That is so frustrating John and dangerous for Minnie at lambling
I'm afraid around stock I would definitely put her on a long lead - sheep are stupid and panic and can easily abort at this time of year and farmers will shoot dogs bothering stock.
Emilyoliver - I agree - with most of the dogs I meet I wouldn't trust them around any stock and would never walk them offlead through any fields.
I know that we can walk him through a field offlead to heal if we need him too - and also through pheasant pens and shoots with hundreds of pheasants which are his hugest temptation. It's not a matter of testing, it's consistent training - especially controlling a chase instinct.
I agree, I'm not saying people should all start walking their dogs loose around livestock at all; for the majority of dogs it's always safest to keep them on lead around livestock or where you might come across livestock as it's just not worth the risk either to them or the other animals.
However, it is entirely possible to train your dog/s to a level where you can trust them around livestock/wildlife/birds, but it takes a huge amount of work and repetition. I can walk all 3 of mine, separately or together, off lead around sheep, cows, horses, deer etc. and they're fine, they're totally not bothered by livestock and don't even really glance at them. As they've all been trained to work/trial they've had a huge amount of focus/control training; it's a matter of constant repetition and practising and proofing it over and over again with increasing distractions and I think this level of proofing is what most dogs don't get as they're not going to be worked/trialled or spend a lot of time around livestock. On the big driven shoot we go to Rodaidh has to go from controlled hunting to walking at heel (off lead) with dozens of pheasants running 10-20 yards in front of him, it's as stimulated and wired as it's possible for him to get but he still listens to me because I train it over and over again and never let him ignore me. Caoimhe was the same with her FT training which was even more demanding, she's rock steady in any situation because she's been proofed over and over again, never had the chance to chase anything or ignore a recall so it never occurs to her to do so. It's a huge amount of work to begin with - I haven't kept a puppy from Caoimhe yet purely because I just haven't had the time to dedicate to training a pup properly in the last couple of years - but it definitely makes life easier in the long run.
It is never too early to start teaching focus and control, that's all I work on from day 1 with my dogs, everything else is built on that foundation and comes later. Gundog training will definitely help put you in the right direction; done properly it will teach you how to get that focus and control and if those are proofed properly and consistently then you'll find everything else falls into place much more easily.