Growling

Hi, this is my first post on here, although i wish it could of been a happier one.
I have a 1 1/2 year old male cocker x springer spaniel who is neutered. I have had him from 12 weeks old, from the day we got him he was socialized. Unfortunately he had bad experiences with dogs and has always been scared of them. From the age of 6 months he became rather anxious around people (almost crawls to greet strangers) and jumpy when on lead walks, but we are continuing to work on that.
He has been to obedience class's, he does agility and is very intelligent and loving.
However our concern is that in the last 3 months he has began growling. This usually happens when he is asked to leave a room where he wants to stay. There has been two occasions where he has growled when asked to get off a bed, which he is not allowed on. At first i thought it was because he didn't want to be away from me, but he now does it when im not around. As soon as he is approached, by anyone when he is somewhere he wants to stay and thinks he will be moved then he will growl. He is also starting to freeze when he has a toy and is approached, which im guessing is another warning sign? He has never snapped or bitten, but i do not want to get to that stage. I would like to nip it in the bud now if possible.
I have taken him to the vets for a check up and he said everything was fine. When i mentioned the growling he said he thought it was fear based, although i think it is him being stubborn. Sprocket was ment to be kept as a gundog before we had him. He has scars on his head which we believe were caused by his previous owner.
I was thinking of calling in a behaviorist as i am weary of him especially as there are children in the house, but i thought i would see if it was possible to help the situation any other way first. Is it common for something like this to start happening at an older age? and is there any way we can stop this?
Thank you in advance.

Your dog is resource guarding, locations and objects, very common in spaniels.

You need professional help.

Especially if you have children.

The good news is that it is VERY easy to cure but will take time.

Whereabouts in Wales are you, I could recommend Gail Gwesyn Price but she may be a bit far from you.

In the meantime if money is an issue, I would try and get hold of Mine! A guide to resource guarding in dogs by Jean Donaldson where she describes step by step how to sort this.

Consider growling as the equiivalent of a car or fire alarm, it is a form of communication, you have recognised this, ignore this warning at your peril.

Good Luck

How do you `ask` him to leave the room?
Do you say Come, and lead him to where you want him to be and reward him?
Or do you stand, point and speak sternly?
Think of it from where the dog is.

Resource guarding is rather simple to deal with.

But a word of caution. Dont ever correct a growl, you WANT that growl to happen, if he's uncomfortable, you would much prefer a growl over a bite, especially with children in the mix

Thank you for your replies. Its good to hear that this problem is able to be sorted out.

smokeybear - I'm from Cardiff, after a quick google it seems Gail Gwesyn Price is to far away unfortunately. There are a lot of behaviorists in Cardiff but it is difficult knowing who will be any good.

ClaireandDaisy's - Id proberbly say that most of the time I and others ask him to come and tell him "good boy" when he does. However since he has started growling a simple "come" from distance isn't listened to as much as it use to. So sometime i proberly approach him and point and ask him "out" Which i see can be intimidating.

Sara'n'Scout - I have tried to make sure that everyone in the home doesn't shout at him for growling and they understand why. Thank you.

While i am trying to decide upon a behaviorist do you think the following would be a good plan of action.. ?

Always call him out of the room, or off the sofa/bed from a distance and treat with food and praise every time he listens. If he growls stop where i am and ignore him until he stops and then try calling him again.
Regarding toys, maybe practice swapping toys for a while so he doesn't begin growing there.

Thank you for your replies again!

Put a light house line on him (only when you are there) so he does not have a choice, command and then use a command amplifier (light tug on lead) and in addition invoke a NILIF programme (nothing in life is free) by only feeding by hand and when he has complied with your requirements.

Do not give him a bowl of food for free, make him work for it.

He will soon learn that compliance is far more reinforcing than the reverse.

If you give him a command, make sure you are in a position to enforce it (ie light line) rather than teaching him to ignore you ............

Try Michelle

http://itspawsable.webs.com/