Girl Scout Puppies: Early Neurological Stimulation

Guest post by Girl Scout Troop 11967. Troop 11967 is caring for SSD Aunt Megan and her nine puppies, who will be trained as service dogs.

Yesterday was my first time meeting and working with the SSD puppies and their mom, SSD Aunt Megan. When I first got there, I met Megan and bonded with her before I met the puppies, so Megan would trust me.

Shortly after, I got to meet the nine puppies and rub and scratch their stomachs and ears. Next is when the real work started. We first started by doing ENS (Early Neurological Stimulation)* by holding the puppies toward us, holding them with their back toward the ground, holding them upside down, and placing them on a cold, wet washcloth. Then we picked them up and tickled their toes with a Q-tip. this process is to stimulate the puppies using different sensations.

Then we put all the puppies into a separate bin and we cleaned the whelping by by removing the dirty towels, wiping down the sides and bottom of the box, and putting in fresh towels and toys. After putting the puppies back into the box, I went upstairs to feed mama Megan.

Once we returned downstairs, we cleaned the puppy toys using water and bleach. Finally to finish, we mopped the floor.

Although all of these tasks are repeated several times a day, I was only there for a small amount of time, and I only got to do each step once. Even though it was hard work, I enjoyed working with the puppies very much.

*Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) helps to create dogs who are better equipped to handle stress, which is extremely important for service dogs, who will be going everywhere with their partner.

Puppy Development: Week 1

With three litters of puppies to watch on the puppy cam, we’re sure you’re curious about some of their development and some of the milestones they reach. During the first few weeks, the puppies change and grow a lot. By the end of the first week, they will have nearly doubled their birth weight. Most of their time is spent sleeping, either huddled with their brothers and sisters, or snuggling with their mom. If you’ve seen the puppy cam, you’ve probably seen the puppies twitching in their sleep.

The Ice Cream Puppies snuggle in their sleep.

The puppies’ eyes and ears are completely closed, which means they depend on warmth, touch, and smell to find their mom and siblings. Although the puppies can’t walk yet, they can scoot and slide using most their front legs to propel them. If you watch the puppy cam, you can sometimes see the pups moving their heads back and forth and scooting along, often in response to their mother entering the whelping box. They’re trying to find food or warmth.   

Bridge's eyes and ears and closed.

Lunchtime for the Birthplace litter

At this stage, the puppies are unable to regulate their body temperature, so they rely on their mother to keep them warm. We also add heating pads and sometimes heat lamps to the whelping box for those times when the mom isn’t in with her pups.

The first 18 days of the puppies’ lives is very important, especially since they’re going to be trained as service dogs. We do something called Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) with the puppies, which is very mild stress that stimulates brain activity. There have been studies that have found that dogs who experience mild stress during this early development are more adaptable to stress later in life, are more stable, have improved health, have greater resistance to disease, and learn faster, among other things.

With ENS, less is more, so we perform five activities with the puppies once each day. Each activity only lasts 3-5 seconds.

1.      Lay the puppy on a cold, damp towel

2.      Hold the pup on its back in your hands

3.      Hold the puppy perpendicular to the ground with the head toward the ceiling

4.      Hold the puppy with its head down

5.      Tickle between the toes with a Q-tip

We’ll tell you about week two of the puppies’ development next week.

The Crayon Litter: The Early Days

As soon as we walk into the room, we can hear the soft squeaking noises of nine puppies. SSD Winter, the proud mom of the newest litter of Susquehanna Service Dogs, pads over to greet us, then flops down at our feet, the picture of a tired mom. Winter’s breeder caretaker family is tired, too – the puppies must be fed and cared for every four hours around the clock. And yet, even though everyone is ready for a nap, there’s a feeling of exhilaration. All because three feet away, in a box lined with a heating pad and plenty of towels and blankets, are nine little puppies, wriggling, sleeping and making those adorable little puppy noises.

Born September 3, 2009, the puppies will live with their breeder caretaker family until they are seven weeks old. Winter’s maternal instincts are not strong, and she doesn’t have enough milk to feed nine puppies, so we need to do many of the tasks she would normally do.

The mother usually licks her pups to stimulate their digestive system. To mimic Winter’s tongue, we use a cotton pad soaked in warm water to rub the puppies’ bellies. Because Winter does have some milk, we make sure that all the puppies have a turn at nursing, but we supplement them by bottle-feeding them puppy formula.

The breeder caretakers must stimulate and feed Shamrock, Slate, Denim, Rusty, Sienna, Lavender, Onyx, Copper and Jade every four hours – an exhausting, but rewarding process, especially when you can see the puppies doubling and tripling their birth weight! (By Day 9, the puppies had doubled their birth weight!)

In addition to caring for the puppies’ needs, we do Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) with them until they’re 18 days old. Developed by the US Military for their canine program, ENS became popularly known as the “Super Dog” program because if it’s done properly, it can greatly increase the dogs’ neurological capacities.

We perform five exercises in order once each day with each puppy:
1. Tickle between the puppy’s toes with a Q-tip. (3-5 seconds)
2. Hold the puppy straight up in the air so its head is vertically in line with its tail. (3-5 seconds)
3. Hold the puppy upside down so its head is vertically in line with its tail. (3-5 seconds)
4. Hold the puppy on its back. (3-5 seconds)
5. Place the puppy on a damp cloth that has been refrigerated for at least five minutes. (3-5 seconds)

Performing these exercises can kick the puppies’ neurological system into action earlier then it normally would. Studies have shown that dogs that have been exposed to ENS are more resistant to disease and have a greater tolerance for stress. In addition, dogs that have gone through ENS perform better in problem-solving situations and tend to be more active in exploring their environment. If you would like to learn more about ENS, read Dr. Carmen Battaglia’s article about it.

These capacities are especially important for service dogs. Service dogs will need to learn many new behaviors, sometimes even figuring out a new behavior on their own, and they will continually learn new skills as they adapt to their partners’ needs. They will need to generalize the behavior, performing it in many different environments that can often be stressful for the dog. The ability to stay calm and focused is necessary for service dogs to assist their partners.

ENS will give Shamrock, Slate, Denim, Rusty, Sienna, Lavender, Onyx, Copper and Jade an advantage as they grow and start to learn the skills they’ll need as service dogs.

We will continue to share updates on the puppies' progress. The puppies will be eating their first meal of real food (softened puppy food, or puppy gruel) within the next two weeks. Look for a post about their adventure with real food!

Also, we are going to have a Puppy Cam for the Crayon litter. It will be streaming live on Ustream and you'll also be able to watch it on our website. We'll have more information about the Puppy Cam soon!