My neighbor had a Rottweiler he bought for his kid when the kid was three. Brandon(the kid) and Bo(the dog) were attached at the hip from then on. Bo made a good dog for Brandon, he was durable and put up with all kinds of roughhousing. He was an enthusiastic but occasionally misguided bird dog. And Bo forbid any kid beat up Brandon.
When Brandon had to go to school my neighbor set up a run for Bo. 1/2 inch galvanized cable strung between two large maples about 150 feet apart, a big block to run free on it, and 5/16 proof coil chain to Bo's collar.
Our neighborhood has the misfortune of being directly between the High School and the Trailer Park. right smack in the middle of a two mile walk for the kids. And to further misfortune cutting through my neighbor's property can save them about half mile of that walk.
Most of the kids were decent enough about it. They ignored the "No trespassing" signs but didn't damage anything. But a select few saw the rottweiler and just had to throw stones at him. My neighbor tried to dissuade them of this notion at first with strong words and then with something more severe and then back to strong words after the sheriff Explained to him that while he agreed that brown rice and rock salt was less than lethal you still couldn't shoot highschool kids with it.
any how this continued for a year or two until Bo finally busted that chain and made an awful mess of the kid. It didn't kill the kid,,, quite.
Putting that dog Down really pissed me off.
in any event I don't think it's good form to go poking or throwing stones just for the sake of throwing them.
