aidan – Jun 23, 2008 12:00 AM

Welcome back to the logs, we're not sure what happened, but it is repaired now. We have a bit of data to post today, the pups were 8 weeks old yesterday, they gained weight and we have some new measurements. One of our team leaders pointed out that Grizzer's and Maya's body measurements weren't matching Denali and Aidan's. The issue is the change in body measurement positions. After reviewing a few research projects, the standard measurement we agreed upon was to measure the sagittal crest of the pup with the head held down at a 90 degree angle measuring a straight line distance to the base of the tail. In 2004, the measurement was a combination the nose to sagittal crest, the sagittal crest to base of tail and total length of tail. When we total this for Aidan, it measures 101 cm total nose to tail length. Also, even though Aidan is smaller than Denali, he is still larger by age than Grizzer was. Aidan stands 43 cm tall at the shoulder, he has a slimmer frame than Denali and seems to have longer legs. Aidan's video shows the pups on the back side of the pup pen, with Lakota having access to the wolf yard from the back. Lakota is free to walk in and out of the retired enclosure at will, and often comes to check out the pups. If they are too much for her, she goes back to the Retired Enclosure. As you can see, the pups are excited to see her. We do watch the packs response to greetings with Lakota, but so far, as long as she's not physically coming in contact with the pups, they are not defensive.