While taking with breeders (I'm getting ready for a ridgeback puppy, yay!), I ran into one who mentioned doing "early neurological stimulation" on her pups, apparently pioneered by someone by the name of Carmen Battalgia. Has anyone heard of this, or does anyone know anything about this? It's supposed to give the pups an advantage in terms of managing stressful situations or something.

There have been a few discussions in the past. Best bet is to do a search on the archives using keywords like 'neurological' or 'stimulation'

Here is one thread from August of 2005
Click Here to see thread

Another link from another thread ...
EARLY NEUROLOGICAL STIMUALTION

Early Neurological Stimulation came more to 'light' through Carmen and his writing about it, however, not sure I would call him the pioneer behind it but.....I have an article on my website about it (written by Carmen)
Here is an excerpt:

In many animal breeding programs the entire process of selection and management is founded on the belief that performance is inherited. It has only been in recent decades that good estimates of habitability of performance have been based on adequate data. Cunningham (1991) in his study of horses found that only by using Timeform data, and measuring groups of half brothers and half sisters could good estimates of performance be determined. His data shows that performance for speed is about 35 o/o heritable. In other words only about 35 o/o of all the variation that is observed in track performance is controlled by heritable factors, the remaining 65 o/o is attributable to other influences, such as training, management and nutrition. Cunningham’s work while limited to horses provides a good basis for understanding how much breeders can attribute to the genetics and the pedigrees.

Researchers have studied this phenomena and have looked for new ways to stimulate individuals in order to improve their natural abilities. Some of the methods discovered have produced life long lasting effects. Today, many of the differences between individuals can now be explained by the use of early stimulation methods.

You can find the full article etc many places. You can read more on my page here: Early Nuerological Stimulation

I do it with all my litters and have good success with them.

I have been using early neurological stinulation with several litters and I believe I can see a positive difference. I like to know 'why' something may work and I've done quite a bit of research on it. Here's a link to some info on my website, if you are interested:
http://www.ravenridgedogs.com/puppies/advantage.shtml