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Hi guys! Still attempting to be more active on here, so I thought I'd bring this to y'all and see if you have any ideas.
I'm still brainstorming dog breeds for my next service dog. I thought about training Bindi (my kelpie) for it, but she isn't nearly tall enough for a lot of the tasks I need and I don't want to compromise on anything. To give you some perspective on what I'm looking for, it would probably help if you know what the future service dog will be doing. My current service dog helps primarily with my aspergers syndrome, which for me is comorbid with a menagerie of anxiety issues as well. Second most important thing he assists with is mobility (fibromyalgia, a chronic pain disorder).
The tasks my current service dog does for these things are as follows, I split them into two lists.
Psychiatric:
Some dogs have the ability to alert to rising anxiety naturally. That is not a skill my current service dog possesses but would be immensely helpful, so a watchful/extremely in tune kind of temperament would be a plus, kind of what you see in most herders and breeds like dobes and rotties.
Mobility:
That is the gist of what my next service dog will need to do as well.
Important traits for me in a dog would be:
Although I have chronic pain, I have managed with high energy, high drive dogs for years and have their exercise down to a science. My pain comes in waves. The majority of the time I am as active as can be, but when a pain flare hits is when it gets difficult to move around much. My girlfriend (whom I live with) exercises the dogs on days I don't have it in me. I prefer high drive, high energy dog breeds but for the sake of being realistic I would settle for medium energy, moderate drive. I also have to keep in mind that what will be functional as a service dog might not be my favorite breed (boooo) so I'm keeping an open mind. I'm an experienced owner and trainer and have direct experience with a variety of breeds (including malinois, kelpie, border collie, dutch shepherd, cane corso, GSD, doberman, etc - I work at a training facility that specializes in protection dogs and explosives detection if that puts it into perspective) so difficulty of breed isn't a concern.
I tend to mesh well with dogs that are very outgoing and have strong nerves. I need a dog who can either remain neutral to my anxiety, or be naturally inclined to investigate. A breed that is likely to be affected by my anxiety and become stressed themselves by it is a no-go (border collies come to mind as an example).
I would totally go with another field bred golden retriever but it's going to be extremely difficult to find one as tall as Macleod again. The dog I had before Macleod was a doberman and I completely fell in love with the breed then, so they're high on my list of consideration.
A rescue is out of the question for now because of predictability of health.
Any ideas?
I'm still brainstorming dog breeds for my next service dog. I thought about training Bindi (my kelpie) for it, but she isn't nearly tall enough for a lot of the tasks I need and I don't want to compromise on anything. To give you some perspective on what I'm looking for, it would probably help if you know what the future service dog will be doing. My current service dog helps primarily with my aspergers syndrome, which for me is comorbid with a menagerie of anxiety issues as well. Second most important thing he assists with is mobility (fibromyalgia, a chronic pain disorder).
The tasks my current service dog does for these things are as follows, I split them into two lists.
Psychiatric:
- Interrupting dissociation (licking my face when I show body language indicating dissociation)
- Deep pressure therapy (applying pressure usually by laying in my lap when needed)
- Crowd buffer (standing on a designated side of me to keep people at a distance)
- Crowd guiding (leading me through crowds quickly, crowds are a huge anxiety trigger)
- Find exits
- Find car
- Find designated person (this is if I start to have a panic attack, to get me somewhere away from people immediately)
- Anxiety Response (nudging my hands and engaging with me to keep me present)
Some dogs have the ability to alert to rising anxiety naturally. That is not a skill my current service dog possesses but would be immensely helpful, so a watchful/extremely in tune kind of temperament would be a plus, kind of what you see in most herders and breeds like dobes and rotties.
Mobility:
- Counter balance (to help me up and down stairs and other places where I need assistance with my gait)
- Bracing (to help me up on high pain days)
- Retrieving items
That is the gist of what my next service dog will need to do as well.
Important traits for me in a dog would be:
- 25" tall and up. Macleod is 26" tall and at a good height for what I need. I could compromise and go down to 25" but shorter than that would be too small for mobility in comparison to my height (I'm tall, 5'10")
- Watchful of handler (especially important for psychiatric tasks)
- Forms close bond with handler/family
- Medium-high energy (no lazy couch potato dogs that are impossible to motivate)
- Trainable/biddable
- Confident
- Stable in new situations
- Decent lifespan
- Good structure
Although I have chronic pain, I have managed with high energy, high drive dogs for years and have their exercise down to a science. My pain comes in waves. The majority of the time I am as active as can be, but when a pain flare hits is when it gets difficult to move around much. My girlfriend (whom I live with) exercises the dogs on days I don't have it in me. I prefer high drive, high energy dog breeds but for the sake of being realistic I would settle for medium energy, moderate drive. I also have to keep in mind that what will be functional as a service dog might not be my favorite breed (boooo) so I'm keeping an open mind. I'm an experienced owner and trainer and have direct experience with a variety of breeds (including malinois, kelpie, border collie, dutch shepherd, cane corso, GSD, doberman, etc - I work at a training facility that specializes in protection dogs and explosives detection if that puts it into perspective) so difficulty of breed isn't a concern.
I tend to mesh well with dogs that are very outgoing and have strong nerves. I need a dog who can either remain neutral to my anxiety, or be naturally inclined to investigate. A breed that is likely to be affected by my anxiety and become stressed themselves by it is a no-go (border collies come to mind as an example).
I would totally go with another field bred golden retriever but it's going to be extremely difficult to find one as tall as Macleod again. The dog I had before Macleod was a doberman and I completely fell in love with the breed then, so they're high on my list of consideration.
A rescue is out of the question for now because of predictability of health.
Any ideas?