Hard and Soft: What do they mean to you?

I usually think of hard dogs as being physically and mentally resilient. They can "take a correction." They can take it as information, not personally.

Soft dogs get their feelings hurt easily, basically.

I consider hard/soft a different metric than sensitivity. Sensitivity is like a radio dial - how much do you have to turn the dial to move the needle? A sensitive dial takes a really light touch to move the needle really far, an insensitive dial takes a really strong turn to move the needle a little bit.

A sensitive dog notices subtler stimuli - a truck backfiring four blocks away, the twitch of your shoulder as you start to reach for your treat pouch, a stern look. An insensitive dog takes stronger stimuli before they react - the backfiring truck has to be directly behind them, it takes a corrective collar before they notice a correction.

Of course, you can sensitize and desensitize a dog to a particular stimulus, but generally without training they'll fall somewhere on a spectrum. And that spot can be different for different classes - sound sensitive but not pressure sensitive, etc - but generally.

So a sensitive but hard dog will react to a scowl, but doesn't lose motivation over it, and an insensitive but soft dog you have to hit with a 2x4 before they notice, and then their feelings are hurt.

Meg is a very traditionally soft dog. She gets worried and shut down if you are doubtful, or harsh, or unfair, or slow to reward. She shows her softness in what I consider a traditional manner - although she's gotten better about not cowering, peeing, and crawling out of the ring when she feels upset.

Gusto is a soft dog as well, although not as extreme as Meg and he shows it differently. He just disconnects and leaves the situation. It took me a long time to realize that he was reacting to me and the training, rather than just being a jerk and doing his own thing.