"Bravo! Want on my GSD ping? :D "
Sure.
I love them. Also coonhounds and Irish Setters, but they are nowhere near GSD in the brain department.
"While closing a glass-pane door on them when they ran out to fetch a toy we'd toss into the opposite room, the Borders would just sit at the door and hope you'd let them back in. My Shana then encountered the closed door when fetching - and promptly turned tail and ran around the other long way thru the house to get back to us in our room!"
The Border collies and dogs like them are good at learning to do what they are taught. Presented with something unanticipated, they might be befuddled. A good German Shepherd can recognize a new problem and figure it out.
Police work, rescue work, military work, guide dog - they all excell at it. Maybe they have more wolf blood in them than most other breeds - I think wolves are smarter than most dogs. They have to be to survive.
Anyway, you knw how you have a "picture" in your mind for most words? When I close my eyes and think "dog", pop!! up comes a picture of a German Shepherd - all the time.
I can't say for sure about lots of breeds, because I've never lived w/them (well, not that I recall - my family had a string of loser dogs - no GS - before I was really senscient), and only actually experience others in limited amounts. As it is, they wowed me as a child (seeing K-9 come to our school for demos) and I've been stuck on them since! I've had a total of 4 purebred GS (1 other was a fake - shows you how much AKC papers are worth), 3 of them for significant time. My older sister got the "bug" well after I obtained my beloved Shana (pure GS #2, 1st registered); she's had 4 also by now (and to think she thought she might want to try a Bichon Frise - LOL).
It wasn't enough to have the police demo impress me. Finding out the history, and looking around - not only does the GS do everything now, it really *started* that everything, too. As a utility & versatility lover, I can't beat that and so, can't get past the GS and never will get over it. ;-)