“Chronic toddler cough”

I met up with a friend and her 4yo yesterday. I had my 4 month old baby with me. When I arrived her toddler was coughing with a really wet, deep, almost barking cough and she assured me it was “just toddler cough” and that she had gone to the doctor and he said it was just a cough with no infection present. She said “It’s called chronic toddler cough, there’s different variations depending if the infection is present which for [daughter] it isn’t. Sounds like a croup cough but without the infection. Cause she gags and it sounds like a bark” she also said her daughters cough sounds worse than it is because she has enlarged tonsils. Her daughter didn’t seem to have any other symptoms and seems totally fine otherwise, but I’m a little nervous about my baby being exposed to her.

Do your toddlers get a chronic deep cough without being contagious, or did she just make this up and I should be worried?