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Only one other thought: Given the litigious nature of America (I am an American, by the way), does having a rare breed bring you any possible legal liabilities as a business owner? I am not, repeat, not a lawyer, but you might want to ask one about this. If your dog ever bit anybody, no matter how justified, I wonder if he couldn't get a lawyer to portray your dog as some sort of vicious South African land shark. I think you'd have the same problem with a Pit Bull, for example, no matter how well trained it was or how justifiable the bite. From the other direction, a dog like a rough collie might bring you an advantage. I think a criminal would probably be intimidated enough by a collie baring his teeth, but a jury is highly unlikely to think of "Lassie" as vicious and perhaps likely to assume that if "Lassie" bit somebody, it must have been provoked. I'd think a GSD would be somewhere inbetween the BB and the Collie. I also mention this because I think there might well be a difference for you keeping a dog in your house and one that's associated with a business. Just an opinion. I'm curious, though, and might post a question about that on the board.

Cheers!
Don

DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer, I do not know the law, and this is absolutely not to be considered legal advise whatsoever, this is my observation of a K9 officer that authored a book and my ideas on what I would do if it was me <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I read a book while I was at Borders one day written by a K9 officer, he basically explains in the book that the only reason the book exists is because its a complete training diary of his K9 partner, and that if his dog was ever put into question in court by someone that is contesting the dogs training - that he has a full log of all his dogs training to prove to the courts that he has a stable well (and properly) trained K9 dog. I think if you can come accross to the courts that you're a responsible competent dog owner and demonstrate that your dog isn't a vicious dog that hates everybody (videos of social interaction with the dog, playing with kids, family, being a friendly calm dog, video of the dog working obedience around public, videos of control work etc) then you are less likely to have problems. If you come into court wearing torn jeans and a wife beater, missing a few teeth n a straw hat n a photo of your pitbull shredding a car tire with a 3 year old in the background hiding in a corner shaking, then tell the judge "yer honor, that guy had a gun n ma girl "demon <beep>" bit the living <beep> outta that <beep> n he <beep> well deserved what he gots!" then well... you know how that ends <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />