Years ago when I was young we always had German Shepherds, good one & bad ones. When I first married our first dog was from a imported working line of GSD who were trained in Schutzhund. We didn't train ours as such, however I did join the GSD dog club and trained in obedience. It was a great club and the dog was super smart. One wouldn't think so at first though as we had to repeat the first class 2x., then we had to mix it up as he got bored really easily. A working line dog is that..they need to work and are more difficult to train and you must buy from a truly reputable breeder. Even if you do this won't be a dog that can lie around doing nothing all day. You will have to work it and you will need to be his alpha person. He will need to respect you. Once he does you will have the bet dog ever. The vet we used at the time always had a full office, I could take him in there, place him in a down stay, say head down where his snout would go flat to the floor, people could come in and out and walk over him including other dogs and he wouldn't break. My parents had property in NYS at the time and we would go on weekends, and how he loved running off leash up and down the mountain sides never going more than 100 feet from us and having excellent recall, even if a deer poopped out of no where. We lost him at only 7 as he had stomach cancer. I must tell you I put in a lot of work with him back then and honestly never had another dog that I trained as well. I learned a lot from that experience.
Now on another note I have a neighbor who about two years ago bought a beautiful well bred working line GSD, she wanted a pet. She didn't put much training into the dog and had her children walk it around the neighborhood, and basically had it in her backyard. By 8 months she had to regime it. If this is what you want I'd say cool but you must be committed . Just keep in mind that schutzhund training isn't for the inexperienced or non committed as this is protection training. Your dog must always obey your command, so obedience plays a major role. Good luck in your endeavors, you will learn so much.