| Re: What is the difference between hardness and aggressiveness?
Like others have said I do not equate "Hardness" with "aggression" at all. Hardness or being a hard dog relates to the dogs ability to handle stress or duress and not be overly effected by it or is quick to bounce back once the dog does get stressed by something. My fovourite definition when looking at the defintional term of hardness comes from "Armin Winkler" in his article on "Tell me about your dog part 1" where he uses Swiss behaviorist Dr. E. Seiferle's definition "The ability to take negative influences and experiences such as pain, punishment, defeat in a fight without being affected significantly at the moment they happen or in the long term." I too since reading Armin's article break hardness up into three seperate sections in "pain hardness", helper hardness (which I further use to define hardness to external stimulus for dogs outside the working field) and handler hardness. I belive a dog can be hard in all or one of these areas and can further be "soft" in others and find being able to break these up like this a great defining tool when talking to trainers etc.
Aggression on the other hand defines a singular behavior where the dog is communicating with the stimulus/object it is being aggressive towards in order to drive it away or to control resouces etc. A dog can be very soft and stilll be very aggressive due to poor nerve etc.
Where the problem in defintion comes abotu with regards these two terms is that people see a dog that is working very stronglly and handling a lot of pressure but is engaged in the fight vigourously and someone may say "what a hard dog". This is not said because the dog is showing aggression but because the dog is showing real resistance to the pressure being applied. It fights on under great pressure and stress but in real terms a dog does not need to be aggressive to be hard. It could be a very hard dog if under great pressure it does nothing more than stare at you.
In the end I would recommend you read more including Armin's articles. I have found few better to use as a definitional tool. He is very precise with what he writes and they paint clear definitional differences in all such terms.
Mick.
P.S. I am doing a argumentative research paper about Rottweilers. What precisely is your article about regarding the Rottweiler? Can we read it when you have submitted it?  |