I know I almost NEVER post here, but I wanted to share this article about a dog & growling:

http://www.examiner.com/dog-training...g-for-growling

You can be leading yourself to even worse problems if you punish a dog from growling. Growling is not a behavior problem that your dog has - it is a reaction to YOUR behavior. You just need to find a different way to relate to your dog when it comes to food. Things like this game: http://tailsofsuccessny.com/web_medi...%20Command.pdf can be modified to work in favor of you AND your dog.

Just a different point of view - veering away from the whole 'pack leader' / 'dominance theory' ideas....