Inside the Puppy Pen- Day 5

Today I am showing one of the ways we start building service dog foundations before eyes even open: Early Scent Introduction (ESI).

ESI is a simple daily protocol done during the newborn window, usually days three through sixteen, where each puppy is briefly exposed to one new scent. It is gentle, it is short, and it is always followed by going right back to mom.

ESI is not just about “novelty.” Studies looking at early scent exposure found that puppies who received structured scent introduction early on later performed better in scent based tasks and scent discrimination trials compared to pups who did not have that early exposure. In other words, ESI can help develop a more capable nose and a brain that processes scent information more efficiently.

When people think of service dogs, they often picture public access skills and obedience. But for many tasks, a service dog’s superpower is their nose. A dog with strong scent ability can be trained to alert to changes in the human body, including things like: blood sugar changes for diabetics, oncoming seizures, shifts in heart rate or breathing patterns, blood pressure changes, and allergen detection and avoidance work.

Not every service dog does medical alerts, but when we are raising and evaluating puppies with service potential, we pay close attention to anything that supports strong scent capability and confident, stable processing of information.

Each day, each puppy gets a calm, controlled exposure to a new scent for a few seconds. No overwhelm, no strong irritants, and no forcing. The goal is to create a positive, regulated experience and to start wiring the brain for future scent work and learning.

This is one of those “tiny moments” in the puppy pen that looks simple, but it is part of a bigger plan. We are raising puppies with purpose, and we love stacking the deck early for the pups that may grow into real world helpers.