Early Scent Introduction is a training method that enhances puppies’ scent awareness and confidence by exposing them to various natural scents from days 3 to 16 of their lives. ESI is a concept developed by Dr Gayle Watkins, a Golden Retriever breeder, scientist, researcher and competitor in a range of dog sports.
Scent is the way puppies experience the world. Introducing natural scents early on can help:
- Introduce puppies to new scents in a controlled way.
- Improves scenting ability in later life.
- Enhances confidence and stability as adults.
- Reduce behavioral issues in the long term
During this curriculum, we expose our puppies to a different scent each day. As we do this, we hold the puppy close to us, and let them smell each item. We then chart their reaction on their neonatal care chart. The reaction is considered to be positive when the puppy shows interest in the scent, moving their nose towards it. A negative reaction is recorded when the puppy tries to move away from the scent. Thirdly would be a neutral reaction where the puppy was neither interested or uninterested in the scent.
