Creating dependencies

Hi there: I am a new user and have set up my first major project. I set up Task Lists and associated tasks, including start/end dates and owners. I indicated for no notifications to be sent. When I went into Dependencies, anytime I made a change, it sent notifications to the owner I assigned. Is there any way to override it? What I ended up doing was changing the owner for all tasks to me and then making all changes before reassigning. There must be an easier way.

Thanks, Cath