German Shepherd Kept As a Pet, Not a Working Dog

Question
I had a beautiful and sweet German Shepherd dog who recently died.  
I gave him a lots of love, took him for walks, played with him; he was my baby as I had him since 8 wks of age.  He never ate commercial dog food once I learned what might be in them....but the question.  I want another German Shepherd but have been told by a family member that it is cruel to get one if it is going to lie around the house all day and not work as it is a working dog.  I have no small children, am a widow and really can't run with the dog. Any response from you on this?

Answer
I think you need to look at your last dog.  Do you think he was happy living with you and having your attention?  Did he seem restless and need more activity?  If you think your last dog had a good life, why shouldn't another dog be happy living the same life?  One of the best sources for dogs with a predictable personality is the rescue dogs.  These are dogs that lost their home, but were taken into a foster home
to be retrained as necessary and placed in the right home for them.  You may
find a rescue near you starting at http://www.akc.org/breeds/rescue.cfm  The rescues charge a fee to help cover their expenses, but is much less than the price of a puppy plus all its medical expenses the first year.  

I have to agree much of what goes in to commercial dog chows is very unappetizing.  Never the less, dogs eating them thrive.  I have seen thousands of valuable working dogs doing very well on Pro Plan.  I know of even more eating various other common brands.  Much of what you read about dog chows is marketing hype.  You need look no further than the banner ads here to see that alternative dog diets are a big business.  Some of those people will use fear mongering to discredit other products.