Banksy is 4 1/2 months old. She can walk further and faster and is mostly very trustworthy off her leash or just dragging along her line. Or sometimes, like today, she took herself down a steep path to the pond. Oh boy does she love ponds and creeks and the beach. Then she’s back on her rope. We go some places with all of us, sometimes some places just with Otterpop or Gustavo, and sometimes just me and her. I try to do things different every single day.

When she’s alone, she gets startled easy, a motorbike popping around the corner or a guy walking by with a shopping cart. We’re working on the startles, but I think it’s just how she see’s the world. Her view is very micro, on me and the other dogs and her toy, and then when it zooms out, she’s all WHOA, before she settles in to the new picture. I think it’s her eyes that make her like that, boy are those eyes something.

We do a lot of crate games, a lot of circle work. A lot of running. Wow, do we run. She runs on my left, she runs on my right, we run in circles and straight lines and with the toy and without it. Banksy really likes to run. I like to run too, if it’s with Banksy. The awesome things about border collies are running and tugging. Until they plop down under a tree for a minute, to get ready for more running and tugging. She does some ball chasing, but maybe not too much. Because she’s already really, really good at that. That’s like her desert, chase the ball a few times and call it a day.

We do a lot of what might be like heeling. It’s close and side, she walks in tight to me and we pivot around and do sits and releases and this is how she eats most meals. We walk around the neighborhood and the forest and anywhere I can think of, me and her, walking and jogging and starting and stopping. She doesn’t eat out of bowls, it’s always walking somewhere, we try to go somewhere new every single day. She doesn’t fit in my yard anymore, there’s no space to move, so our show goes on the road every single day. We play at work, at the school yard, on the beach, in the woods, at the agility field, in vacant lots. I’m hoping the meals on the run someday prevents her from pulling me around when she has to wear a leash, we’ll find out someday when it’s the future. It’s a nice way to have a dinner if nothing else.

The more we’re on the move, the less time she has to stare at dust. I made it my mission to just not let it happen, the super freaky super dust staring. So that’s what we do. She stares at the floor, I find her something else to do, even if it’s just go snuggle up in a crate with a bone or have me teach her how to make burritos and coffee. She loves to stare, but she loves to do other things too. I’m hoping she ends up learning how to cook, a dog that can make coffee would be a really, really, really good dog.

She learned to swim to the bank of the swimming hole, although she needs more practice on this one. She just likes to be wet and muddy, swimming isn’t a priority right now.

Banksy is a really, really good puppy. I can’t believe she didn’t always live with us. And I can’t believe how she’s growing and learning and changing every single day. She fits in so easy with the other dogs, Otterpop loves her, Gustavo will play with her for hours, and she’s gentle with Ruby and will sit quietly with her during quiet time. The other dogs forgot she didn’t used to live with us, they didn’t always have this wild, godzilla size puppy who still can’t jump up in the car all by herself, slamming around the yard with them.

I don’t know what our future brings. For now we just run around and play and get good at playing. She doesn’t do anything very fancy. She’s just getting good at being a really, really good puppy.