Service dog breed info?
Hi. I am doing research and looking into getting a service dog in about two years. It was gonna be at the end of this year, but I had an unfortunate financial setback and want to ensure that I not only have the money to get a dog, but also have the money to have emergency vet, funds, and a training fund at the very least for just the beginner puppy all the way to advanced obedience training. I am intending to do primarily owner training for the tasks, but I also intend to have money set aside to at the very least due check ends with a trainer who does frequently work with service dogs to make sure that we are on the right track and to shore up whatever is lacking. I will not be back at that level of finances for about a year because I am expecting to go with a breeder, I have not yet picked a breeder, but I know at the very least the majority of things to ask and look forward to ensure that you find a reputable breeder who has produced service, dog prospects, as well as produced dogs that have gone on to be service dogs.
However, picking a breed is an incredibly hard thing for me because no matter what it’s gonna be a dog and I love dogs as a hole. I do not care what kind of dog it is. I love them. I’m thinking that Mei-mei plan for actually picking a breed is going to be more along the lines of having a few different breeds that I think I would work very well with, and fit into the lifestyle that I currently have and the lifestyle that I am striving to have, finding a reputable breeder for each of these breeds, and then going with whichever one has an available dog who would be an excellent prospect that would also be a good fit for me.
The current breeds that I am considering are a golden retriever, a standard poodle, either a king Charles Cavalier, spaniel or an American cocker spaniel. I am open to hearing about all different breeds that people have as service dogs. Really I just want information on how these dogs have worked with/for you.
Some things that I am looking to gain a better understanding of:
-what breed do you have?
-what has grooming been like with this dog?
-how often do you brush them? How often do you bathe them? If it is a dog that needs frequent cuts how often do you do that? If you do at home grooming, only how difficult was it for you to learn how to cut and style? If you take them to a groomer, how often do you do that and how much do you typically spend in one session?
-what is their health generally like? I know part of finding an ethical breeder is ensuring that they do health testing on the parent dogs, but I also do know that stable, healthy parents sometimes do end up producing a genetically weird dog, who is not as healthy because genetics.
-how often do you take your service dog to the vet for check ups beyond their regular shots? What things do you keep an eye on for your breed? Is your breed prone to any common health issues like allergies or skin problems or ear infections? Are there things outside of those three common things that are also fairly common health issues to look out for?
- what was training like with your breed?
-were they easy to train? Were they highly food motivated or more toy motivated? How often do you do maintenance training? Are they eager to learn or do they take a little bit more coaxing?
-what is it like to travel with your service dog?
- how does space work out for things like an airplane, a train, or public transportation like a bus, or a taxi/Uber?
-what is it like to travel with your service dog leading up to getting onto whatever form of transportation? How did you train your dog for that, especially for things like being in an airport without being able to actually work in an airport before being task trained end service level of obedience, trained, or public access training?
-what is the general public reception like? I know that breeds outside of what is commonly known as like the fab four or fab five tend to face a bit more scrutiny.
-for your specific breed does it help to have traditional service gear for the public reception? Or does it just matter that they have service gear? I know that legally they aren’t required to wear it but it does help people except a little bit more that it’s a service dog.
-how often do you deal with not taking your dog seriously or not be believing that it’s real?
-what steps do you personally take to deal with that in the most de-escalating way? This is kind of a big one because I have an invisible disability (PTSD, ADHD, and I’m being evaluated for autism finally) so I do know that I am more likely to end up with potential negative interactions because I don’t have a physical sign that I could use a service dog. While I can accept that negative interactions are bound to happen because people can be mean I would like to ensure that I can either avoid it as much as possible or do everything I can to de-escalate the situation when it does happen if it does happen.
Also in a not breed related thing : what steps do you take to ensure that your service dog does not experience burn out? I have a cat who does some of the things that I would be training a service dog to do, and does exist well with other dogs. He grew up with two little dogs and we’re pretty sure he might think that he is a dog on some level. He hasn’t seemed very fond of medium sized dogs, but both of the ones that he lived with that were medium sized were very hyper and well they were kept friendly. They were very much I want to play with you and he does not want to play. I expect that I will be putting in some serious hours in training whatever dog I get that the cat is boring and he does not wanna play with you and to leave him be. That aside, sorry got a little off track, my hope is that while we’re at home if I’m having an issue, it could be a the cat Does his emotional support job and the dog gets to just be a dog at home, but I don’t really know how that works if that can work? So I wanna make sure that if the dog decides that he is still actively working at home too that I know how to make sure he ( or she ) has enough decompression time to avoid burnout.
Sorry, I know that this is a lot. I just also have a lot of questions, I’ll probably end up making another poster to at some point with more questions later too. I am very new to all of this and I’m trying to learn, but finding information online tends to be a little bit difficult for real Lived experiences. Also, please excuse any spelling or grammar errors. I use my speech to text a lot and sometimes I miss when it understands a word. Thank you in advance for everyone’s answers. I appreciate every ounce of information I can get.