it’s been like half a month Mina, my rottweiler cane corso mix, and I have been sharing my room
here are my impressions
the day I took her in my car for a ride home, I had her in the crate
and she “sang” the whole time, she was sad she was leaving here mother/siblings
she even growled at me
that first night she was constantly making sounds, howled too
but I just ignored it… I managed to sleep maybe a few hours
then there were problems regarding the toilet
I decided I’ll give her my whole room so she can run freely
but I had to put newspapers and other material on the floor to protect it from the droppings
needles to say, I’m REALLY looking forward to the day she is potty trained
she used to go like 6 times a day at first but now, she does it much less
and I figured out that she pees as soon as she wakes up
so after each meal, play session or sleep I take her out and hope she does her thing outside
now, I notice when she goes to the wall and turns a bit… I know she has to go and I take her outside
I decided to use only positive training so at first I would let her do whatever she wanted because she was so little, only a month old
but then when I saw her mental status got better I decided it was time to stop her chewing my leg, hands
and discipline her
whenever she took a bite at me I would make a noise as if it was hurting me (ouch), then say no! and if she was really into it I would gently shake the skin on her back
few days later she doesn’t bite any more
if she’s really excited she nips my pants, maybe growls a bit but she lets go as soon as I tell her
and you couldn’t give her affection because she used to bite your hand
now she doesn’t bite as before but she still uses her mouth a lot
I’m working to suppress that behavior
I have an older, male dog and a cat
the cat is always attacked by Mina and the cat strikes back
but since Mina is so persistent the cat usually just climbs somewhere Mina can’t get her
my older dog just avoids her… he’s serious, calm but if Mina goes over the limit he growls at her
and if she tries to steal his food he becomes really vicious
he hasn’t bitten her but I approve of this behavior, Mina must know her place in the family pack
and her place is at the bottom… maybe a spot above the cat
the sooner she learns that the better
we all love her but that’s it
she loves to play with empty aluminum beer cans, loves to chew on the bones, natural ones
she doesn’t like pet shop bones
I keep a collar on her and I started teaching her walking with the leash
in like a week I plan to socialize her with my Zastava Fan Club friends
she’ll meet a lot of people and I hope that will help make her a stable dog
I gave her deworming pills twice, the first day she got here and yesterday
lets just say she needed it
Monday, she goes to get her first shot… she’ll be a month and a half old
she likes to eat… a lot
I feed her Royal Canine food for puppies less than 2 months old
and I also give her table scraps, milk, bread… she’ll eat anything
I call her a tank because she’s built like a tank
heavy bones, big body
she resembles a small bear
I also call her piranha and a shark because of her biting
she started going out a lot more
the weather here got better, snow melted and she enjoys my back yard a lot
I plan to keep her in my room while the temperatures are lower than like 10 degrees Celsius and once it becomes warmer to let her live outside
she also has to get a bit bigger since I don’t want her sneaking out of my backyard because she is small
