We’ve all
became known to the general public
as the Super Dog program. It utilized
early neurological stimulation
exercises on neonatal puppies. We
certainly might ask why not simply
continue to breed top performing
stud dogs to top performing brood
bitches? Isn’t that enough to produce
winners in the breed ring and the
performance events?
Surprisingly, no, it isn’t. Another
behavioral
geneticist,
Patrick
Cunningham, studied Thoroughbred
race horse performance, i.e., speed
(1991).
The data from his study showed
that
performance for speed is only
35%
heritable. The remaining 65% can
be attributed to other factors such as
nutrition, training, and management.
Although
Cunningham’s
work
focused on horses, his discovery that
inherited traits alone cannot ensure
a high performing animal provide
strong indications to dog breeders
that genetics and pedigrees have a
limited influence.
Meanwhile, early child development
researchers were discovering the
critical importance of stimulation
at an early age when the body and
brain experience rapid growth and
development. Dogs are highly social
mammals – as are we – so it made
sense that if proper stimuli during the
first few months of a child’s life can
give it such a head start mentally and
physically, then such a program could
do the same for a puppy.
E
arly
S
EnSory
S
timulation
(
ESS)
Dogs are predators, and like the
young of other predators, newborn
puppies are an altricial species. In
other words, they are born totally
helpless: their eyes and ears are closed,
their digestive system has a limited,
immature capacity, and they cannot
regulate their own body temperature.
Behavioral researchers discovered
that these neonatal, under-developed
canines are sensitive to certain,
particular stimuli: thermal and tactile
stimulation, motion, and locomotion.
Rats were the first mammals to
receive early stimulation exercises
from scientists. As adults, the rats that
were given early stimulation dealt with
stress much better than those that
had not. In addition, the adult rats
that received early stimulation reached
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS
When A Little Stress Is
Good
W
E
’
vE
all
hEard
that
StrESS
can do bad things to our bodies and to
our emotional and mental health. No
animal, including the human animal,
can learn properly if it is under stress.
Too much stress on a dog can cause
aberrant, neurotic behaviors and even
aggression. So, why on earth would
we, as responsible breeders, purposely
expose neonatal puppies to stress?!?
For the answer to that question,
we need to look back at work done
by behavioral geneticists in the
early 1960s.
P
ionEEring
r
ESEarchErS
John P. Scott and John L. Fuller
authored a seminal text in 1965
that is still important today,
Dog
Behavior – The Genetic Basics
.
At
the same time, the military were
raising dogs for various tasks needed
by the Armed Forces during the
Vietnam War, and they studied the
findings of those scientists. Taking
what they had learned, the military
developed a program to enhance the
performance of their dogs and called
it Bio Sensor. This program eventually
Sandra Murray
“
NO ANIMAL , INCLUDING
THE HUMAN ANIMAL ,
can learn properly if it is under stress.”
100 •
S
how
S
ight
M
agazine
,
N
ovember
2012