At the moment neither the house I wanted nor the puppy I wanted seem to be available, so we will see.

I never did formal dog training before, but I have worked with collies and they like to have their mind occupied all-the-time. I figure dog-training would be a social thing for us both. PLUS where I had dogs before was only the occasional upland sheep, mostly indifferent to dogs. Lowland sheep seem to have a death wish (farming people say this not me). If they are herded by an unfamiliar dog they will drown or jump off cliffs en masse in panic.

The only cure for adult dogs with herding habits is to put them with an angry ram. Thus - the dog-let is somehow going to get formal anti-sheep training from week 8 onwards, and I don't care how unnatural people think that might be - it's better than getting shot or gored by a ram.

Lowland sheep are masochistic creatures "by nature", or perhaps they know instinctively that their life isn't going anywhere good. Dogs are herders "by nature". Footpaths with hedges do not have warning notices about where sheep are grazing, hence the dog-let gets trained to "cease", "lie" what have you when ordered.

Collies are unusually happy to train anyways, it's in their nature as working dogs.