Please Don't Melt

There are two basic types of dogs when it comes to training. There are the “tough” ones —the ones who when you go to correct them essentially say, “Yeah, you and what army are going to make me do it?” And on the other extreme are the “soft” dogs, the ones who when you need to correct them say, “Please don’t be mad. I’m sorry. I won’t do anything.” 

In between are all levels of toughness and softness. You have to figure out what’s going to work with your dog.

All “soft” dogs crave praise and pats when they’ve done their job correctly, and when they get that response, it’s pure bliss for them.

Among my many dogs over the years — as I’ve been training gun dogs for field work for more years than I care to acknowledge — have been both types. I have managed to succeed with both, as my dogs or dogs I have trained and handled have earned more than 50 American or Canadian field titles, including some at the Master level. I’ve also “dabbled” in obedience, having put more than a dozen American or Canadian titles on my dogs all the way through Utility. So I’m no stranger to the different training attitudes of dogs, and what has worked with my “soft” dogs is effective no matter what breed you may be dealing with.

While my work has mainly been with retrievers, and Chesapeake Bay Retrievers at that, I’ve also trained two Brittanys, some other pointing breeds and a couple of spaniels. All were trained, more or less, using dominance-based and compulsion training techniques. Then along came my last dog, Bo, so “soft” that he couldn’t be forced to do anything, but rather had to be persuaded to do everything.

Bo’s immediate predecessor, Bobby, had already required some significant changes in how I worked with him because he was pretty soft and couldn’t handle much in the way of corrections. But Bobby could be coerced into doing something if being nice failed: He could tolerate at least a little bit of the “my way or the highway” treatment. 

Not Bo. If anyone tried to compel him to do something, he would simply freeze up and shut down. Even the mildest correction would shake him, although he got better about accepting correction as he matured. He was perfectly confident when he was being successful, but if he made a mistake and we held him accountable, instead of reacting like a “hard” dog and shrugging it off with an “OK, you’re upset — so what DO you want?” attitude, he would freeze up. He definitely was not a dog you could grab by the loose skin on his neck, raise to eye level and bellow imprecations at when he disobeyed.  

What this meant, in the words of Forrest Gump, was — just like that — virtually everything either I or his trainer Craig Klein knew about dog training became inoperative! 

If something like this happens with you and your dog, what should you do? Well, you start from the beginning and find new techniques that work.

First, and most important, don’t quit trying to do a sport with the dog. While there is a tendency among some to give up on dogs that can’t be forced, they are not, on average, any more difficult to train than a tough dog. You just have to train them differently, and it takes more time to get the job done. You have to find a method that lets you give them “You’re not doing what I want you to do” feedback in a way that won’t overwhelm them or cause them to escalate their resistance to what you are asking them to do.  

Generally, dogs you can’t force are pretty soft. You can’t “make” these dogs do something. Instead, you have to “persuade” them, and this requires more patience, as convincing a dog to do something takes more time to accomplish than forcing them. When working with one of these dogs, it’s wise to always keep the lesson from Aesop’s fable “The Tortoise and the Hare” in mind: Slow and steady wins the race.  

These “unforceable” dogs often become good performers as well as being quick learners. 

The vast majority of dogs want to please you and are eager to do what you want them to do. But where most “tough” dogs don’t mind some aversive training and will understand a correction for what it is, “soft” dogs tend to take corrections personally, and that is particularly true if it is a direct correction from you. With these dogs, a light, impersonal nick with an electronic collar is often more effective than if you personally and directly correct the dog. While a tough dog will more or less shake off a moderate correction like it didn’t happen, soft dogs tend to react to a brusque rebuke or a sharp correction by becoming uncooperative; the more you push them, the more uncooperative they become, often freezing in place and refusing to move. 

This is not to say that these dogs can’t or won’t accept correction. While it is important to know that all correction carries an element of pain for the dog, whether physical or emotional, the key is to understand the use of pressure and apply it to a degree that will get the job done without causing the dog to get sour. With many of these dogs, the ratio of positive to negative reinforcement is often 95 percent positive, with only 5 percent negative.   

