How do I get dog to do what I want without him growling?

[Buddy2go]

We have the loveliest show cocker 13 month dog. He's pretty well trained and normally really a joy to be with however...
Though he's not aggressive with his own food should he find anything while out he becomes aggressive and will snap when the food is removed. If he is comfortable / decides he wants to be somewhere we don't want him to be he'll growl when we try to move him. I can get round it by encouraging and enticing away but it feels like I'm rewarding the growling. I'd just like him to be more accepting of " it's time to move" .

I know I'm not in the best mood when asked to do something I don't want to do and understand his annoyance but the growling is not acceptable and I'd like to be able to say "no" without fuss .
Any ideas ?

This is why I used to get cross with Titan because he wanted to take these horrible things under my bed. But now we have reached an understanding.

My classes are fine tbh but it is hard work. Both the classes I go to have regulars and then odd extras but there is always someone new and red faced who decides it's not for them, or some that do a few weeks and drop out. One did so as she found it embarrassing her dog had no recall so decided to have 1:1

Again I have said before, I can't see when we will finish obedience with this collie as she really is so highly distracted but I am doing the control unleashed which I started only this week to help with her agility but I can see it will help with obedience class too. I do find it hard work though, I like the fun part of having a dog like everyone else but I would prefer the training there too. For me

I started out attending the classes I now work at with my own dog so have seen both sides.

Sometimes people can't grasp rewarding their dogs with food. 'They should do it because they love/respect me.' Is a really difficult mindset to change.

I think something that can be a bit confusing is that a dog generally does unwanted behaviour because it is self rewarding - e.g. in the moment chasing a cat is far more exciting than the sausage that the owner is frantically waving. In this situation you are setting yourself up in competition with the thrill of cat chasing and you might lose. It can appear as though positive training doesn't work.

On the other hand with regular training, you can train a dog to have a 'pavlovian' response to it's owner's voice so that the desire to chase the cat is overridden by the automatic response of paying attention to the owner. So I think having a well behaved dog is more about the effect of the agility/ball fetching/clicker training on the dog's general behaviour and relationship with their owner than some magic behavioural technique.

This has just come up in my newsfeed and, ok, it's about Millan but it makes a lot of good points about +R vs +P training.

Lilcamper I think you and I follow similar people on Facebook

My first experience was with a 1 to 1 trainer who came to my home and threw a set of keys at my little Spitz and then tried to hit her with a cane - luckily I had enough presence of mind to ask her to leave. That was back in 1997 and shortly after I joined the local dog club which did lure and reward. The year after the club wanted to change to clicker so they arranged a 6 month course for all their trainers and anyone who wanted to train up to assistant trainer which was an amazingly lucky opportunity for me and I went from there.

As recently as 2007 I had a vet and two student vets try to force an inhaler onto a dog's nose. Aside from the possibility of getting bitten there and then I don't see how you could have used force to deliver three puff, twice a day for the remainder of the dog's life. Again I had to step in and show them how clicker could get the dog to volunteer for the inhaler with a minimal number of repetitions. It was a bit surprising that neither the vet nor the students (at a massive, leading university veterinary hospital) had any training in behavioural issues or operant conditioning.

That's the beauty of +R, we are all willing to share and pass on knowledge. Nobody has an ego too big to contribute and there are no smoke and mirrors involved.

I haven't yet had a friend request ignored and I have been cheeky and added some very big names, plucking up the courage to friend request Dr Dunbar next

Would be interesting to trace back to our common denominator though!

I trained with Elizabeth Kershaw. Looking back it was such a lucky and incredible coincidence for me to get a free six month trainer's course out of the blue!

I think John Mcguigan. Do I get a prize if I'm right?!

I agree though - the sharing and mutual support in three community is great :)

Nope....my turn , Matt Rolfe?

I suspect there will definitely be a common denominator one step back in John Fisher, Ian Dunbar and Katie Pryor. Also before them there is probably common inspiration from the shift in training methods for dolphins in captivity that inspired a lot of people in the dog training community?