I wish I had a picture of a dog I used to own years ago. Called him JR.
JR was part timberwolf and part german shepherd and was bred from a fellow near Missoula Montana. He was a beautiful dog. Smart, you wanna talk smart. Out of all the dogs I've ever owned, he's the one I miss.
JR loved kids. Any kid could come right up and pull on his ears and he never once even showed a sign of aggression. However, if you were an adult, he didn't want anything to do with ya. I took him to our family reunion in northern Idaho and unless I was with him, he wouldn't let anyone except the kids come near him.
He was the easiest to train and best trained dog I've ever owned. He healed without a leash and wouldn't bat an eye if an agressive dog came running toward us and he knew there was a fence between us an the other dog. Heck, I could tell him to sit and stay, and it didn't matter where I told him to do it, and three hours later he wouldn't have moved an inch.
JR loved to go with me everywhere I went, and boy could I tell some stories. Anyway, one I'll share is the time I went into the rental center for a tool I didn't have and JR was barking and growling loud enough to where I could hear it inside the store. Now, you have to know that this is something JR never did... so I didn't think it was my dog barking and growling at first. So, I go to the window to take a look, and a lady had parked next to our car and as I looked out, she was slapping a child in the rear seat of her car... JR didn't take kindly to that.
One more story I'll tell, is that if my dog liked (tolerated) you, I liked you. If my dog didn't like you, you weren't my friend as I trusted his since of who was good and who wasn't better than I trusted my own discernment at the time. Anyway, one day me and some friends were sitting on the front lawn when a car pulls up, a man gets out of the car and starts walking up to us. JR, who was laying comfortably a few feet away from me looked up and then put his head back down to rest. It's the most relaxed I had ever seen him with anyone, especially sombody we didn't know... come to find out, the man was a concerned preacher who had gotten my name and wanted to talk to me... He even came up and pet JR, who seemed to enjoy it.
Anyway, hope you've enjoyed the stories as much as I've enjoyed reliving them
John,
Why is your dog on a chain? It looks like you've got a lot of room for him to run.