Ok, I'm on the puter now so going to elaborate. We had a big problem with our dogs chasing cars...neighbors carried their dogs with them all the time and ours got in the habit of chasing because of that. None of ours ever killed anything else. If they had killed chickens or even just eaten the eggs, they would have been done....my dad didn't tolerate that at all. Our dogs were always outdoor dogs (dad didn't believe animals belonged in the house unless it was a frozen calf you were trying to save hehe) We got our 1st GS from a breeder that was trying to sell some kind of insurance to my dad and promised a pb pup if dad would buy...he did, we got the pup, and cancelled the insurance a year later. Our first 4 were fairly young when they got hit by cars...probably not much over 2 years. Then we got Chief...our first white shepherd! He was gorgeous!!! Never killed anything except adult cats. Kittens could eat out of his bowl right next to him, he seemed to understand that they were babies. But grown cats were fair game
White shepherds are also prone to brain tumors. Chief was great with our immediate family. But not so good with anyone else. As long as you completely ignored him, he left you alone. But try and pet him...he'd bite. After we had to put him down (at about 6 years old, I think) we did get another white shepherd. He was a problem from the 1st....we could never really trust him even with us. He was put down fairly young because of it. Having said all that...I would not recommend a white shepherd, although they are gorgeous and I'd love to have another Chief.
German Shepherds were originally bred to be herding dogs (hence the name shepherd). They were bred to be protective and to help the farmer with his animals. We have pretty much bred most of that out of them. But with proper training, there is no reason they couldn't be used for that. I would not hesitate to get a GS for my family and my farm. They are fantastic animals.
