Walk Behind Lawn Mowers

I purchased a Husqvarna HU700L in early April. I'm 67 years old, so I've had a good number of lawn mowers. This one just seems to operate differently than most. My last mower (a Toro) was also self propelled. To disengage the self propel feature you just let go of the drive lever and pushed forward a bit. The manual on the HU700L seems to indicate that that is how it operates as well, but in practice, it does not.

The way mine operates is that after you release the self propel lever, you need to bring it to a complate stop, then push it forward a bit to disengage the drive. I can let go of the drive lever and then push this thing half way across my yard and it still will not disengage the drive wheels until it's at a complete stop, then pushed forward a bit.

I'm wondering if mine is operating incorrectly, or if this is the way it was designed. Makes it really tough if you happen to be mowing uphill, and come up to a fence line. You either need to stop a foot short of the fence, let go of the drive lever, and then push it (uphill) forward to disengage the drive. If mine is not operating correctly, then how do I fix it. If it is operating as designed, then at best this is a poor design, at worst, this is a real safety issue.

PS: I did go to my dealer and sadly, he was of little (as in no!) help. I called Husqvarna costomer support and the women on the other end suggested I read the manual (so no help there either).