All The Pawsibilities : WIthout Missing a Beat

We've officially been back in Wilmington for a week now, and slid back into our crazy lifestyle with ease. I'm lucky to be at our headquarters, where our UNCW/p4p Assistance Dog Training Program is housed. (That's where I got my start, by the way.) This means that I have almost endless volunteers at my disposal. Because, let's be real, with the stresses of college, who doesn't want to take an hour and spend time with a puppy, that also doubles as a feel good for bettering the life of an individual with a disability. Yesterday we went to Dick's Sporting Goods, and unfortunately I'm having a few issues with my phone, so I didn't manage to get too many pictures, but I do have this gem of a group shot to share!

An awesome group of students to help socialize the puppies!

We've have exciting outings planned for today and tomorrow, which I'm really happy about. There's also a very, very exciting future for paws4people Puppy Development on the horizon, but you'll find out more about that later!

One thing that I've started with our newest litter of puppies is Early Scent Introduction. I'm not sure if we'll notice the impact of it, or not, since the research on it has been done primarily in field trial/hunting/scent work. But I love the idea of stimulating another system that we are able to early on! For those of you who aren't familiar with newborn puppies, their eyes and ears do not open until 10-14 days old, leaving them with only tactile, thermal, and olfactory senses to navigate their new world. One of the coolest things about new puppies is that they automatically crawl towards warmth. We currently do Early Neurological Stimulation (Biosensor Training) with each of the litters, which engages their tactile and proprioceptive senses. It is shown to decrease their stress levels later on, and also helps with the handling of their bodies and desensitizing to situations that they will be in as Service Dogs.