Some dogs, notably rottweilers, make similar vocalizations even when relaxed. Search for 'rottie rumble’ to find clips with examples.
I don't know anything about wolves really, but with dogs, most individual components of body language are pretty ambiguous. For example,
- many dogs will rapidly wag their tails just before getting into a vicious fight (it doesn't just mean 'happy')
- dogs will generally bare teeth as a warning/threat, but some will also show their teeth as a greeting (Google 'heeler smile')
- some stress/calming signals (e.g., pulling ears back or lowered tail) can occur as normal parts of safe, mutual play
To get a sense of what a dog is feeling and how it might act, you really have to integrate all of its body language into a single context.
All of that is to say that if someone who works at a respectable wolf habitat/rescue tells me that a growl-y vocalization from a wolf is not always aggressive, I don't have a hard time believing that.
(I'd love to learn more about wolf body language and how it differs from that of domestic dogs!)
Agree in theory, my read on that particular situation is that the human was shading arrogant/taunting, and the male was a bit jealous verging towards pissed.
My dog has played a few times with a rescue mutt (bit of rottie in there?) who growls pretty loud in the heat of the moment. Was frightening to hear, but shes not aggressive at all.
I don't know anything about wolves really, but with dogs, most individual components of body language are pretty ambiguous. For example,
To get a sense of what a dog is feeling and how it might act, you really have to integrate all of its body language into a single context.All of that is to say that if someone who works at a respectable wolf habitat/rescue tells me that a growl-y vocalization from a wolf is not always aggressive, I don't have a hard time believing that.
(I'd love to learn more about wolf body language and how it differs from that of domestic dogs!)