Wow, I know this is a bit off topic but that in that picture you posted of Sasha, she reminds me very strongly of my shep mix Tasha. I don't have one of her giving kisses but I have this recent profile shot of her.



Then back to topic sort of, Tasha is very mistrustful of men too, except her Daddy of course who she knows. But otherwise she is very suspicious and will bark and snarl and growl when a man comes in the house. I have had her since she was a baby, and she's never had an abusive experience with a man, but when she was about 6 or 7 months old and my brother-in-law, who truly likes dogs is a bit ignorant on how to best approach a dog and act around one that is nervous, came to visit. She was nervous because he is kind of a loud, booming type person. She was slowly approaching him, sniffing him cautiously, and he reached out and grabbed her collar to pull her closer. That was it. She never trusted anyone reaching out for her again, especially a man. I was so dismayed, I didn't realize he'd do that and he meant no harm in it but it destroyed her trust and made her feel trapped. I was terrified she would bite him, since she was already tense and nervous, and suddenly trapped too.

She does best when new people just completely ignore her and let her do her thing. I try to tell them just let her approach and sniff and don't try to pet her and get her to come. After she has developed some trust, let her sniff a hand and then if she seems comfortable pet her. Most of the time she takes to women very easily.

Still when my brother-in-law comes over, he's bull-headed and as much as I ask him to ignore her, he calls and calls her and tries to get her to come and she only gets more upset when he does that, growling and barking more. My other brother-in-law she will come up to because he's never been pushy about it with her.

Well I guess I got VERY long-winded here! My heart leapt when I saw that picture of Sasha, she looks so like my girl, and has some similar personality traits it sounds like too. I have wondered before if there might not be some malinois in Tasha. The humane society never knew what her father was.