Curling lip

[Janice]

Is it always a sign of aggression when a dog pulls his lip back and grumbles?

Dale was playing with a 6 month lab puppy and having a great time, definitely friendly, when I noticed him pulling his lip back and snarling! The other dog was quite happy with it but if I'd seen a picture of a dog looking like that I'd have said it was definitely aggressive. He's done it to us a few times when he was younger, but it was always when we were trying to get him to do something he didn't want to do or if we said no to something. Fortunately he seems to have outgrown that habit.

[kendal]

iv herd that hungarian vizslas do it non aggressively my mum says that's why there called the smiley dog, cos they make funny faces.

don't know if that helps any

[John Thomson]

Hi,

it is a warning to say' I'm not happy' with whatever the situation is and 'back OFF' or I will have to do something about it.
So if the other dog backed off then it worked!
_________________
John Thomson
www.cumbernaulddogtraining.co.uk