What exactly is "soft" ? - Page 1

Sort of to follow up on the "timid puppy" thread, I'm wondering how exactly does a dog who is considered "soft" react to correction? For some reason, I thought my 3 year old male was soft, but now I'm wondering if he is just normal. For example, when I correct him for jumping on the back door (his worst bad habit) he will sit in front of the door as I have taught him, look at me and wag his tail. Same thing when we are outside working on obedience. If he knows what he should be doing, he will modify his behavior. If we are working on something new and he isn't sure what I want, he wags his tail and stares at me, waiting for me to say something, I guess. The only time he will put his ears back is when I am frustrated and he can sense it in my voice. I have never seen him cower or pee or run and hide, or anything else of that nature. Even when I raise my voice to get his attention his reaction is about the same. Is this just normal behavior? How would a "soft" dog react?

Trio de Girl..."Soft" means an adverse reaction to a stimuli...Such as if you're dog does something wrong and you correct him/her...First off how does your dog react...If he sorta cringes...or backs away...this is an adverse reaction...and also after the dog has been corrected and he sorta sulks...which isn't always bad...if you get corrected you learn from it and also how long it takes for the dog to recover from the adverse reaction...

JMO, My female to me was soft on correction, which means to me is that you didn't have to have a choke chain or a prong collar to correct her. I would use just a ordinary flat collar and just do a very slight tug and she would look up at me and do what she was suppose to do. Even if I raised my voice she would look up at me and do what she was suppose to do. Never had to do any kind of hard correction on her. With her being soft on correction, it sure didn't stop her for the bite work with or without the sleeve. Very high in protection. Sometimes it is difficult to work with a soft(sensitive)dog, compared to a hard dog. You just have to work around the soft dog's, and it does work out.

I have a friend who does agility with a very soft Cardigan Welsh Corgi. If this dog even THINKS she has done something wrong, she will totally lose her zip over the obstacles. The owner has to be extremely careful how she corrects the dog. Even a raised voice is too much sometimes. In order to get the dog to perform well, she has to sort of 'rev her up' before jumping by encouraging her to play, and get into what she calls 'glee mode'. There are probably very few Shepherds who are this soft. It can make training a real challenge!

I have a male Rottie, when he was worked I used a heavy pinch on him, or he would just ignore me and any correction used on him. The Female GSD is soft and hates any type of correction, she prefers I whisper softly to her, anything else and she is a wreck for days. It is actually kinda funny, If you whisper she'll turn on a dime, If you yell, she is outta there.

To me it is a dog with a very low threshold to correction. If all you have to do is pop lightly on leash and your dog goes "I'm so sorry" or raise your voice, even if its not directed to him/her, like you break a glass and say "o sh_t" loud ...your dog goes into the other room. My brat puppy is in the water dish right now. I yelled at her and she got back in the dish (she has been in trouble before too) my other dog went and laid down. Harder... Softer.

If I whispered to my male I doubt he would listen. I have to use a very hard voice with him so he knows I mean business. Then he will do what I want fairly easily. The biggest problem I have is he gets so excited at first I need to let him burn off some energy or he won't even notice I'm at the other end of his leash--at least not with a regular collar. I think he tries to listen but is too wound up at first. If I put my jacket on right now he would throw himself at the back door--the reason I've been trying to teach him that we don't go outside unless he sits in front of the door.

triodegirl He doesn't sound soft to me. Some dogs can be handler soft but not soft in other ways. I don't mind a handler soft dog really, I am only 5'2" and weigh around 130#, I am getting older too! I hate saying that has I don't feel it, but its there... so I don't need a dog I have to get to physical with anymore.

At a young age any pup can be ruined by too hard of correction especially from it's master or trainer. I have seen many strong nerved dogs who were somewhat handler senstitive due in my opinion that there trainer was heavy handed at a young age. The same voice that I can use on my female would make some dogs pee all over themselves. But she was trained with motivation and never heavy handed as a pup. As she grew and became mature and confident then I could be stronger with her. Now I give commands very soft voice and if I scream her name she comes running to me. I have said this many times a bad trainer can ruin even the best of dogs.

Trailrider, I'm no spring chicken, either. The first time I tried to make my boy heel it was like a scene out of a movie. I should have had a clue when he started trembling with excitement as I snapped on his leash. I yanked back as hard as I could and he didn't even notice. He pulled me across the yard like I wasn't there. My female I can control but then she only weighs half as much. The main reason I thought he was soft is beacause of his laid back personality around other people and dogs. He's like a different dog when in the house and just hanging out. Right now he's laying on his back next to my desk chair moaning because he wants me to scratch his belly. He never would have done that when I first got him but guess I've spoiled him a bit. (Hope I'm not ruining him...)