New German Sheperd and my 3 cats

Question
Hi,

I am hoping you could help me out here.  I had a German Sheperd for a very long time that I recently had to put down due to illness.   I have 3 cats, two of which I have had for about 9 yrs and the other one for about 3 yrs.  Up until I had to put her down they got along well with my older German Sheperd.  I  recently adotped a 1 yr old German Sheperd male from the SPCA. They didnt know much about him because he was a stray.  So I chanced it and brought him home.  Since then it has been complete chaos with my cats.  I have to keep them locked in the basement because he is so excited when one is around.  I usually keep him in the crate at night and then let the cats loose.  But I really can't live like this much longer.  Whenever I let him outside and he walks past the basement door he sniffs, and whines and scracthes at the door because he knows there down there.  Does this breed of dog have the instint to kill cats?  I'm not sure if he wants to hurt them or play with them.  I know they want to hurt the dog, simply because he is so rambunctious around them.  Is this a situation that can be remedied over time or do you think I need to find the dog a new home.  I did start obedience training with him and he seemed to get along well with all the other dogs however it seemed that he was acting in very much the same manner with them, overly excited and practically choking himself to get himself near the other dogs.  Please help, I thought Sheperds were herding animals not hunters. Was I wrong?  

Answer
Hi Angela,  Yes GSD's are herding dogs, but they are also bred for their prey drive (for guard work) which does tend to be a bad combination for cats.  I have seen a lot of GSD's that love cats and I have seen the same amount that want to kill cats.  It sounds like he has a very strong prey drive and may not be safe around your cats.  The bad thing about GSD's now is that so many are being bred for their prey drive.  I would not let him interact with the cats.  If he was younger, he could learn to get along with them, but he is too old now to learn that.  Hope this helps,

Dawn