 “Softness” is not specific to any particular breed, although there are a greater number of “soft” dogs in some breeds than others. Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, for example, while generally viewed as the “toughest” of the retriever breeds by many professional trainers, have an inclination to be on the soft side with regard to training. Many do not respond well to any sort of harsh training. They rarely learn through with harsh training methods and can easily be ruined when subjected to them. But soft dogs in any breed are frequently quite talented, very intelligent and have endearing personalities. 

One thing you always need to keep in mind with these dogs: While all dogs love praise, soft dogs require it. Where a tougher dog will quickly bounce back from a correction for a mistake, soft dogs take failure much more personally, and they don’t tolerate it very well. This means that they will almost always require an immediate success at something after a mistake so they can receive the praise they crave, and they usually require much more enthusiastic praise and pats for that success to restore their confidence. So when you are doing something new with a soft dog, it’s always wise to keep something in your “back pocket” at which the dog can succeed for just such occasions when things go wrong. 

With a soft dog, much of the training consists of praise, praise, praise and reward, reward, reward. For most gun dogs, especially those that have had the opportunity to hunt, getting a bird is the reward, just as getting to play tug or having a tennis ball thrown or getting a treat is for dogs in other sports. But the praise and pats, in large and enthusiastic amounts, always need to be there for these “unforceable” dogs, no matter what sport they’re doing.  

For gun dogs that have an opportunity to hunt, the bird is the reward, but they still need the positive feedback of praise and pats.  

With dogs that have proven to be “soft,” it is important to not have a timetable. Let them have fun and gain confidence with whatever work you want to do with them. Also, these dogs are seldom, or perhaps more accurately, are rarely a good fit for any sort of training “program.” So it’s important to not fall in love with any specific training program or technique. Being flexible in how you’re trying to teach these dogs to do something is a major key to succeeding with them. 

Often these dogs can be taught their lessons with very light or almost no pressure more easily than a tough dog can be taught with heavy pressure. This was the case with Bo when he was taught to pick up, hold and then release objects on command, something necessary for all sporting-dog field sports, upper-level obedience, World Cynosport rally and dock diving. While this process is known as “force-fetching,” with soft dogs there’s very little “force” involved.

Being flexible in how you’re trying to teach these dogs to do something is a major key to succeeding with them. 

Learning the three commands for this activity — “fetch,” “hold” and “leave it” — is just a matter of a LOT of repetition and, with many dogs, a food reward along with a lot of pats and praise when they do it correctly. It’s also useful to teach them to pick up and hold a variety of objects, including canvas and plastic dummies, utility articles, obedience dumbbells and even some of their toys just to keep this very tedious process somewhat interesting for them. This willingness to pick up anything might come in very handy for you as it has for me when an old back injury of mine flared up and bending over to pick something up was just slightly less painful than a root canal without novocaine. It’s always a blessing to have a dog that will pick up whatever you have dropped.  

Teaching a soft dog to fetch and hold different items during any “force fetching” training can help relieve the tedium of learning this necessary skill.  

When working with soft dogs, it is extremely important to show them what is expected. This means that frequently you’ll have to be very creative to make a concept clear to the dog. When Bo was learning to take hand signals, for example, it was necessary to make this process a really fun game for him. This was especially true during the time he was doing that part of retriever training known as “swim-by.” This particular set of lessons is nearly as tedious for the dog as force-fetching, so you have to keep things interesting and fun — something that is also necessary with aspects of obedience, rally, agility and just about any other dog sport that requires.  

These “unforceable” dogs often become really good performers as well as being quick learners. So don’t dismiss them as useless wimps suitable only for occupying the couch cushions. Rather, see their soft temperament as a trait you can use to your advantage in training. In other words, make the most of their wonderful nature and use it to achieve your goals with the dog. 

Rewards such as getting to play are effective, but the praise and pats, in large and enthusiastic amounts, always needs to be there for these “unforceable” dogs.  

You’ll probably have to learn a number of new techniques as a trainer and be creative with what you are trying to teach the dog to be successful with one of these dogs. But the end result — a dog that is happy doing whatever job you are asking him to do and is good at that job — is well worth the extra time and the need to learn new training techniques. When the dog collects a ribbon in whatever sport you are doing, you’ll have good reason to be proud of both your dog and your ability as a trainer.