I 100% agree with Basis that the pen is a fundamental flaw to Sheep Tag and I have long argued such (and thus was one of the major reasons I preferred "Survival" mode on Bulldog over normal ST). I am not alone.
Here's a thread from two years ago where Hawkys was trying to implement the same system as Basis.
Here's another where Beer suggested removing saving on Shoop's behalf. I've also discussed the idea with Drew, but I'd need to reload my logs and don't want to bother. I seem to recall the idea popping up many, many times.