strange behaviour in our female Japanese Spitz

Question
Dear Cait,

I've had this female Japanese spitz for a couple of years now and she's very energetic however she's normally not aggressive.  about a week ago, we had a new housekeeper and a new dog (female German Shepherd).  our old Japanese spitz (Snow White) bit the housekeeper.  At first, we thought he'd somehow startled her or made her think he was after her food or something that would trigger natural hostile behaviour in dogs but we've noticed that she's lost her appetite, she's always sleeping and she's become very aggressive in the sense that anyone (including myself and my mom who've raised her since she was a couple of months old) would be subject to growling and/or threatened attacks any time we're close to her food.

What I need to figure out is this:

1. What's causing the unusual behaviour? Rabies? but I understand that rabies would cause a loss of appetite and the loss of desire to drink and snowy drinks a lot of water.  Also, there's no unusual salivation.

2. COuld it be that she's unhappy about the new dog to the point that she's exhibiting this behaviour? when we first brought the new dog (fiona) home, we paid much more attention to her because we were trying to get her to adjust better and faster to her new home and that's just about the time Snowy started behaving strangely.

3. Could she be pregnant? but there's no visible enlargement of her breasts and vulva and she was in heat in  late November.

I could really use some advice on this matter.

Thanks...

Answer
If it was rabies, she'd be foaming at the mouth and wouldn't stop trying to kill you, so no its not that. Maybe the new dog has taken over lead dog and she has lost her right to eat before the new dog, or maybe someone has done something... you could ask a vet. Unless you bred her, or she got out and met someone, I don't think shes expecting. hope this helps and feel free to follow up. =]