What kind of dog is a German Shepherd?

I went to Seminar last week on dog genetics.  How to look at our dogs differently.  How to size them up. 
Well, interestingly enough, the reason dogs are built certain ways is to do the jobs that they were developed to do. Dogs are divided into catagories or groups ... ie:  working, herding, sporting, toy etc.  These groups give us a hint as to why certain breeds were developed
Our facilitator explained some of this for us and then gave us examples of different breeds and their jobs..
Now, she says...  how many of you know what German Shepherds were bred to do?
We were all seasoned breeders..  We know dogs.  Well let's see...  hmm...shep-herd..
Everyone said herd sheep.  WRONG!  Unlike most herding dogs German Shepherds were never bred to drive the sheep from place to place or round them up in a tight circle.  No No.  German Shepherds were designed to patrol the flock.  It  seems that their bone structure is even different which allows them to take long strides that other dogs their size can't. This enables them to patrol the perimeters and keep preditors at bay.without tiring out.
Well no wonder they make such good guard dogs and search and rescue candidates.
This was quite surprising to the audience at the seminar. So I thought I would share it with you folks.