see that the pup is feeling the tickle. Time of stimulation 3 – 5 seconds.
2. Head Held Erect – Using both hands, the pup is held perpendicular to the ground, (straight up), so that its head is directly above its tail. This is an upwards position.
3. Head Pointed Down – Holding the pup firmly with both hands the head is reversed and is pointed downward so that it is pointing towards the ground.
4. Supine Position – Hold the pup so that its back is resting in the palm of both hands with its muzzle facing the ceiling. The pup while on its back is allowed to sleep.
5. Thermal stimulation— Use a damp towel that has been cooled in a refrigerator for at least five minutes. Place the pup on the towel, feet down.
​
​​
ENS helps puppies develop stress coping mechanisms and leads to healthier puppies later in life.
About ESI Training
Why is it important? ESI helps puppies gain awareness with their nose and also boosts their confidence. If you are in the market for a service dog or therapy dog, make sure you find a breeder that performs ESI training, as it is important for dogs of this status to have a good grip on their scent capabilities.
For example, if you are in need of a diabetic therapy dog, you will want to find a breeder that performs ESI with their puppies. This will give more ease when training your puppy to identify the scent of low blood sugar and give you piece of mind knowing your puppies scent capabilities are stronger than their peers that did not undergo ESI training.
​
Just like ENS training (early neurological stimulation), ESI is performed during day three of life until day sixteen. Each day you introduce a new pungent scent to the puppy. As you introduce the scent, you hold the puppy close to you. As the puppy smells the scent, you record their reaction.
When introducing the scent to the puppy, make sure the puppy is comfortable and let them react. If they move away from scent, that is a negative reaction. If the puppy moves toward the scent and wants to keep sniffing, that is a positive reaction. A neutral reaction would be when the puppy keeps a neutral position and does not move away or toward the scent.
Here at Hayday Ranch Corgis, we have used many different scents for ESI. Currently, we are using sheep wool, leather, ginger, bay, lemon, different essential oils, vanilla, honey, leaves, chicken feathers, cotton, rabbit, alpaca, tennis ball, cinnamon, black tea, lemongrass, cocunut and mint. Anything with a scent will work for ESI. Just be sure that scents you are using are safe and non-toxic.