I hope someone can help!  My sisters dog is a cross between Collie, German Shepherd and believe it or not Husky!!!  He is a gorgeous big dog but he seems to have developed in the last few years serious people issues.  You only have to talk to him or stroke him and he starts grumbling.  Sometimes this even turns into a growl.  Even if his tail is wagging he is always grumbling or growling.  If anyone even goes near him when he is eating he will growl and snarl really aggresively.  Is he just communicating with us in a weird way or does he have some problems.  Does anyone have any advice my sisters quite worried????

I would strongly suggest that she gets some professional advice with this dog asap.  Has she had the dog examined by a vet for any health problems; there are health problems that can trigger aggression.

Growling and snarling are precursors to snapping and biting.  Get in touch with someone on the APDT site who is experienced with dogs like this or get the vet to refer her to a member of the APBC.

I think the first thing your sister should do is get him checked over by a vet (including blood tests) to ensure there is no medical reason why he is behaving like this.  It is very hard to advise further on issues like this because there can be so many other reasons behind it, he may have learnt that if he doesn't want attention (and not all dogs enjoy fuss) that all he has to do is growl, he may feel threatened, or he may have a medical reasons (such as thyroid problems) which produce a change in temperament.  Your best bet would be to get him assesed by getting him refered by his Vet to a member or the UKRCB or the APBC or a member of the APDT with an interest in behaviour matters  - they can observe the dog and the owner and help with retraining if it's not a medical issue.

I went through exactly the same with my terrier.  Your sister should definately get in touch with a behaviourist because the problem will only escalate.  We saw a member of the APBC, he was fantastic.  We only needed one session, because since then he's improved drastically.  Murphy's growling was anxiety based due to a lack of adequate exposure as a pup ( I got him at 14 weeks of age from a farmer who'd kept him in a barn...a big mistake, but had already fallen in love! ).  The behaviour counsellor suggesting using clicker training to positively re-inforce that human contact was nice.  He sometimes still does have the odd 'moment', but the growling is a lot less frequent and he's a lot happier in himself.
The problem should be sortable with the correct guidance and a lot of time and patience.
Good luck!