We have rehomed a 3 year old Beagle bitch, she grew up with 8 other beagles in a fantastic place with loads of land. She needed rehoming as she was being dominant with the older bitches, or trying to be, and they were fighting. She has settled in here now and merlin has accepted her so all is well at home. The problem is, she is petrafied of bigger dogs. We have no problems with merlin or jrts, westies, anything her size or smaller but if they are bigger her tail clamps between her legs and she barks, growls and lunges like a mad thing. After about 5 mins in there company, she will stop this. I really dont know how to address this as the other day a black lab came bounding towards us and she did this, he was undeterred so she bit him. It was only a little nip. If she is off lead, (which is only when i think we are alone) and one appears, she runs right over barking. If they stand still or are not deterred or bothered she runs right back, tail between her legs and hides behind me. Now I havent let her off lead due to this, since last week as you can never tell what may be approaching. The problem is, I have absolutely no idea how to deal with this. Fortunately, most of the big dogs she has met are merlins pals and their owners are lovely and understanding, this being the reason why she has 5 mins to get used to them, but obviously, I do not want this to continue. Can anyone help. The rest of the time she is a sweetheart, although a little timid and she does need lots of cuddles and reassurance as she is a bit clingy. Ideas would be appreciated, thanks.

Do you take her to any training classes? The training class I used with my two used to happily accept problem dogs who had dog aggression----but the trainer was excellent and apdt qualified. A good trainer will give advice and the classes will give opportunity for your dog to meet others of all shapes and sizes.
At our class the fear aggressive dogs often just started their first few classes sitting and watching the others at a distance, being rewarded for calm behaviour. Gradually each dog became calmer and more able to integrate.

Sounds exactly like my lovely Lola!  When we first got her from the rescue centre she was placid, glued to my heel, didn't stray away at all.  When she got settled in she would also run up to other dogs at full pelt.  If the other dog was friendly she was fine, ran straight back to me.  Unfortunately she got bitten twice when running up to dogs who weren't friendly although she never retaliated, just ran back to me again.  We now keep her on an expanding lead when out but she will lunge and bark at other dogs if they come close.  We took her to training classes which were a nightmare initially, but she settled with all the dogs in the class.  She is however as bad as ever with dogs she doesn't know, so although the training worked to a certain extent it didn't cure her.  I do feel sorry for her not being able to run free with the others, but she was costing me a fortune in vets bills - as well as it being terribly antisocial :D

Hi Stann,
Have a read of this Calming signals by Turid Rugaas (Brilliant Norwegian trainer ;) )
And have a browse here Training articles(clicker solutions) click on the problem behaviour link, some great articles to flick through.
you'll pick up some great info!
>I have absolutely no idea how to deal with this<
No need to feel like this ;) :)
Hope they help x

Thanks Huskygal, I have been reading them, that calming article was fascinating. Thanks for everyones reply.