I’m wondering if the dog was used for dog fighting.
German Shepards are terrible for pit fighting. They can’t handle the stress on the rear. Believe it or not, the Sharpei is a more common fighting dog.
The extra skin makes it easy to defend against attacks to the rear.
But either way, dog attacks by other dog types DO happen. I mean my god just about 99% of all those little drop-kick dogs just unhinge the moment someone enters the room who isn’t their owner.
most people have no business having a dog. Hell, I rescued a Pug that was mean as the dickens and it took me years of focused attention to turn him around. But he was vicious because he was just locked up in a basement and kicked.
So German Shepards can do it too. But overall German Shepards are unique dogs. Ask the owners - they are almost mind readers. They are very intelligent and if the babysitter was yelling at the kid, or treating it like it didn’t belong the Shepard probably picked up on that and helped the babysitter out.
Dogs are wild animals in about 2 hours. And they shouldn’t be as widely kept as they are.