I call Fate the Pirate Dog now, she is beginning the adolescent phase of the well-bred and very instinctive young border collie, otherwise known as the hell phase. She grabs things, jumps on things, knocks things over, gets distracted, challenges us. We have about six more months of this to endure, we will respond with love, patience, clarity and thoughtful training.

We are both quite mad about Fate, assuming we survive her. She lives above the laws of nature, obedience and physics, she is four or five times as challenging as any border collie I have known, and I have known some pretty wild ones. When she finishes herding, she jumps into the water bowl, drinks, paws at the water spills it, and then pees into it.

Sometimes she looks at me, and says “make me.” Sometimes I do.

A training challenge, we change the water several times a day. I tell her every day that she is a pirate dog, it’s a good thing she is cute and we are crazy.