Fate is the perfect dog for us, she is nuts much of the time, calm when we need her to be, well-behaved and adaptable when it is important. We are way ahead of schedule with her, today we took her out to the deep woods to walk with us, she was off-leash the whole time, she walked alongside Red sometimes, usually right next to Maria. She never wandered more than 10 yards from us, always kept us in sight, kept up with us.

I believe you have to give dogs a chance to succeed, to enter your life and become the dog you need. I think they will do this given the chance, when it is safe and appropriate. Maria can be overprotective, I can be too casual – we compliment one another well. I pushed to let her walk off leash in the deep woods, that was the tradition and habit i wanted to create in Fate’s mind. There were a lot of smells – deer scat, bear tracks, coyote prints – but she kept up with us and had a great time sniffing and eating leaves.

She chased the dry leaves blowing in the wind, and then, exhausted, conked out when we got home.