Lift of the lip

Today two of the basset hounds were mad at each other.  They stood in the living room facing each other, and both lifted their lip and made low growling noises.  The noise was very, very soft, and the lift of the lip was hardly noticeable , but they both knew what the other was saying... Perhaps this is where the saying, “Don’t give me any lip!” originated from.  It was interesting to see how they could control how far up their lip went when showing their displeasure.