Maybe it depends on the dog, but this is actually part of what McDevitt utilizes in CU quite extensively. Things like the Dog in Your Face game, Look at That, etc. The mere act of putting the uncomfortable situation on cue and creating structured game out it does help resolve the issue. She calls it "reframing". I personally find it to work really well with motivated, marker-savvy, operant dogs.
Precisely
Welsh, I can't watch video of barking dog right now...I'm at the library.
Oh no, don't worry about the sound, he's just growling, no barking. Here's a still photo though:
Grr face by
~WelshStump~, on Flickr
For Jinjo, his growling was mostly resource guarding, it just got too annoying passing him in the living room with a chew, or his going over to the door of the room where I use to keep his food and sitting there growling. By putting it on cue I could make him stop but I also found he changed his attitude as well at that moment "Guard, guard, guard..." "Hushhhh" "Oh Cookie!!! More cookie? Please, more cookie?" You can see that mid video, he found where the cookies where and was more reluctant to perform again, lol.
This may not work for every growl situation, me personally, I do like my dogs to growl as it ends up being "all talk", to me a quiet dog is a dangerous dog. But with Jinj who took it over the top and still does, I can just give him a Hush command and he changes his attitude.
I don't think I would ever praise a dog who's growling though, to me it is more just listening to find out "why" they are growling, then try and fix the situation. Enda growls, for her it's a moment of being uncomfortable usually, she growls at other dogs when we're out often, she's not very social. She turns her head and gives a low growl as to say "I'm uncomfortable with this/you", and for her I just give her the space to move away and call her over to me. I might pet her or talk to her a softly as we move away.