The conformation breeders have gotten pretty nutty. Deposits, spay-neuter agreements, co-owner agreements, all sorts of weird stuff.
I haven't seen this with the performance breeders . . . YET. Most of them are quite sensible, even the top-flight breeders. I got a nice (if crazy) pup from probably the best breeder of field trial Labs in the country. It was very straightforward, we just corresponded and shook hands on the deal. Only requirement was to use the kennel name in her registered name.
It wasn't anyone's fault that she turned out to be EIC Affected. There was no genetic test for that condition until she was two years old. So I spayed her. She's still a very nice (if crazy) Lab, the retriever judges absolutely love her because she has that elusive quality called "style". Control, however, is still an issue!
Lucky you! German Shepherd people are nuts no matter what stripe of the many varieties there are. Since I disappeared from the dog world for a while I’m not sure who started it. My sister (RIP) and I both got GS starting in the ‘80s and had no problems though I went to AmShow and she went WorkingGerman lines. 15 years later everything was a pain, though she was sort of lucky because she used the son of her old breeders who was still sort of laid back. But now every Euro and American type demands this and that, especially money. I refuse to down-pay on a non-existent dog I may not like and may never get, anyway. Why should I lose money when I find a real dog elsewhere I like better?