WOnder if anyone can help.

I was walking my GSD this morning with another dog on our usual walk. she normally runs off chasing rabbits not to any success, however today there were sheep in the woods (not a normal occurance) and before we had a chance to put the dogs on the lead instinct kicked in and she started chasing the lamb, which looked to be a few months old..

Whilst she chased the lamb she kept nudging it always looking to get to the side of it, by the time i caught up with her, the lamb was sitting against the wire fence quite calm and my dog was just standing there.

Obviously I was relieved that nothing untoward had happened to the lamb as I am quite aware that should the farmer had seen this, she may not be here now... However at the same time I was surprised that nothing terrible had happened.

She came to me straight away and I put her on the lead and took her away from the Lamb and watched it walk off an join its mother..

What I would like to understand out there from anyone who has a GSD, is this 'normal' herding behaviour for GSD? Not that I want to encourage it in any way shape or form, but I am interested to understand why she did not attack the lamb!

I know nothing specifically about GSDs but predatory chasing (which is what you dog was doing) is an instinct reaction made up of several parts. From sighting the prey, stalking, chasing, catching, killing and finally eating. Depending on what is required from a particular breed, parts of the sequence have been bred in or out although many dogs still retain all or some of the basic instincts regardless of breed. So it may be that your dog has the sight, stalk and chase part of the sequence, but not the catch, kill, eat part. As you dog caused no physical harm after the chase I would say you should be able to habituate him to sheep reasonably easily.

Thanks Lucy, I was aware of the sequence and having seen her catch a rabbit, this was what surprised me in a good way that no harm had been done to the lamb.

I would never have forgiven myself.

Obviously I will not put her in a position where this can happen again, was just interested to understand if this was normal behaviour in a dog as far as I know has not been trained to 'stand guard' as it were over a sheep...

I believe pastoral dogs are likely bred to tend to stick, rather than snap bite like a JRT killing squirrels & rats etc. I think this article explains what happened How do I stop my dog chasing? – David Ryan CCAB
BC's and pointer type dogs, stand off because they're bred to stop at a stage in predatory chase sequence. The lamb probably got lucky because it moved to the fence and stopped moving.

Hence training required to make GSD security dogs, take ppl on.

The real problem is that she is ‘insufficiently’ trained for her to both express her needs (chases) and recall during any inappropriate chases, so it’s a matter of training her to recall from chases if and when you want/need giveing her the reedoms of her genetic expression, see the vid below that’s good cross section demo of the freedoms a dog gets with recalls from a variety of chases.

YouTube - E-Collar Trained Dog. Multiple Game Chase Recalls, Emergency Recall, Aggressive Incident Recall etc
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The OP didn't ask how to proof the dog against chasing sheep.

I have trained my dog from puppyhood not to chase various things, though he gets very tempted by squirrels, partly as it was allowed by another. Anyway, I have got a good "Stop!" on my dog, by playing with him, and capturing it. That together with solid recall, lets me interrupt a squirrel herding session.

When I let him do it, as a birthday treat, he overtook them and would stop them going up their destination tree. So if you work on it and practice, I'm sure a GSD can do it to.

Not sure if that was to me or not, just in case, I did not suggest proofing against sheep, I suggested a reliable recall, which means a dog should recall no matter what the circumstances.

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Sometimes a dog physically cannot come back, what you claim is impossible, you only make it very very likely. That is exactly what I have achieved using compassionate dog friendly methods, and it was my Sister who missed the sheep and was able to call him off, when surprised and he chased them.

Be careful when dogs, chase sheep. Farmers are within their right to shoot the dog for worrying sheep. Especially when ewe's are in lamb, or even cows, as they can abort quite easily. I know I am that farmer & forester.
If your dog is in the forest and chasing wildlife, do not be surprised if you get banned from the forest and reported for an uncrontollable dog.
Much better to KNOW that your dog has been trained not to chase, whatever method you use.

I'll just point out my dog chases toys, not animals, cars, people running, children playing etc etc

That means I can work him at a distance without him feeling anxiety, and as he still chases things he isn't frustrated. If I allow him to chase, I'm sure he would, which is exactly what you want at times.

He's not chasing and perpetually frustrated by me recalling after he's got revved up.