introducting new dog

Question
I have a three year old working cocker spaniel male intact. His name is Max.  Hes always been very soft gentle and loving which is the reason i left him intact.  Recently we acquired a month old golden cocker spaniel bitch who is spayed.  Her name is Milly. They seemed okay the first couple of days and now Max wants nothing to do with her. He growls at her and has snarled at her a couple of times.  She has no training and has a lot of bad chewing and stealing habits which i will sort out with training but her overall nature is very sweet.  How long will it take for them to get along, i get worried when Max reacts this way because its so unlike him. He has always been a little growly with chews (not food) but he still gives them to me and i give them straight back but if she goes near anything of his he snaps at her.  Never having had two dogs before, is this normal and will it settle down with time.  I could not give Milly up shes already been unwanted once and i have already fallen in love with her as well.

Answer
There's no reason to even think of giving up Milly :)

Part of this is normal and Max is being a little territorial and mostly I'd say to let them sort it out (with supervision).  Max is announcing that HE is top dog and if Milly is more submissive then it'll sort itself out reasonably quickly.

As for Max, I'd strongly advise getting him neutered.  Intact males are very susceptible to a couple of types of cancer plus having a female around (spayed or not) will only intensify this behavior.

I'd like to know what Milly does when he growls over his "things"?

To set your mind at ease a bit - our older 4 yr. old had severe possession-aggression which took months of training to overcome.
Then we adopted another 3 yr old male from a Rescue...yes, I was concerned...but luckily the new boy simply ignored any signals and when it was apparent he didn't much care and was submissive about the whole issue then all was well.

So all in all - I'd watch, let them sort it out and see if any serious training needs to be done.  If Milly is submissive and backs off then the whole scenario will dissipate fairly quickly.
I wouldn't, however, leave them alone together for the time being.

One big thing you can do to help this along is to walk them together..one on each side of you.  This helps both of them see themselves as part of the same pack.

Do write again with any further concerns.
Best of luck,
Delores