Like ENS (Early Neurological Stimulation), ESI (Early Scent Introduction) is another early introduction for puppies to enhance and enrich their development.
I’ve been following a few natural rearing breeders for a while now learning more about their methods and how to raise even better, healthier puppies and dogs. It’s so exciting! I’ve always tending to lean more towards the natural ways for myself and my critters.
And one thing I learned about was ESI. Big thank you to Avidog and their page about early scent introduction for neonate puppies. Breeders with breeds that are later trained for tracking and search and rescue are seeing good results. Puppies that don’t grow up to be working dogs can also benefit from ESI during this neonate period with improved confidence and stability. I’m all for anything that can give our puppies a better start in life.
Like with ENS, it’s just about a five second a day exercise. It should be started on day three of the puppy’s life and done each day through day sixteen. Scents can be a variety of things; from pinecones, grass, moss, leaves, lemons, apples, bananas, to training items like leather gloves and tennis balls, or even pet safe essential oils and other small pets like cats, rabbits or guinea pigs!
The item is held just in front of the puppy’s nose (not touching) and then the reaction noted. If puppy sniffs and seems interested we mark a “+” on the chart, if puppy seems unfazed and not interested we make a “0” and if puppy turns their face away or seems to be offended by the smell, the score is a “-“. It really is fun and interested to watch for puppy’s reaction.
So Sasha’s little man is the first puppy we are trying early scent introduction on, but I’m excited to introduce it with future litters also! Some of the scents I have used with him are safe essential oils (lavender, Rowe Casa Organics pet calming spray, Young Living T-Away), leather gloves, rock, stick, pine cone, chicken feather, strawberry, cloves, and a wild turkey feather. It’s fun to try to come up with different smells for him.
He was really interested in the cloves!