You got some great tips! Kai has never growled at me. Even in the car ride home, the day we got him, I immediately started working on being alpha. I won't accept it from my dogs. Play growls I don't mind. Any aggressive responses I work on immediately.

Kaedyn did growl at me though. In fact, he attempted to bite me. He was dominant when we got him so I had to work a lot with him. He growled when we asked him to down (he even did it in front of the trainer at obedience classes). He then bit me when I made the mistake of towering over him and asking him to down. But everytime he did it, I made sure he knew it wasn't tolerated. He was immediately put on NILIF and got better within the first 2 weeks. After the 6 weeks of obedience, he was completely different (to the family). He's still fear aggressive so he actually lunges at people but we're working on that. Around the family though, he doesn't give the slightest growl anymore.