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Dog Training Workshop, and an element of the Dog Science Network
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Hard Dogs vs Soft Dogs
The terms hard dog and soft dog seem to have taken on a variety of meanings over the years.
However, on this website, we use the term hard dog to refer to an emotionally resilient animal who responds well to being punished. When a hard dog is corrected during training, you will see him experience just a fleeting instant of distress before he gets right back to the task of focusing in on what you are trying to teach him. With most hard dogs, the judicious use of punishment seems to detract little to not at all from their enjoyment of the process.
Soft dogs, on the other hand, tend to react to all but the mildest of punishers by becoming upset, sullen, and uncooperative. You can all but see them shut down and withdraw from the process the instant a sharp aversive is dispensed.
Soft dogs should be trained using the same three-pronged approach employed with their less sensitive counterparts. However, with soft dogs the punishers employed need to be milder.
With soft dogs it is extra important that you stringently follow the golden rule of dog training and take care never to let any problems get started that will, then, need to be punished out of existence after the problematic responses have had a chance to become established.