Antes mi hermanita le tenía miedo a los perros. "Tenía" comes from the verb "tener" and is conjugated in the tense called pretérito imperfecto. This is used to talk about things in the past which don't have a precise moment of beginning and end or to talk about something in the past that has certain continuity. In English the imperfect can be sometimes translated into "used to". In this case: My sister used to be afraid of dogs.
