I understand. We, too, have a GSD. Love her and the breed! :)
We also have a new family in the home behind us. They have a fence. And apparently they also have about 25 small dogs. Ok, well, maybe not 25, but the barking off and on ALL. DAY. LONG. and even after dark (but not usually past 10 pm) makes it seem that way. I thought they had about 2, but my kids said they saw 4. So I'm not really sure. What I KNOW is that they like to sit out on their screened porch overlooking the pool (also all inside the fence) and talk on the phone or to each other while their dogs yip and yap incessantly every time I step outside into my yard. And even when no one is outside.
We have lived here for 6 years and NEVER had a dog barking problem before. The neighbors beside them (also fenced) lived there for 5 years and had 4 large dogs. I never heard them. Ever. Same with our dog. She only barks when someone approaches our house (comes up the sidewalk or pulls into our drive, or walking in our cul-de-sac), and she stops once she has alerted us. You can hear her 50 feet away, but she STOPS. And she doesn't bark at activity at neighbor's houses. She knows it is not her concern, I guess.
Sometimes she yips playing around when our kids are in the pool. But that is an hour in the mid-afternoon here or there kinda thing. These "new" little dogs are going every 20 minutes or so. And to exacerbate it, their barking has spilled over to another neighbors house, whose little dogs are now barking back at them! I rarely heard a peep from them until the "new" ones moved in behind us.
Also, someone in the neighborhood (I am not positive who it is yet) has a tiny dog they walk around the neighborhood without being on a leash, and I have seen him/her coming out of my flower bed after pottying. Yeah...it's tiny poop/pee, but it still is an offense to MY dog--having a stranger go in her territory. And since I saw the woman out walking (I was occupied and unable to go and in say anything to her, to introduce myself or anything), I have driven up at home and seen the dog wandering the yard/cul-de-sac completely unattended.
It will be a sad day if I let my dog out not knowing that hers is in my yard. :( My dog is very friendly, but I have found that generally, small/tiny dogs are super aggressive and tend to instigate. If the little dog does that, it will lose.