What do you see in this vid? - Page 9

Koots, that kind of dog is absolutely useless. a few dogs like this, described by you, i did know. after rehoming eventually they were shot, because even for role of watchdogs they was unpredictable and dangerous even for people, who took care about them.
as for your friend's dog, hard to say without knowing dog and his handler. but if a person is able to manage that dog, it's still not bad.
for breeding purpose, i believe breed need dogs like this. way too many soft and submissive GSDs around.
just selection for mating must be done wisely.

Nans, i guess it's all depends on person and how relation with dog have been build.

Valk - this is the ped of my dog bred by my friend (sire is dog I described).  This was not my dog but same ped:

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/dog.html?id=422035-immo-vom-oberwager

My dog was very stable, guidable, clear-headed, had strong nerve, great environmental soundness, and was open/social.   He was a great dog, and went on to become a certified K9 (Victoria, BC).  His handler later moved to Australia & took the  dog with him.  I visited them while on vacation there, many years later, and the dog was a happy-go-lucky guy. 

Point is, even though the sire of my dog had that 'dominance' about him, it did not make my dog like that.   My dog was able to switch handlers when he became a police K9 candidate and perform well with his LE partner.

 

A dominant dog does not have to be an asshole. A dominant dog can also be loyal or gain respect for his handler and walk through fire with his handler. There are levels of resilience and dominance.

Right now I have an incredibly resilient and strong dog that lives for the fight but he is the sweetest, most gentle dog in social situations. He's loyal to a fault. You would never know what this dog is, if you met him on the farmers market.

I grew up with these type of dogs. You can absolutely have a strong dominant yet social dog. They don't have to be assholes! That's what makes a German Shepherd dog what is a German Shepherd Dog.

BE, how is he when he's pushed to do something he absolutely does not want to do?
You are correct, they dont have to be assholes, but, most of them are. It may depend on how they were raised, kennel dogs VS house dogs, how old they were when they come into your life, etc.
Training also has a lot to do with it also...some people cannot train and cause more issues. I have yet to see a genetically true dominant dog that was not an asshole when pushed.

I think genetically dominant dogs raised with a good handler as a pup and who remain with that handler will be much easier to deal with than a dominant dog that goes to a new handler as an adult.

I found the bond between handler and dominant dog is much stronger than less/non-dominant dog. It takes a lot longer to forge, more difficult as others have noted, and a lot more work. The biggest problems are if the handler cannot do what is necessary, or there has to be a handler change, or the handler dies. The dog might never work with anyone else if he/she bonded with the original handler. It's more/different than the one-person dog characteristic that many GSD have.

Add in some true handler aggression characteristics in the dog and the bond is stronger yet when established. The relationship is also a little different (not better or worse, just different).

PS: In case someone new to GSD is reading this now or in the future, not for the faint-of-heart or inexperienced, and not necessary for a GSD to be a *real* (civil/protective/working) GSD.  If not worked properly, can actually be counterproductive.  My personal preference only. There are a lot of people with a lot more knowledge and experience than me on here that do not prefer/like it.
 

handler aggression is total separate trait and do not have affiliation to dominance.

Handler aggression can be the result of many different things including dominance.

well, look at the base - it's nothing else but redirection of dog's frustration to closest object. it's not necessarily should be handler. name come from fact, that person on the another end of leash very often is a person who turned out to be closest one to dog. but often that frustration can be redirected to person, who isn't dog's handler and just happened to be near by. the dog do not discriminate in this case whom to use to discharge itself.
in case of dominance, attack on handler is not redirection of frustration but calculated attempt to solve existed issue. person who holds that leash may consider self to be dog's handler but not necessarily that dog see it same way :)

b.t.w. handler aggression is not curable trait, when the rank's aggression in most cases can be solved.

Handler aggression is a behavior, not a trait, and can have many causes such as frustration aggression, redirected aggression, dominance, unfair training (as the dog perceives it), as well as other factors. You just said handler aggression occurs in dominant dogs and is about rank and can be resolved by approach. The same is true for frustration aggression and redirected aggression.