Ok I have to say something nice about German Shepherds. I have read the posts and I keep reading examples of bad temperment. I have owned, trained, shown, and loved German Shpeherds for 19 years. My dogs have never bitten anyone. They are approcable but aloof when you are new to them. My kids grew up with them and the dogs have never been aggresive to the kids. I did have one dog vrs goose incident when a goose who had developed the bad habit of biting and pulling hair out of the dogs went after a new Mom with 11 puppies. The goose bit the dog, as she had done in the past, but the dog heard her puppies crying in the house and killed the goose, one bite no mauling just snap. A good German Shepherd temperment is not vicious, it is not snarling crazy dogs, unless the dog thinks the owner or owners kids are in danger. I We had a female named Claire I raised her from 3 months. When my brother came in to my house drunk at 3 am this dog put herself between me and him, snarling growling and doing her job. When my daughter wanted to sleep in a tent on our property (2 acres) with her friends I said fine. That night I could not find Claire, looked called no dog. I went out with a flashlight calling and heard a rustling in the leaves, there was Claire. She had made a bed for herself half way between the house and the tent. She refused to come in, she simply thought I was nuts to let those kids sleep outside and she was staying with them. This dog had never spent the night outside before, she slept in our house. This is the correct temperment, guarding but not aggresive. now Claire has passed, and we have 3 other German Shepherds who run loose with the chickens and there haves never been any problems. Sorry this is so long I just had to try to stick up for my favorite breed. One more thing my Mother has a dog that has bitten many people, babies to 90 years old. It has attacked my child in my house, it did this in front of a German Shepherd puppy about 5 months old, the puppy went after the other dog. Neither dog was injured and the puppy saved my daughter a bite. My Mother's dog is a minpin, a tiny little thing that looks like a doberman. I have banned that dog from my home. Big dogs are not more likley to bite, they are just more likely to do damage when they do bite.