We adopted two dogs last fall. One, is a German Shepherd. The other is a German Shepherd mix. One came from a rescue group, the other from the pound. Last summer, I had to put down my 17 year old Aussie Shepherd. I got her from the pound when she was 9 months old. She was an AWESOME dog. These two were about a year old when we got them. They have been good so far, but Sheba, she was an awesome dog. We lost our Golden to cancer last Spring. I got her pure bred; was a really good dog too. We did look at the Golden rescues locally before we got these two dogs.
I would definitely look to rescue groups and the pound. Our dogs have been great, and it saved them from what could have been their end. It is acutally really sad how many dogs there are in pounds, shelters etc...