[fabsroman]

Nice looking dog. What is the "clothing" on him and what is it for?

The last time I saw a chain like that in the presence of a dog was when I went to deliver a personal injury check to a young boy for a dog bite. From the file, I knew his parents' dog, Zeus, and the neighbor's dog got into a fight on his parents' property (i.e., the neighbor's dog was loose), and the neighbor's dog ended up biting his hand. As I was walking up to the front door, I thought I had met Zeus, a little puppy Mastif. Nope, that wasn't Zeus, that was Zeus' son. Turns out that the pup's mother was in the house. Well, not too worried about the puppy, I started walking up to the front door. That is when I met Zeus and I thank God that the chain held. He came from around the back of the house and I was truly scared. I knew I couldn't make it back to the car in time, so I waited for the encounter. Then he hit the end of the chain. The puppy, all of 50 lbs started barking at me at that time too. So, I went back to the car and beeped the horn. The kid's father came out and told me it was fine. Once inside, I found out that Zeus' chain was tied to an oak out back and that he had broken the chain a couple of times. Based upon the size of the dog, I was surprised that he hadn't pulled the tree out of the ground. I was also suprised that this 8 year old kid survived trying to break up the dog fight and that the neighbor's dog actually lived through it. Obviously, I politely asked the kid's father to walk with me to my car. That was a scary day.