this time it’s for real, we got shot by our national TV crew

here’s the link

Mina at about 7 months old

here are Mina’s siblings at two months old

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