Puppies: ENS = torture (according to my mom)

[Kristie Wilder]

LOL, my mom was giving me flack for doing ENS, flipping the puppies all over the place, setting them on a cold, wet towel...

Poor little guys! I do feel bad doing it sometimes. So it got me to thinking about the timing of it. I do mine at night.

But I won't do it when their bellies are full bc I'm afraid they'll vomit. I won't do it while they're feeding for the same reason. I feel bad doing it when they're sleeping peacefully... And I feel bad doing it when they're waking up and getting ready to feed.

LOL

So typically, I'll do it when they're sleeping because they tend to be more relaxed.

Thankfully it doesn't take too much time to do it, just a few days left for me!

-K

[YardleyLabs]

I sort of make it part of my formal morning inspection with mom out of the room (If my own mom were alive I'd keep her out too). I weigh each pup, make sure he/she has not grown or lost any parts, go through their ENS exercises, and write up my daily notes. That's when I also review each pup's progress to decide which ones might need a little extra nipple/feed bowl time and which ones a little less. It's not that I don't look at them the rest of the day, but by making these tasks part of a formal routine each morning it makes it easier for me to focus on each pup individually rather than as just part of the litter during the first couple of weeks.

[Ed Hogan]

ENS........... early nuralogical stimulation? sorry for the stupid question. What is it and why is it needed?

[YardleyLabs]

ENS........... early nuralogical stimulation? sorry for the stupid question. What is it and why is it needed?

You can see a write-up at http://www.breedingbetterdogs.com/achiever.html. It's a program that was developed for use on puppies ages 3-16 days to stimulate their neurological development. It sounds a little like witchcraft, but seems to work.

[LabLady]

Okay, Jeff, I just had to ask - how do you know it works???

LL

[Kristie Wilder]

Okay, Jeff, I just had to ask - how do you know it works???

LL

LOL, I have no idea, but I've been doing it and it's one more interaction and torture to introduce them to pressure later on... haha

More than anything, i use it for inspection too... You get to see eyes, gentitals, bums, nails, mouths... I sit there and do it and wonder "how did they come up with these weird specific things that are supposed to do this??"... it's not scientifically proven. But I do think the early stimulation IN GENERAL is helpful. Just the touch, "overcoming adversity", etc.

The article is clear that you do only the 5 exercises and only 3-5 secs each. (not sure if the link provided is the same as the original) I added one thing -- a hug and a kiss. Of course, by the end, most of them are so p*ssed off that they aren't in the mood for one... haha

-K

[Lynn Moore]

We also do it at weighing time, and it goes by pretty quickly. The Monks of New Skete write about it in their books, and that article by Battaglia is excellent. I think the armed services have used it in their dog programs as well.
LM

[Rainmaker]

The hard part is keeping my husband from taking the chilling towel out of the fridge, he thinks I keep putting in there by mistake. But then, he still yells "back!, get back!" when he's going out the door and wants them to get back from the door and stay. Guess what 8 Labs fully conditioned to "back" do. The more and louder he says it, the more they get ramped to fly out the door.

No idea if it works, it's just one more thing to do with the pups every day that lets me look them over, interact with them, get their response to stimuli, another tool to evaluate personality as they develop. They are right in my computer room and they get so much attention anyway they are somewhat spoiled when they go home, but a formal program like ENS goes a little farther than just everyday lovin' em up.

One word of caution, I watched a program on ENS and the person giving it warned that too long, i.e., beyond the 5 second max for each step, can be damaging, so I'm careful to count and not get distracted while doing it.

[DEDEYE]

LOL! After reading that article, I realized I didn't know about stimulating all of that. I do know that Darla's puppies are good and annoyed after my weighing them, inspecting them, and loving on them. I will try it more formally today. Wonder when thier eyes are going to open...

[Kristie Wilder]

LOL! After reading that article, I realized I didn't know about stimulating all of that. I do know that Darla's puppies are good and annoyed after my weighing them, inspecting them, and loving on them. I will try it more formally today. Wonder when thier eyes are going to open...

You "have" to do it daily from day 3 - 16. That's the "rule"... the articles are pretty adamant about it...