We spent some time this week preparing for Fate, who we shall meet on Sunday afternoon at Karen Thompson’s farm in New Kent Virginia. Here’s what we did. We took out and cleaned two crates. The one above is going in Maria’s studio, right between the window and Maria’s desk.

She has a soft teddy bear and some hard puppy bones to chew on. With crates, we throw a few treats in the crate for the puppy to find, so she will want to go inside and see it as a safe and comfortable place. We have another crate downstairs in the farmhouse by the door.

We will most likely move a third crate up to the second floor once Fate is house and crate broken. People are e-mailing me all kinds of noxious sprays to put around the furniture legs to keep dogs from chewing on them, but I don’t use any of those. I don’t allow puppies to chew on furniture or things that are not their own. For the first month or so, Fate will either be outside, in her crate, or with Maria or me.

We don’t let puppies run around unsupervised, it leads to all kinds of bad habits – foraging for food, chewing on furniture, shoes, clothes and other habits that can simply be avoided. Fate will get plenty of exercise and stimulation outside of the house and in, she doesn’t need to wreak any havoc. There will be plenty of good things for her to gnaw on when she wishes, and not many puppies get to curl up in a crate with a hand-made quilt by a well-known fiber artist.

I have a six-month supply of puppy food stores in empty garbage cans in the basement, protected from dogs and mice. We have about a half dozen rubber and chew toys, several bags of training treats. After a month or so, all toys will be removed from the house, the house is place for work and quiet, not for dog craziness.

Border collies know how to do everything but nothing, that is the first training challenge. Then we’ll get on to socialization and basic obedience. Sometime Tuesday or Wednesday, Fate will get to the hardware store, the book store, the Round House Cafe, the bead store and George Forss’s art gallery.

She will join us on our walks up Macmillan Road, into the woods, down to the park. We’ll keep her away from sheep for now. I think that’s it. First night, we’ll walk outside, stop giving her food or water after 5 p.m., put her in the crate. We’ll take her out five minutes after eating, and then again an hour later, then she’s in for most of the night. We will not respond to any yowling or whining, she only gets out of the crate when she is quiet. When you lose that battle, you lose a big one that is very hard to change. We won’t lose that battle.

The crate is essential to training puppies to be housebroken, calm and to develop what I call a spiritual grounding that invites calm. Outside, we can have a blast, there are not too many rules.

So I think we are ready. Fate will spend much of her life in Maria’s studio, in the fenced in dog area that surrounds it, and in our home. She will go lots of places, meet a lot of people. I’ll share the journey, there and back and beyond.