Take a look at the dog in this picture.

This is Toby, our 3-year-old Chihuahua-mix who we address simply as Puppy. We only refer to him to others by his name. To us he is just Puppy.

He believes he is the baddest pooch on the block. On second thought, he believes he is the baddest pooch of all time. He is fearless. He has no qualms about approaching other dogs — regardless of size or the sound of their bark.

I mention this because Toby the Puppy just came from a walk through the ‘hood with my wife and me. We routinely walk by fenced-in yards that are home to other dogs. They routinely bark, snarl and growl at Toby as we saunter on past. What does Toby the Puppy do?

He wants at ’em. He pulls at his leash as if to tell Mommy and me, “Let me take care of bidness.”

Well, we don’t encourage him. We tell him to “heel.” He complies, generally.

Toby entered our family nearly three years ago. It was love at first sight — both for him and for us.

We learned a couple of things right away about our puppy, who was 5 months old when we took over our household. One was that he had a bark that was much larger than his physical size; he now weighs about 9 pounds, but sounds like a bigger, badder dog than that when he chooses to have his voice heard — which isn’t very often.

The second thing we learned was that he is without fear.

To our knowledge, he has had just one semi-serious altercation with another dog. It was with our next-door neighbor’s pooch, who weighed about 50 pounds. Lily came onto our driveway; she and Toby sniffed each other for a moment then she started fighting with him. Toby gave as good as he got for the second or two they were tussling.

After that Toby and Lily were just fine.

When we visit our son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter in Allen, Toby uses his (lack of) size to his advantage while play-wrestling with Madden, the kids’ hulking black Lab. Toby is fond of avoiding Madden by scooting underneath the big dog, frustrating his pal to no end.

We have joked with those who tell us when they meet Toby, “Oh, he looks just like a German shepherd!” We have answered that he’s a “miniature version” of the renowned breed. A couple of folks have actually believed it.

Toby doesn’t realize he’s a small dog. He’s not supposed to want to tangle with big ol’ pooches who challenge him. As long as he’s on our leash he won’t venture where he shouldn’t go.

He’ll have to be satisfied merely with making his mother and me laugh daily.