cocker spaniel growling on the lead - how can we stop it?

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Our lovely 3 year old dog often growls at people when he is walking on the lead. I know it sounds like a contradiction, but he is not an aggressive dog. He doesnt pull on the lead when he growls - its almost like a "stay away" sort of noise.

When he is off the lead, he doesnt do this, and he is really friendly to any people he comes across.

We have tried several strategies - rewards, diversion, chastisement - but none seem to work.

He is healthy and gets a fair amount of exercise.

We are running out of ideas and it is getting a bit disheartening.

Could anyone give suggestions of why he does this and what we can do to stop it?

I'm guessing that he does this because he thinks you're keeping him near so that he can protect you. It's something that quite a lot of dogs do, be grateful as one day it might work in your favour. People you know and know him will understand and it may keep someone from hurting you or your LO's.

Our dog does it when he's in the garden only and no-one even people we know will come past him (Apart from one delivery guy) and he's never hurt anyone.

Once he's off the lead then you're fair game!

As far as I know the best thing is to just re-assure him that it's ok with a nice calm voice. Have no other advice, sorry.

Thanks. I also thought it may be about a misplaced sense of protection. He doesnt do it all the time, and there doesnt seem to be any pattern to when he will or wont.

I would keep some treats to hand and before he starts to growl I would distract him when you are approaching people/other dogs so he doesnt growl.

More likely to be fear - dogs feel more vulnerable on a lead and this exacerbates any fear they have of other dogs/people. Any chastisement he has had for doing this will have reinforced his fear of meeting new dogs/people and made the situation worse.