[Trouble1]

Hi folks, I would really appreciate some insight from someone familiar with rotties and AKC CD training. I have a 3 year old female rottie training to get her CD and her training is coming along very nicely. My dog has always complied with any command given on or off leash, sleeps in a crate and is exercised regularly and fed top quality food. Now to the problem, she is and always has been a very vocal rottie and grumbles regularly. We have been in a competitve obedience class for the past 7 weeks but last week my dog grumbled loudly while doing her long down stay. She was not agressive in any way, her mannerisms were all very submissive, no baring of teeth, head was down, ears relaxed, while she was in the stay and I was across the room and she held it for the requisite 5 minutes without any problem but was grumbling loudly for the first 30 seconds or so.

The instructor went absolutely ballistic about my dog (what she termed as "growling") but what sounded like a rottie grumbling to me. I have owned 3 other rotties and they all rumbled at one time or another. The instructor then intimated that my dog was not a good rottie. The instructor is very experienced in competitive obedience but only trains golden retrievers, (the rest of the class is goldens, poodles, duck tollers and such) however, the instructor also owns the local training facility and has now barred me from competing in obedience or sanction matches at her facility. I'm pretty discouraged at this point as I have tried everything to get the rumbling to stop including reinforcing my already strong alpha position to the point now of unintentionally intimidating my dog. I have always been the alpha and my dog is not aggressive to other dogs, cats, kids or adults and is wonderful to bring out in public.

I would really appreciate some advice or feedback.
Thanks very much,
Chris