We're starting something new with Pandora's Winter 2022 litter! It's called Early Scent Introduction, or ESI. The brains of newborn puppies go through massive changes during the first few weeks of their life, and ESI has been shown to be very beneficial to their development. It helps with nose awareness and confidence, and enhances their ability to identify and react to scents.

Early Scent Introduction is performed in conjunction with Bio-Sensor training on the puppies from day three thru day sixteen. A different scent is introduced to the puppy each day for short intervals. Their reaction to the scent is then recorded. A positive reaction is when a puppy will try to move towards the scent with their nose highly engaged in the scent. A negative reaction will have the puppy pulling back from the scent. A neutral reaction will be when the puppy does not seem interested or disinterested.

The benefits of ESI have been studied in a seven-year breeding test. Gayle Watson PhD conducted the test. They broke down the litters to the dogs that had early scent detection and those that did not. She began her testing by looking at results from sporting Golden Retrievers here in the United States. Gayle and her team charted the outcome of various events to determine the effect the ESI had on the pups. The results were astounding! They found the dogs that had been involved in early scent introduction had more total scenting titles. Along with the titles were earned in more complex scenting categories. Another amazing fact that came from the research was that the dogs were achieving these titles two and a half to five years younger than the non ESI pups.

Day 3- BANANA

Today is our first day of doing ESI with the babies (they are 3 days old). We started with banana. The chunkiest boy had a positive reaction to the banana, and moved towards it. The smaller boy had a neutral reaction, and was completely disinterested. The girls were not impressed with banana. The reddest girl moved towards it at first, but then moved away. The other three girls quickly moved away.

As a side note, their mother is also not a fan of bananas, but their father is a big fan of anything edible (and some things that aren't). He will happily eat the fruit, and then has a very difficult time deciding if he wants to eat the peel or play with it. When he manages to snag a peel, we usually let him play with it for a few minutes and then trade him a real toy for the banana peel.

Day 5- CINNAMON

On our 3rd day of ESI, the babies tried cinnamon. The sesame girl was the only one who had a positive reaction, moving closer and staying engaged. The chunkiest boy immediately moved away. The rest of the babies all moved towards the cinnamon, and then away.

Missy Pan-Pan, of course, impatiently waited for her babies to finish and then gave it several big sniffs. And in a turn of events that I'm sure will shock absolutely no one, Miko immediately stuck his entire tongue in the bottle. I took it away before he had the opportunity to fish any cinnamon sticks out of the jar. No doubt he's proud of himself for contaminating the sample.

Day 7- STAR ANISE

I wasn't able to update the website over the weekend, but the babies continued their ESI. On day 7, we introduced star anise. Star anise is used in K9 scentwork courses. The reddest girl and Miki both moved towards, then away from the star anise. The rest of the babies moved towards it, with both of the boys displaying a strongly positive reaction.

Since anise can work as a sort of catnip for dogs, I thought that Miko would enjoy it immensely. However, he gave it one sniff and decided he wasn't interested. Weird Shiba. In extremely shiba-like fashion, I believe he delights in doing the opposite of what I expect! Pandora also sniffed it once and then ignored it, which I expected from her.

Day 8- LAVENDER

The babies are 8 days old today, and we're trying lavender today (our 5th day of ESI). All of the babies LOVED lavender! I was surprised. Every single one had a positive reaction, moving towards it and staying engaged. Pandora and Miko BOTH thought it was strange, and looked very expectantly at me for treats when I tried to show them the lavender. They acted like I was attempting to feed them soap.

Day 10- TENNIS BALL

On our 7th day of ESI, the babies experienced the smell of a piece of tennis ball. As a litter, they had mostly positive reactions to this one. The smaller male moved to, then away, and then back to and stayed engaged. The larger male was highly interested, and stuck his entire face in the container. He couldn't get close enough! The girls all moved towards the tennis ball and stayed engaged.

Pandora and Miko both adore tennis balls. I didn't offer to let them check out the piece, because I'm positive they would immediately do a snatch and dash. 

Day 11- COCONUT

The 8th day of ESI (babies are 11 days old), we introduced them to coconut. Oh my goodness, did they love it! Every single one of the babies had a positive reaction to coconut. They all moved forward and stayed engaged. 

I allowed Missy Pan-Pan to sniff the coconut, and of course she thought I was offering her a delicious snack. Not wishing to lose the remainder of my coconut, I did not offer to let Miko smell it.

An exciting note- today a few of the babies are in the beginning stages of opening their eyes! They start out with just the tiniest little bits open, and it can take a couple days for them to finish getting their little peepers open. Their ears usually open roughly around the same time, so soon they'll be able to hear and we'll start playing classical music for them during parts of the day, as well as introducing them to ambient household noises. They also get quiet time, so that they don't get overstimulated. 

Day 13- LEATHER (Dec 8)

On our 10th day of ESI (babies are 13 days old), we let them smell leather. The smaller boy moved to, then away, then back to the leather (similar to his experience with tennis ball). Kuri (red girl) stuck her entire face in the container and was very interested! The other babies all moved to the leather and remained engaged.

Pandora gave it a few good sniffs and then attempted to taste it. Miko tried to steal it, but I was too fast for him this time!

The boys and Kuri are still contemplating opening their eyes. 

Day 15- ALPACA (Dec 10)

Oh my goodness, what a hit Alpaca was! The babies were so excited about Alpaca fiber that they stuck their cute little faces right into the sample. The sesame girl and Kumi both made big, loud sniffing sounds, with their noses deep in the alpaca fleece sample. The rest of the babies buried their entire face and stayed there. I am convinced that they must need their very own alpaca. Unfortunately, my husband doesn't think an alpaca would be happy living in the suburbs. He's probably right. 

Pandora and Miko both also loved alpaca. Miko (of course!) stuck his tongue all over it and tried to steal it. He clearly missed his calling and should have been a pirate instead. 

Kuri and the boys have all opened their eyes! All the babies are blinking their cute little peepers everywhere.

Dec 15-  3 weeks old (20 days)

Quick update: most of the babis are walking! They're just starting, so they're not steady enough to go outside to potty, but I captured early steps for my families (Kumi & Kuri aren't quite ready yet). Videos are posted to Youtube, playlist can be found here:  https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnRos2poigsR4QcdC8B7giZjVmvHOlV3o

Please excuse my carpet, Missy Pan-Pan finds it highly amusing to pretend to be an interior decorator Shibe and pulls my loops out by the handful. It's a new hobby of hers, most likely due to boredom becaue the babies aren't old enough to play with yet.