The Chmurnik x Sophie puppies have reached the end of their
first week. I am so impressed with
Sophie’s great mothering. The whelping
box is virtually spotless and her babies are happy and quiet. She has not had any difficulty supplying their
dietary needs because these puppies are fat little sausages with excellent
growth thus far. They have more than doubled their birth weights and are now
very quick to motor across the box to get back to their mum when she returns after
a potty break.
We are in full swing with doing Early Neurological
Stimulation (ENS aka Bio Sensor techniques). This is a program that was originally
implemented by the U.S. Military and it is comprised of a few gentle
stimulating exercises that are said to have lasting benefits for the
puppies. These exercises are carried out
once a day from three days of age to sixteen days of age. The pups are held briefly (3 – 5 seconds) for
5 different exercises. One of their toes
are tickled with a Q-tip, they are held in head up, head down, in a supine
position and lastly, they are briefly placed on a cold surface (we use a gel
pack from the freezer with a towel on top of it). The entire process only takes a few minutes
and although there is some doubt as to the effectiveness of these exercises, when
done gently and briefly they certainly do no harm. What cannot be argued is that neonate puppies
do benefit from gentle handling. These
puppies are lovingly cuddled and kissed regularly! They are weighed twice a day and toenails are
trimmed regularly.
In addition to the ENS exercises we are also doing Early
Scent Stimulation (ESS) with these puppies.
We recently learnt about the benefits of exposing young puppies to a
variety of scents when we attended an Avidog seminar this past March. These early scenting experiences are performed
concurrently with the ENS exercises and we will conclude the ESS on day 16 as
well. All we are doing is offering the
puppies the opportunity to smell a novel scent for a few brief seconds each
day. Puppies are born with the ability
to taste and the ability to smell begins to come on board around day
three. It is very apparent when doing
these exercises that the puppies are definitely using their noses and some
scents are certainly more attractive to the puppies than others. Breeders have noted that ESS increases an
interest in scenting, detection of scents and the ability to follow
scents. I feel strongly that those
heightened abilities are of tremendous value to dogs that will be hunting,
tracking or doing any type of nose work activities. Even if it is just playing rainy day games of
find it with their families.
On the whole it's been a delightful week. The Fab Five are doing very very well and we are enjoying this litter tremendously. The days are quickly passing and it feels as though the puppies are growing right before our very eyes. I am enjoying each day as it unfolds and I look forward with anticipation to what the weeks ahead will bring.
