I have a book that has a photo of the real Chips. In the film he was played by a handsome German Shepherd. In RL, he wasa setter/husky cross. That dog looked more like a wolf than a wolf! Just a gorgeous animal...
There's a short story called "Home is the Hero" by Corey Ford. It appears in the anthology The Personality of the DOg, ed. Brandt Aymar. It is the worth the effort to track down this story.