Does your dog keep the family together on outings?

They might we had this shepard mix (his name was Little Rock, isn't that cute??) that lived next door when I was growing up and he used to follow the kids when they were out playing--like a doggie parent, LOL!! But, I think you've got a special girl there. 

When Alex and I go out with Maze and she's off leash running around Maze has to know where both of us are. And if we separate,  she'll hunt either of us down and lead us back together. It's handy when I lose Alex. Lol. Oh and Maze is Black Lab/Border Collie. Also a herding breed so maybe so.

 Uh....No.  As long as someone is near him, he's fine.  And by near I mean within eyesight.  Behind a tree is no good, but across a field is just fine.  I'm sure Kali could lead him off for miles if I wasn't watching.  Onyx might be different, but she is obligated to go where the Beast goes.

Casey likes to 'check in' with me when we're at the park. He'll come over to me every now and then just to say 'I'm still here, everything good mom?' I think it's a dog thing =]

The dog I had before Max, if he was off leash, would constantly turn around and look to make sure we were right there behind him. If he thought he was too far ahead, he'd stop and wait for us to catch up with him.  Max??  If he spotted a squirrel, he'd be in the next county before he noticed I wasn't there.

Joyce

 Ben never drifts too far, he likes to check in and know where both of us are.  He also keeps us both busy because he HAS to alternate between us for who throws his ball, so neither one of us is really allowed to stray LOL.  Daft dog.

 No Bugsy's great need is to be first so I guess he does need to know you are behind him - although when he is on a trail he is lost to his nose - thus never off leash on trails - and I am not sure that he would realize or care that we weren't still behind him

It could very well be the German Shepherd part.  I don't know too many GSDs that aren't reliable off leash and stick fairly close to their people (not in heel, but often going forward and circling back periodically).  Kenya is reliable off leash and usually stays within 30 feet of me, usually out ahead but then she waits for me to catch up or circles back.  If someone or something approaches she looks to me and moves in closer.

Coke...you give him a 20 foot line and he goes for 21 feet!  He definitely alerts to things, even alert barking, but he doesn't "check in" like Kenya does.

 Neiko does this too - ever since he was a puppy. I have rarely had him on leash when out hiking. When we go on family camping hiking trips we all walk kind of spread out (8+ people). He will run to the front, check on those people, run to the middle, check on them, run to the back and so on. He'll usually wait for stragglers too before he runs off again.

When he was just 8 weeks old, I took him on a walk with some friends of mine at a park (off leash). You could see him counting the people in our group making sure we were all accounted for as we walked along. It was amazing that an 8 week old puppy would be doing this but it was so obvious. There was no mistaking what he was doing.

I've seen GSD do this too. A friend of mine used to take his 2 GSD with us when we'd go mountain biking. One of the dogs (Loopy) would ALWAYS make sure that I was still coming before she'd run off to play. She'd run and play, then come back on the trail and wait for me. She'd look at my friend then at me to make sure we were somewhat together.

I think it's a part of herding dog behavior. Trying to keep the group together.