I have a 6 yo beagle/hound mix (about 35 lbs) that I rescued when she was about 18 months from a pound. When I got her it was evident she'd been chained outside her entire life...she was not housebroken, wore a VERY faded collar, and is missing part of an ear. She pointed birds, so I assume she was someone's huting dog who got loose. I house trained her, and she has been a very loving, obedient dog. We had a 10 yo sheltie at the time we brought her into our home, so she is quite used to other dogs.

Our sheltie passed over a year ago and we brough our 9 wk GSD home 6 days ago. I thought she would be very accepting of the puppy, as she plays well with other dogs and is older. Not so. If he comes 2 feet in front of her she begins to curl her lips up and growl. She's lunged and snapped at him a few times (but never actually bitten). She always looks VERY guilty afterwards and submits to me. I've verbally rebuked her and sent her to her crate every time. She is not obedience trained, but does know a limited set of commands (sit, down, crate, recall, no). She views me as the alpha.

What in the world can I do to fix this? My husband is adament that my beagle will find a new home if this keeps up, as he does not want her creating issues with his GSD. I feel there has to be a way to fix this. She was here first and is otherwise an excellent animal!

Thank in advance!

Stacia with Abbie and Achilles

Your problem is more of an owner problem than a dog problem. When a dog is mising part of an ear that's a pretty good indication that it's been in some pretty serious dog fights. Once a dog has been attacked it will almost always be a dog fighter.

With that said - I wrote and article on How to Introduce a New Dog Into a Home with Existing Dogs

It's in my list of 300 or so training articles. http://leerburg.com/articles.htm

Thanks very much.

May just be a lost cause then...we'll have to do quite a bit of considering here.

Any idea why she's always accepted other dogs in our home (I dog sit quite a bit with no issues from her), but has an issue with the puppy? She leaves him aboslutely alone when he's in his crate, or when he's eating. She only has a problem if he comes near her (which isn't often since we've kept them separated for the most part, and he spends most of his day in his crate...no brainer since he sleeps 16+ hours).

Any insight appreicated.

Thanks again.