Very protective dog

[nononono12]

So we have a Lakeland x Staffy (we think) seen him for sale on gumtree when he was 11 weeks old and he looked so sad. So we bought him, went to collect him and was slightly concerned as he didn't behave like a normal puppy- playful, excited. He was sad and quiet so we bought him. He took a few weeks to come out of his shell and start acting how you would expect a puppy of that age to behave.
He is now almost 2 and is a absolutely brilliant dog. But we have concerns about what his early life was like. He has the best personality is so so loving, very loyal and protective. But he HATES any kind of play fighting. Me and DH often mess about, ticking etc and he ALWAYS places himself in between us and gets very agitated and obviously upset. Obviously there is no violence in this house so makes us think it's something he remembers from when he was a pup. Is this possible?
Have no concerns with him, he doesn't get aggressive etc but we have had a few dogs and never seen this before. He is very friendly and loving and also very needy, for example if your petting him and stop he kind of slaps us with his paw to get us to keep petting him 😂
Just makes me sad to think of him having a difficult start to life. Here is a pic of our baby boy

Also if anyone has any ideas of what breed he might be it will be very helpful. We bought him and was told he was a Lakeland x but wasn't told what he was crossed with, we since think it might be staffy as his head is like a staffy. And his tempremant is very staffy like, But still unsure.

I'm not a dog trainer so can't comment on his behaviour, but as far as my understanding goes, shaggy fur is recessive. Staffs are smooth coated so he's unlikely to be half staffie. Maybe a quarter?

More pix would help efforts at breed ID - which isn't too tricky with a first cross, but gets more questionable with a proper mongrel.

Standing between dogs in conflict is a natural behaviour. If you see dogs fighting (hopefully not!) another dog will go and stand very still between them and often the fighting dogs will turn away and stop.

Very common behaviour.

I would not be looking at your dog with sorrow but I would be looking at him and being delighted to see his emotional intelligence.

However as he feels responsible for calming your behaviour and is misunderstanding your OH and your actions it may be kinder to try to avoid this behaviour in front of him.

He is a very handsome boy

Here is another pic after a cut

Yeah it's possible he has more than 2 breeds through him..

We don't play fight anymore near him as we didn't think it was fair for him to get so anxious over it.

My girl jrt is like this. She also does not like me playing tug or anything boisterous with with boy jrt ( Who is very playful) and will tell him off with a bark or try to get inbetween us which upsets him. I now give her a chew in another room if we play so as not to upset either of them.

@Willowwarble

We have another dog- a girl terrier mix. And he's the same when I'm playing with her and she's tugging on a toy or growling (playing) he jumps right in between us and barks to warn her off. He is very very protective in all ways. If someone new comes into the house he will sit on my feet and not move till their gone.