I second the obedience training suggestion. Our GSD is almost 2 years old and has been in training since she was 12 weeks old. She is a sweet girl and loves everyone including all other dogs. Part of that is the breed history of her parents and the care of the breeder. Sometimes you do get what you pay for. I believe in rescuing animals, but sometimes there is a good reason they were given up and the owner better have some real training skills to handle it. GSD are not born couch potatoes. They are high energy, smart, and fast growing animals that need lots of love and a firm/consistant hand. We easily spent 20 hrs per week when Kona was a young puppy socializing and training her to get her to the point she is. We still make an effort to take her everywhere we can and expose her to everything we can. It is a life long process with any dog, but with big powerful breeds, its even more important.
We were denied entrance to a park in ID last summer because we had her with us. They do a blanket breed ban that includes GSD. When I found that out, I immediately decided it wasn't the type of park we wanted to stay in anyway. We stayed down the road at a beautiful park and the people at the park loved Kona. When we drove through the park that denied us, we were not impressed anyway.
Now our mini-doxie is another story. She will sneak up on people and bite them in the back of the leg if they have scared her. She doesn't like little kids at all. She barks .... a lot. We got her at 6 mos old from a "breeder" who had her at a show for sale. We were promised she was house trained, socialized, and raised in a house around lots of people. She is timid, nervous, was not house trained or socialized, so you can see how easy it is to be drawn in by a story. This breeder seemed like she knew what she was doing. Her other dogs seemed fine. We know what we are doing raising dogs and she is our third doxie. It should have all worked.... but sometimes they don't tell you the truth or they don't know the whole story with the dog so they can't tell you what you are getting into.
If you want info on GSD and/or the Monks of New Skete breeding program and training program, it is worth checking out. Just Google them. Kona's mother cames from their program. Their training books are good for all breeds.
BTW Crumgater, Kona came from a breeder in Long Beach, WA. They had another litter from the same mom, but different sire the end of July.
Flood Farms Lake Lodge and Barn
Kristy