Ladder of aggression
The order in which a dog escalates — lip-lick, turn away, freeze, growl, snap, bite — with the quiet rungs at the bottom.
Also called: stress ladder · escalation ladder · warning signs
Dogs work up the ladder, not straight to the top. Before a bite there is usually a growl; before the growl a freeze; before the freeze a head turn, a yawn, a lip-lick, a sudden interest in sniffing the ground.
Owners are rarely taught the bottom rungs, so the first signal they consciously register is the growl — which is already most of the way up. Learning the quiet ones is what turns "he bit with no warning" into "he warned us for six months".
It is also the practical argument against suppressing growls: take away a rung and the dog does not become calmer, it just skips to the next one.