aidan – May 15, 2008 12:00 AM

Pup # 2 is 18 days old today and has been temporarily nicknamed Attila. We look forward to the name the pup contest and hope people are following the logs to get a sense of the pup’s behaviors and personality. We nicknamed pup # 2 Attila because he has a very feisty personality. He is quick to assert dominance over his more passive littermate, and in the logs from the 13th of May, he snapped at one of the handlers when they touched him. He has also growled at the Wolf Curator, Lori Schmidt, and learned about active dominance and being rolled over in a submissive posture. It is critical that the pups are shown their limits of acceptable behavior. It is better to teach them lessons now, to make them more manageable as adults. Pups will keep testing their limits, and if there is no discipline, they will continue to escalate potentially aggressive behavior. The adult members of a wolf pack would be doing this to their pups, so when humans socialize wolf pups and replace the candid influence, they must assume that role. The pups will be learning this first hand when they join the Exhibit Pack in August. As far as pup management, we are still struggling with the right flow of the formula from the bottle. We have tried several brands, even the models that were preferred by the 2004 litter don’t seem to be favored by these pups. If the pups struggle with the flow of the nipple, they expend a lot of energy that should be going into growing, get worn out and don’t feed. A flow to fast can result in pups aspirating formula, too slow and they give up. There were some issues with the shifts last night, but with perseverance and patience, Attila did consume nearly 25 ounces of formula in 24 hours. This compares with 13 ounces when he was 13 days old. The pups had their first outdoor session in the sun today while the pen was being cleaned.