I am surprised to learn that I have never had a dog quite like Fate before, and that is a good thing, as she challenges me to be patient, loving, and to learn still more about dogs in general, and this very fascinating breed of dog in particular.

Fate is as close to being a wild animal as she is to being a dog. She has explosive and inexhaustible energy, her senses and instincts are so finely tuned that she can barely focus on what is in front of her for more than a second or two. She is very affectionate, but not in the way of most dogs, she rarely is  still long enough to focus on any one thing or person.

She is bursting with instinct, she is so finely tuned to the world that she will spot a hawk miles away, a dog barking miles down the road, a rabbit moving nearly invisibly through the meadow grass, a mouse running in a corn field. She is obsessively curious, exploring every inch of the house – every wastebasket, package, towel, laundry basket, and for awhile (no longer) counters where food is stored. She knows no boundaries, really, and learns quickly, but only through patient, continuous, clear and relentless repetition.

When they say border collies are not for everyone, they mean it, and it is good to listen. People meet Red and say they’d love to get a border collie, I think they need to see Fate. Yesterday when I pulled into the driveway and opened the door, Maria and Fate were coming out of the house. Fate charged across the yard, leaped through the open door, landed on my chest, setting off the horn, spilling a cup of coffee, careening across the dashboard and nearly coming out through the window on the other side.

Last week, she came dashing into the living room and threw herself up and towards my lap as I mumbled “no jump, no jump!” and she went sailing over me and my chair, bounced off the wall, came around and did it again. I was still yelling “no jump” when she showered my face with licks. Every day she finds a way to empty the contents of the wastebaskets onto the floor in a neat pile. She takes socks and underwear and hides them in different parts of the house. She battles with her squeaky toys for hours. And then, of course she chases sheep, digs holes in the yard, tortures Red, barks at leaves that rustle in trees.

This has all thrown many of my cherished training notions into a heap, that is good for me, that is how one learns. I try not to be shouting at her all the day, to be flexible. I am giving in on the wastebaskets, she does no harm and it is easy to put the tissues back in. I want to focus her energy and spirit, not quash it. It is so easy to screw up a border collie, I can testify to that, I will not ever do it again.

The crate is an invaluable training tool, as always. It gives her time to be calm and center, to be with herself, to rest and absorb the many sights and sounds of of the day. When she gets too excited, too aroused, too crazy we just say “crate, Fate” and she rushes in and lies down. She needs that time in there. So do we. So does almost any dog in need of boundaries and calming and training.

Fate loves every single thing in the world. On her walks, she jumps and hops joyously through the meadow. She loves every person she meets, nearly melting into the ground at the sight of the carpenter working on a barn down the road, or our UPS man Bernie.

Day by say, she changes. She gets calmer, She stays down longer, she is more affectionate and focused. But she remains explosive and intense. She will probably stay that way. Our herding is going very sell, she is coming into herself. Her amazing spirit and curiosity and love of the world is intact and preserved, I never want to train her by breaking her or intimidating her, not that this seems possible. I am learning to love a dog in a new way, my other border collies have been different. Rose was a calm professional, focused and business like. Izzy was like a lab. Orson was damaged.

I appreciate the opportunity she is giving me to learn and grow, to make mistakes and fix them, to try new things that work, to find yet new ways to communicate with this extraordinary creature. I am speaking to her more and more in images and visualizations, her mind is so fast-moving this is hard, but it is happening. She shows love indirectly, not like a Lab, she shows it by her presence and attention, her occasional and brief outbursts of joy and love. She checks on me continuously, she waits for me on our walks, she watches to see if I put my pasture boots on. This is how border collies love.

I love to watch the bonding going on between Maria and Fate, Fate eagerly trots off to Maria’s studio all day to have some calm hours, to soak up a different vibration, a different set of emotions. Fate is one of the great dogs, it will be such a joy watching her spirit evolve. I am planning a therapy dog visit with Red this week, and this much is clear: Fate will not ever be a therapy dog. She lives in a different realm.

Border collies are  definitely not for everyone, they are very definitely for me and for Maria. How grateful I am to the loving and empathetic spirit of Karen Thompson, I am not sure I can ever get a dog from any other place.