8 month old Female - question

[Tellico Hunter]

I just got a 8 month female bluetick beagle pup the other day. Have had her since Thursday of last week. She is very nervous/shy dog. When she comes up to me she holds down to the ground. How can I help her along to get out of this. When she is not coming to me or the family, she is all over the place/very active. It is almost like maybe she was mistreated a little bit. Also, this may be a stupid question to some, but my papaw always said a stupid question is the question not asked. I read about grade dogs. What does "grade" mean when talking about beagles. I use to raise tree/coon dogs and have never heard this term used.

[windy hollow]

OK, now I have had Beagles that I know were never mistreated and still acted the way your describing and eventually they adjust, not entirely but they adjust to where you can deal with them MOST TIMES.
A grade beagle is a Beagle without papers. My dad always said a beagle with papers wont go in the brush ............. their afraid they'll tear their papers on the briars
He always told me a registered Beagle would be too high strung, because of the breeding being too close, of coarse that can be true, if your not careful but I now have different ideas about all that, I have AKC Registered Beagles and we have a lot of FC. Venn's Dutch Charlie K breeding in our Kennel. Ironically enough my name is Charlie and my wifes name is Kay but that was not intended.
We like to think of that as "Line Breeding" not inbreeding.