Hello everyone this is my first post, although I have come to this board many times for insight on behavior and training issues.I am part of a GSD rescue group located in the Midwest.We recently brought in a 3 yr.old FGSD "Roxy"that was at AC for approx. one month, she was handled exclusively by men without any problems and seemed like a good candidate for adoption. We adopted her to a family and after a couple days she started exhibiting fear and crate aggression towards the husband. It seemed to stem from an isolated incident when he corrected her verbally with a stern NO! After that she would run to her crate barking. I advised the husband to be her primary care giver...ie. he walked her,feed her, etc. The last incident she lunged from inside the crate and bite him in the leg as he walked by. The dog has since been returned to rescue and is in a foster home, however we are seeing the same issues there, again it is only related to the crate and the man of the house. When Roxy is away from the her crate, she is fine with everyone including the husband. This foster home has several dogs, cats, horses, tweens, kids coming and going...Roxy has no problem with any of that. She is on leash at all times while in the house, we thought that perhaps the first adopters gave her to much freedom to soon, but that is not the case in the foster home. We are baffled as to what triggers the crate aggression and why it is directed only at men. Any advice/insight on how to handle this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Marti Lee

No one has any advice ???

Perhaps she felt like she needed to "guard" her "safe place".

There were absolutely no problems with other members of the family walking by the open crate while the dog was in it? NO growling, lip curling or other warning signs? The dog never showed any signs of fear of the men that worked with her before being adopted? No aggression? Did she seem timid or shy to anyone, or maybe fearful?

It's hard to tell if there was anything else that happened with this dog in the adopted home. I know that screening people prior to adopting out animals is a big thing, but not all people are truthful. Not to say that the people who adopted her were bad, but maybe you didn't get the full story on what happened when he corrected the dog. Just never know.

Other than that, IDK what else to tell you. Hopefully someone else will have a bit more info or help for you.

I don't think there is any lack of willingness here, but I don't see how anyone can assess this on the 'net, sight unseen, with the info given, which is apparently second- or third-hand (the foster family telling someone what happened).

Crate aggression but only towards certain men ... that's all that's known?

Has the dog been in your home or have you otherwise observed the behavior?

There could be plenty of crate-aggression theory and discussion, but we wouldn't even be conversing with the person who is living with the dog, right?