HEAR YE, HEAR YE, HEAR YE !!!!

Puppies traveled to Westminster, MD this morning...and were soooooo good.  No pee or poopie in crate; we stopped about 1-1/2 hour into the trip at a nice little park area and I set up the ex-pen and all the puppies did their potty within 5 minutes....then drove the rest of the way to the testing site.  Again, I set up the ex-pen in the building and put down newspapers and all puppies did potty as soon as they were removed from the crate and put down in pen.  Remember - they have to take turns since it is only me and 8 pups...so lots of trips and pups had to wait....After their testing I let Momma Kirra into the ex-pen with them for a milk bar treat!

Sorry guys...no pictures of actual hearing testing since pups were happier being held by Momma Nancy and not the tester's helper.....but here are pictures from the test website showing how electrodes are inserted and what the machine looks like......

AND - MOST IMPORTANTLY --  ALL EIGHT PUPS ARE BILATERAL HEARING!!!  Way to go Chaucer and Kirra.

BAER testing detects electrical activity in the inner ear and auditory pathways in the brain in response to a click that is produced and directed into the ear with a foam insert earphone. The test produces characteristic waveforms that occur within 6 milliseconds of the click.  Each ear is tested individually and is judged as “normal” or “deaf”. Total time for the test is between 5-10 minutes per dog. Testing is painless with the most obvious objection being restraint or inserting the subcutaneous needles (comparable to acupuncture needles). Sedation is rarely needed for testing. Following the test, a printout of the recorded waveforms and a certificate of BAER test results is provided to the owner/breeder.

This is a picture of a puppy being tested. There are needle electrodes inserted under the skin and foam insert headphones are inserted in both ears. Gentle restraint is needed in the majority of cases.

This picture shows the typical set up for BAER testing, including the computer, preamplifier and signal averager.

Each puppy will receive a print out of the actual graph printed out by the computer showing their individual results.

Will try to do an update on the blog Monday or Tuesday after puppy visitors this weekend.