Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) is a set of five simple exercises designed to stimulate a puppy or kitten’s neurological, endocrine, and circulatory systems at a point when their brains are undergoing massive development. Studies have shown that exposing neonatal mammals to small, brief amounts of stress effectively inoculates them to future stress, meaning that they will be more stable, calm, and able to deal with stress as adults.
There have been lots of research on other mammals which clearly indicates that exposure to small amounts of mild, appropriate stress will actually increase their stress tolerance as adults. For dogs and cats, this translates into pets that are more able to adapt to their lives in the human world.
We have the power to increase the quality of life for both owners and pets which will decrease the number of animals surrendered to shelters and, more importantly, reduce the number of adoptable animals euthanized due to lack of space and resources. We currently offer neonatal handling and our kittens are gently handled for a couple of minutes every day. We provide a structured set of handling exercises to increase the socialization of our kittens.