Karen Thompson just graciously sent me the latest photo of our new pup, Fate, curled up in the lap of Ginny, one of Karen’s closest friends. A cuddle-bug, for sure, you can only imagine Fate and Maria together, that will be a joy to see, I’m lucky if Maria will remember what I look like. We put off getting the pony Chloe for a week or so, want to make sure we can focus on acclimating the new resident of Bedlam Farm.

Fate is nine weeks old, she is a purebred border collie, her litter-mate Corbin is on the left. You can see a bit more of Fate here on YouTube. She was going somewhere else, but there were some changes in plans and she became available at precisely the same moment I e-mailed Karen asking her help in finding a dog for us. Fate is the right name for her. I had the strongest feeling it would work out with her, and it did, better than I could even have imagined.

This is really the dog for Maria, I can feel it, and for me and the farm as well. Red will make a great big brother and will teach her a lot of things. Maria and I will train her together. I love border collies, they have been my main dogs for some time now and I’m glad Maria will also get to experience the wonder of this amazing working breed.

We are heading to Virginia Saturday afternoon, after I teach my class at Hubbard Hall. It’s a nine-hour haul, we are staying with a friend in Bucks County, Pa. Saturday night, then heading to Karen Thompson’s farm Sunday morning. We will spend a few hours there, and break for  home. I imagine we will end up staying somewhere Sunday night, either with friends or at a motel. Red is coming along, Karen is eager to see him, I am sure he will be happy to see her again.

I am excited about meeting her, she is a great and wonderful friend, a dog angel, a wonderful place to get a dog, she has been breeding for nearly 40 years, she knows her stuff. I’ve been watching videos of Fate (that was not her name originally, I think) and I love her very loving disposition and her blue Merle eye.

Karen has been working with her and training her, and we have several crates set up already. She will spend nights in her crate downstairs for a  couple of months at least, I imagine she will make her way upstairs and perhaps into bed sometime in the winter. Crates are a huge part of my puppy training program, we will housebreak her quickly, I imagine in a day or so. We will feed her in her crate, then walk her in a few minutes, praise her when she goes. There will be toys in the crate but very few in the house.

Border collies (and Labs) know how to do everything but nothing, and that’s what I want her to do in the house and Maria’s studio – nothing.  The first thing I train working dogs to do is nothing, to be calm. That’s the first s tep. It’s easy to make a working dog nuts by over-stimulating it, turning them into ball or frisbee addicts or junior wrestling champions. Dogs have enough prey drive generally, I don’t encourage them to use it when they are in the house or we are working. Playing happens outside.

I will start training her immediately, but mostly in name recognition and recall. I don’t start the more advanced stuff until she has the attention span and focus for it, I’ll know it when I see it. We will immediately take her on our morning walks, there are safe and protected places in the woods where I will work with her off-leash once she has attached to Red and knows Maria and me.

Next week we will actively begin socializing her, bringing her into stores and shops in town, walking her near traffic, driving her around the town, inviting some puppy cuddlers over to help acclimate her to different kinds of people. The worldview of dogs is pretty much formed in 12-14 weeks, we have some good work to do. Training for her will be fun, focused, short and very positive.

Can’t wait. I can see she is affectionate, loves people, and pays attention to her environment. Training a dog like that is nothing but a joy.