Is a growl always "a growl"?

I think some dogs are just vocal.  I know of a plenty of dogs that will growl when they play, especially when playing tug.   

I think some growls are contextual, some are a sub-gutteral to a bark, and others are, of course, warnings. Shadow groans, like a human sigh, if the human was a man with a low voice. Other times, he has what sounds like a growl but it is punctuated and varies, and he uses it when flirting with the female Doxie next door. Then, of course, there is the growl he uses when he gets to chatting with the Border Collies. But once or twice, he has growled at another dog in a way that I could tell, with his other body language, was not a good greeting but a prelude.

A growl is a growl, yes. But a growl isn't always necessarily a bad thing, if that's what you mean. When playing tug with Gaci, she growls a lot, the more she's into the game the more she growls. But it's all in play. When her and Shimmer play together, they growl a heck of a lot. But again it's all in play. It all comes down to the context of the growl and what else is going on in the situation.

To me it almost doesn't even sound like a growl. Some dogs make lots of strange noises that aren't growls at all, but for a person not used to hearing the range of vocals dogs can make, it might seem like one. If it's not rumbly and it's high-pitched, it's probably not actually a growl but one of the many communicative vocals that dogs sometimes make.

From my experience with Willow, she has an aggressive growl, a play growl and some other low moaning noises that she makes when trying to get attention.  I can tell based on the sound and the situation what the growl is intended for. 

More recently, I've started to be able to pick up differences even in the aggressive growl.  There is one where she really means business and then one where she isn't quite there yet.

ron2

I think some growls are contextual, some are a sub-gutteral to a bark,

That's exactly what it sounds like! Like, there's a bark in the making, but it just won't quite make its way out. It's still rumbly, but it's not "hard" or "thin" like his "I'm about to bite you" growl. It's a growly-like noise almost like it's working its way up to being a "real bark," lol. Like a revving engine. It scares people sometimes, and I can't tell them not to be scared for themselves, but when he "growls" like that he certainly doesn't mean ill towards any other dogs, but at the same time I don't know how to explain it to people, since I'm not sure myself what it is or what it means.

I'm glad Rascal's not the only one who does weird sort of semi-growls!

Edit: Rascal definitely has variations of his "serious growl," too. There's the "back off right this instant or I'm going to take your hand off growl" and then there's the "I don't really feel comfortable with this, please stop" growl. I've never been subject to the former, but I've gotten the latter a couple of times while applying ointment to painful spots or, once, after I accidentally sat on him. (Oops.) He yelped, jumped away, and then looked at me with a little "rrrrrr" as if saying, "If you try that again, I am ready for you! Bring it on!"

 Sasha is a grumbler. 

Neiko does that too. You can tell the difference btwn his threatening growls, his play growls (grunts I call them) and his almost barking type growls. Just last night I took him to a meeting with me and he was getting bored, so he started doing that almost barking type growl (groaning more or less) and got the attention of the entire room. Goof ball.