Tucker is grumpy when he's sleepy. So he growls if you touch him too much while he's resting. Like one time my mom decided to lay her head on him while he was asleep (to cuddle), he said no with a growl. Mom didn't stop for some reason (something about not rewarding growling I'm sure) and he didn't do anything, just the one growl. He goes to sleep with my parents in their bed and sleeps by their feet. If they move and touch him he growls. After a few times he gets up and goes to his own bed. Petting him while he's asleep has never caused a growl but he looks obviously miserable and will show calming/appeasement signals (often lifting his back leg to expose inguinal area, the only other time he's done that is when being overwhelmed by meeting multiple dogs). My brother does this fairly often, he's unaware Tucker dislikes it. I get a little worried about it because my mother insists on hugging him so much, including when he's sleepy and just her face being RIGHT THERE worries me. But he also adores my mother so I'm not sure he'll ever really escalate beyond a growl. Most of the time he doesn't even do that, I think it takes some trigger stacking. Actually I can only think of twice that he's done it out of the many times she's hugged him while he's resting, but I'm not home most of the time so who knows. I don't worry about the growling when they bump him in bed at all, he's just being a grump and complaining, he knows he can move, that's why he does. I don't think he'd escalate.
The other thing that makes him growl at us is if we try to physically move him off of the couch or bed. That I find more problematic because it's obviously resource guarding and he occasionally escalates to a snap. My parents don't train dogs, so right now we just manage it by not physically moving him off of the couch. If we want to sit there we just pretend we're going to sit on him and he moves out of the way. Apparently he doesn't think he can communicate with butts, so it works out. I'm pretty sure my dad physically moves him out of his spot in bed every night though while the dog snarls something awful and he's never escalated in three years. It's something I'd like to work on though. But dad won't do any training so I don't know how much I can do. He has let me move him before (slide him over while he's lying down) without saying anything. He has a very weak bond with my dad so tolerates him less.
He used to growl when he had stolen objects and you tried to take them. That was an easy fix. He regresses a little when I'm not home because I'm sure my parents take things from him while yelling at him, so he'll freeze up a bit, but he soon remembers he has nothing to worry about with me. It's funny how a dog can be freezing and giving you whale eye because he's possessive of something you want to take from him and you simply step back and ask him for it and all of a sudden he's bright and happy and brings it right over for you.
But in any case, I don't consider growling that big of a deal anymore. It's simply a dog complaining or asking you to leave him alone/stop. I don't really consider it a threat unless it's coupled with some other more serious signals (hard eyes and freezing). Snapping is much more concerning to me. A dog can growl about something his whole life and never escalate. Just like most people who don't get their way don't go punching anyone. Not that it can't escalate, of course it can. Some of that is knowing your dog, some of that is knowing how to respond. Obviously if you push back or prolong the thing he dislikes you may see escalation. If it's something you are going to have to do then work on changing how your dog feels about it to eliminate that risk. But I don't think it's the sort of behavior where people need to freak out and start worrying about getting rid of the dog or putting him down like some people make it out to be. People get super offended by it, all he did was complain. I guess it depends on the dog though, I'm sure some might escalate from growl to bite much quicker.
I think teaching him to get up and move when he's annoyed is a good thing, a very useful way of teaching him to handle his emotions, but be careful of how you do it just so you don't put yourself in harm's way if you think he may escalate.
