Creative or Clueless?

I have a ewe in a headgate as she rejected her lamb. Each day I turn her loose for a bit to move around the barnyard while I clean the pen she is in. After I'm done I use a dog to bring her back into her stall. I'll usually pick up the lamb first as he is devoted to his uncaring momma and stays tight with her. She will gladly tromp right on top of him. Naturally the ewe does not much want to come back to the stall. The gate I need to get her through is right next to another open shed which she would like to duck into enroute to her prison. This second shed is a small quonset hut style metal building, with a single small lambing pen set up inside along the wall. The lambing pen creates a pocket in back so sheep that go in can get into the pocket where a dog can't well get around them. Indeed a ewe truly determined to thwart a dog can then squeeze into the narrow slot between the curved shed wall and the side of the lambing pen, which is exactly what this girl did. There she stood wedged in the narrow slot where I'm storing a couple bales of straw.

So I'm standing there with her lamb in my arms trying to figure out how to extract her. Levi, who was trying to get around her when she stuffed herself into this final tight spot, is also exploring his options. He quickly flips out around the pen to where he can be in front of her, but immediately realizes that the pen prevents him from getting close enough to move her. So he returns around the back of the pen, comes in behind her, jumps over her and lands on a bale of straw in front of her. He spins to face her and drives her out. This all happened in a matter of seconds.

How does he think of these things? I've seen Levi jump a bale of hay landing between the llama's legs to lift a ewe in tight quarters. I've seen him launch himself onto the backs of the sheep to get the front sheep moving when they hit deep snow and stalled. He has hopped into the fenceline feeders and trotted along in the metal tray when the sheep were pushed up too tightly for him to squeeze in otherwise. Do farm work with Levi and you get these fairly regular shows of very unusual work. I do not consider him to be an unusually talented dog, nor particularly bold or determined. He's plain as dirt in his work style. Yet he has this free thinking mind that is always engaged. I don't know that he'll ever be much of a trial dog. He's my best dog for most farm work despite his difficulty stopping and staying put. I just like him, like his mind, like living with him, and like doing the farm work with him. I suspect he'll stay regardless of his future as a trial dog. I don't think I could part with him.