Our 10 month old GSP has been a great addition to the family, she is well behaved in the house, she has become a very good hunting partner for her age and up to now she has been great with my 3 young children ages 7,5 &3.  She has liked to cuddle and rough house with me and my children depending on what the mood calls for.

However, recently when my 5 year old son goes to hug her or pet her when she is resting quietly she has growled at him. I have been feet away and have been able to step in and she immediately becomes submissive. This has scared the heck out of my wife and I.

Since the first time this has happened I have had my son feed her, making her sit first, walking her on a leash, making her sit while he went out the front door first for walks all trying to get the message across that my son is dominant. We have been doing all of this for a week and again this morning she growled at him when he went up to her to hug her.

Any thoughts or suggestions? We love the dog but wont tolerate a dog that behaves that way around children.

This is just my observation and is not in anyway scientific.  I work with all my shorthairs in the hope that someday they will become therapy dogs.  One thing I have noticed is that my shorthairs do not particularly care to by hugged when they are younger.  I had to work with Belle (she didn't pass her therapy test the first time through because of hugging issues) to get her to allow strangers to hug her. She didn't growl or anything, but she would pull away from whoever tried to hug her.  As she got a little older and I did allot of work with her, she began to allow hugging (although it still is not her favorite thing). So maybe the dog just isn't comfortable with what your 5 year old is doing and is telling you in the only way he knows how. 

I would not make a big deal about it.  Just correct the behavior and continue to look for ways that your 5 year old can interact with the dog.  The activities you are already doing are good.  Also, incorporate some obedience and don't forget play time.  You want the dog to begin to trust the 5 year old, but also think of him as fun too.  Just be patient and watchful.  This does not sound like aggression so much as a "leave me alone" thing.

...and so you know, this dispute-resolution tactic DOES seem to work well. I came home the other day to this:

I was actually shocked that the dog had decided the 3yo could be trusted enough to fall asleep next to!

Bregon is 8 months old in the 2 pictures.

I also have ZERO tolerance. If it were my dog he would have gotton a good crack and if it happened again he would out the door. What if one of your children accidentally fall on the dog? And no one is near by? Would your dog bite your child?

These are the only type of dogs we wil allow in our home:

So here are my shorthairs with my 16 yo nephew.  If there were only a little more room on that sofa, then Ringo could be up there too.

Halo and Ringo sharing the bed with my nephew.

Belle and my nephew taking a nap.

That is the sofa in my fifth wheel. It is a little shorter than a normal sofa, but the dogs think it belongs to them.  Of course, I call my fifth wheel the Shorthair Express.  We were at the Glen Rose dog shows and my nephew went with me.