I know there is dog training sub, but I don’t want to get into trans stuff in a sub that isn’t for trans/queer people.

My wife and I have had our dog for 4 years. For 2.5 of those years, my wife still identified as male. Our dog has always been a little bit scared of men, and strongly preferred affection from women. My wife has been on HRT for 5 months now. This morning she was very depressed and crying. She said she was upset over several things, but one of things she mentioned was the dog being afraid of her. We know that the dog is afraid of men, so the dog being scared of my wife is invalidating.

We adore our dog and rehoming her is not an option we will consider. What makes a dog identify my wife as “male”? Is it scent thing? Will that change as her hormones stabilize? Has anyone else gone through this? How did you make it better? Thank you for your advice in advance.