hard dogs - Page 7

I just noticed this thread.

I have a dog that is hard. As a pup many people commented he lad low-ish drives and wondered why i had chose him over his more drivey siblings. But he had an attitude about him, an aloofness, independence, supreme confidence. Whilst other pups chased a rag around like maniacs he couldn't really see the point. Come 1 year old, a switch came on in his brain clicked and he has never looked back. He knows the difference between real life and training and still has a high threshold for firing up when it comes to training. If you saw him on the field, you could easily mistake him for being lazy. But on the street he goes into real life mode and is the most awesome thing you have ever seen. It is hard to describe but he uses his physical presence and his eyes to subdue people and if the **** hits the fan, he is a criminal's worst nightmare. I often describe him as a Boerboel in a GSD's body!!

Many people by hard mean aggressive, dominant, sure of himself. I still didn't make a decision of what hard dog is. I will tell you after I am done with my current pup. I can tell she will be a hard dog at 4 months she is already showing it, but weather it will meet my expectation I don't know yet. So far I found that a lot of dogs that are called hard are jest screw balls nothing else.

So far what I consider hard dog is:

Sure of himself in all situation (not just at the field I test my dogs by bringing them into all kinds of environment, sometimes I do run out of new ideas, and time)

Dominant (by dominant I don't mean a dog that looks for a fight to show his dominance I mean dog that is so sure of himself that he dose not need to act aggressive in most of the situations he brings out of him when needed and cans it when is not necessary)

Handler aggressive (to some degree I expect my dog to tell me when I am pushing the envelope, but I expect to find it only in extreme situations, and with plenty of warnings) (I love a dog that tells me hey dude you pushing your luck lol)

Dirty fighter (yeah I said it I expect my dog to come to fight not to play games, I expect to hit like a f*cking tank like she/he is trying to go through you, biting is not enough).

Bat what is most important I expect my dog to be perfect family member. Dog that has all the aggression, all the fight but no on/off switch is useless in my opinion.

You have to find what suites you. Not everything works for everyone.

BTW I have a hard dog at home now :) I just don't know if I am going to like it lol and if I am up to handle her.

all you guys more or less talking about the same thing i a round about way and trying to use fancy words.let me just simplfy it for you if you are talking abiout a hard dog then it is a dog that can take harsh correction and still maintain his strong drive.in simple words dog that can work under all kind of hard situations and not lose his drives. a good xample was Pike  s and Fado Karthago come to mind. have a nice one.

I agree Held.   Spook said it best "Resilience through Adversity".

I think my definition goes something like this.

A hard dog is self-confident, dominant and has a very high threshold for submitting in adversity both physical and mental. This characteristic is present whether the dog is in low or high drive.

My dog for example, whereas all other patrol dogs will fire up at a criminal on minimal agitation but he will just stare at him. I think this is because he knows that he can dominate and overcome this person, so why bother to exapnd the effort. But when he engages the criminal, he will fights with an awesome ferocity. He will also continue to fight when other dogs will give up which is when the criminal fights back for example crowbars, knives and so forth. Translating this to training, even as a pup, my dog doesn't see normal physical correction as something to respond to. I learnt this the hard way but fortunately I realised this early enough with the help of some great trainers. With hard dogs you need to get into their brain more and earn their trust. This takes MUCH longer than usual dogs so most people give up. But now he has recognises me, and ONLY me as pack leader. Any other human being is below him, unless i say so. He is patrols on a normal collar not even a choke because he completely accepts me as leader. But if anything were to happen to me he would  immediately assume alpha.