# Define Nerve



## travis raghib (Sep 7, 2012)

I wanted to to ask about nerves. I hear the term thrown around quite a bit and was hoping to get some clarification on the subject. My understanding is that nerve refers to excitement threshold and temperament. 

Strong Nerve - High threshold to excitement 
Good Nerve - Medium threshold to excitement 
Weak Nerve - Fearful/ submissive to excitement 
Short Nerve - Low threshold to excitement 

Am I correct?


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## Jennifer Coulter (Sep 18, 2007)

travis raghib said:


> I wanted to to ask about nerves. I hear the term thrown around quite a bit and was hoping to get some clarification on the subject. My understanding is that nerve refers to excitement threshold and temperament.
> 
> Strong Nerve - High threshold to excitement
> Good Nerve - Medium threshold to excitement
> ...


I wish things all fit neatly into four word definitions and five separate categories. My experience is that it isn't quite that simple.


As an example, what if I have a dog that is super confident and calm in his manwork, but is afraid to walk on a rubble pile. Lots of different kinds of "excitement".


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## travis raghib (Sep 7, 2012)

Jennifer Coulter said:


> I wish things all fit neatly into four word definitions and five separate categories. My experience is that it isn't quite that simple.
> 
> 
> As an example, what if I have a dog that is super confident and calm in his manwork, but is afraid to walk on a rubble pile. Lots of different kinds of "excitement".


Interesting point. 

Seems like you are defining nerve with confidence.

When I say excitement threshold I mean how easily the dog is excited by anything. A short nerve would be a dog who has a hair trigger.


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## Anthony Taylor (Jan 14, 2013)

I would define nerve in a pie with confidence/outgoingness.
Maybe I am putting too much human in it but when i think of a strong nerved person, I think of a person who isn't rattled by anything. No situation is too much and always calm/clear headed under pressure. 

So for a dog, I think the same. Always calm or when slightly startled, recovers quickly. Whether it's bigger dogs, slick floors, swimming. Anything you see a lot of dogs get jumpy about, a strong nerved dog wouldn't. But it also has to go with correct exposure.


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## Joby Becker (Dec 13, 2009)

I think nerve is not defined by thresholds much at all in reality, although there are often sometimes things that can go hand in hand, but dont always.

The term is so often used in so many different ways. This is another one of those words that I choose to look at as defined by Armin W. to keep a consistant meaning for me, although I do get what people are saying when they use it in other ways.

here is what he says about nerve. quoted from this site. http://siriusdog.com/schutzhund-sport-dogs-winkler2



> _*Nerve
> *
> Nerve has become a catch phrase for almost everything. Good nerve, bad nerve, weak nerve, strong nerve, thin nerve, thick nerve. Where do these terms come from? And more importantly, what do they mean? The nerve itself is nothing more than a fibrous long cell that transmits impulses from parts of the body to the central nervous system and back again. I don't think anybody is talking about one dog actually having "thinner" nerve cells than another, that would be a bit hard to measure. Webster also refers to nerve as a "boldness or brazenness." And even though that is a bit more useful, it still does not really address the uses of the term. I personally believe that all the talk about nerve came from conversationalizing a behavioral concept that many people using the term are not even familiar with. I will attempt to give a brief description of this concept before talking about a practical assessment of nerve.
> 
> ...


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## Guy Williams (Jun 26, 2012)

I've tried to find out more about Pavlovs 4 types but trawling the internet doesn't bring up much. These descriptions of the 4 types came up in an agitation seminar and it does appear to make sense. 

In psychology they often add in introvert and extrovert to make 8 personality types. It is obviously a train of thinking that is still in use in some areas but it doesn't appear much in my experience of dog training.

I thought the terms may be more familiar to schutzhund trainers who seem to have much better way of describing and understanding dogs than in police work (generalisation disclaimer - i know I did it, therefore it's ok). Is:-k this a common way to categorize dogs nerve/character/type?


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## Joby Becker (Dec 13, 2009)

Guy Williams said:


> I've tried to find out more about Pavlovs 4 types but trawling the internet doesn't bring up much. These descriptions of the 4 types came up in an agitation seminar and it does appear to make sense.
> 
> In psychology they often add in introvert and extrovert to make 8 personality types. It is obviously a train of thinking that is still in use in some areas but it doesn't appear much in my experience of dog training.
> 
> I thought the terms may be more familiar to schutzhund trainers who seem to have much better way of describing and understanding dogs than in police work (generalisation disclaimer - i know I did it, therefore it's ok). Is:-k this a common way to categorize dogs nerve/character/type?


then you can start to get into nerve expression in bitework, and also the environmental aspects of nerve types as well. Which also can be independent of one another...there are dogs that are rock solid envronmentally but not in protetion work, and dogs that are rock solid in the bite work but not environmentally.

then you get into nervesets in regards to training programs, longevity,breakdown... etc etc,,, 

there certainly are some personal trending and personal statistics that can be looked at though to form opinions from as well.

there is another thread on here about nerves that I thought had some good stuff in it.


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## Joby Becker (Dec 13, 2009)

Nerve is mostly an obtuse term used in various dog related things. This is why I like Armins view on it.

http://www.workingdogforum.com/vBulletin/f30/nerve-testing-puppy-28234/index5.html#post417417


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## Howard Gaines III (Dec 26, 2007)

If I see another thread on this it will get my LAST NERVE!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Joby Becker (Dec 13, 2009)

Howard Gaines III said:


> If I see another thread on this it will get my LAST NERVE!!!!!!!!!!!!


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