A pit bull named "Jaguar" has been trained to collect his owners' mail at the front gate of their home near Rome, Italy.

Video of Jaguar in action was shared on the 'Jaguar the Pit Bull' Instagram page by his owner Dakota, 25.

The adorable clip is captioned with the message: "We trained our dog to fetch all our packages and it's officially the cutest thing ever."

Dakota, who moved to Italy two years ago with her boyfriend Federico, said: "I've always loved animals and always had a household full of pets growing up. Naturally the first thing I said when we moved was 'OK, we need a dog.'"

The young woman, who lives near the Italian capital of Rome, told Zenger News: "We were looking to rescue a dog and were hunting all over Italy. One day, after an application fell through, this story popped up on Instagram saying there was a puppy that no one wanted in the town next to us."

"I thought 'this is too good to be true,' so we went anyway, and there he was. Jaguar (my dog's name) was completely skin and bone, malnourished, weighing in at 1kg (2.2 pounds), with terrible worms, and he wouldn't drink water.

"We took him immediately, obviously, and he's been an essential part of our family ever since. He is now a chunky 32kg (70.5 pounds) and lives his best life every day. He is nearly 2 years old now, still a massive baby!"

Dakota said: "We started teaching him to collect packages earlier this year, around the time of my birthday.

"I started getting some small cards for my birthday and Jaguar is always so excited when someone arrives at the house so he'd come all the way downstairs while I picked up the mail.

"One day, one of our Instagram dog friends sent us a letter and I thought, 'Oh, wouldn't it be so cute if I got a little video of him carrying it upstairs,' so I gave it to him and sure enough he took it with him all the way up the driveway and upstairs!

"After that, every time we got a delivery, I encouraged him to take it up, and now it's got to the point where he will run down by himself, fetch it, and bring it back up – he then gets rewarded with a handsome snack!

"It's now a whole process. He will hear the doorbell. Go and watch the postman from the balcony. Watch him leave the package inside the gate. Go downstairs. Get the package. Bring it back up.

"It took about four or five packages until he really got the hang of it. Once he left it in the middle of the garden!"

Dakota told Zenger News: "We just train him ourselves at home. During the pandemic, we had a lot of time at home, and as a result he's very well trained and he's a very good boy. He knows all the classic tricks: sit, roll, wait, play dead, leg weave, etc. It's very cute.

"Another sweet fact about Jaguar is that he has a pillow that is literally his best friend. They are always cuddling and he's always falling asleep with it. When he's not fetching the mail, he is definitely with the pillow. He takes it everywhere, even his vet appointments."

This story was provided to Newsweek by Zenger News.

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