Bravo! Want on my GSD ping? :D
As for "pits", I don't know for sure but all the time I've had discussions or done some research (this was subject of an English paper I did in college - 13 years ago), I've never quite seen Bull Terriers lumped in w/the others. While I think they may all be related and all had more or less the same background (as did the Bulldogs, let's not forget that), they are definitely distinct in type w/their big roman-nosed heads. I don't see them pinned too much as "pit bulls", altho I'm sure the fraidy-cat fools running around Joe-Schmoe Land would be glad to lump them in if you tell them they were made to bait bulls.
Again to the GS - yes, I think you're possibly correct. Well, at least my most beloved dog ever was the perfect GS, and amongst other things she showed herself probably smarter than a whole pack of Border Collies (literally). She outsmarted them as a youngster in their own home (my aunt's) - as if she knew it better and how to exploit it better than they! 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!
"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.