A shepherd can quickly figure out its role and who he is. With children? Like most creatures they know what children are... and yes, the stupid ones should be kept away from children.
Shepherds are VERY smart and very adaptable. I believe they are the smartest of all breeds due to their ability to pick up words and their meaning for a limited vocabulary.
The killer dog shepherds from the war? (Or training?) Still smart enough to know their adopted family during and after retirement from service.
All in all, they are great!
The story I got was a friend of his brought back one of the SS dogs for god knows what reason after the war. Dunno how or why. They had him at a logging camp here and the dog was fine. Gramps ended up getting him from the ex GI and slowly worked him into the family.
It was before my time so I’m gust going by what I was told.