Actually, that looks more like a “Patiently waiting for the ball to be thrown” stare.
He cares nothing for thrown balls.
That is the infamous “prelude to attack” Dobermann stare.
Prior to that, he was doing the Dobermann “stalk”.
[he was having a stare-down with his arch-enemy...one of my goats, who delights in goading him from the safety of the other side of the fence]
:)