Yet Another Breed Brainstorming Thread - Service Dog Edition

[RetrieverFever]

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:

• 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?

 

[Julee]

I'm still sticking with Dobes and Ridgebacks. Possibly a Chessie.

 

[*blackrose]

I think the right Chessie could definitely fit the bill. Many people say they aren't very biddable, but I disagree. I think people say that because they don't really react at all to physical correction, so the more traditional training techniques don't really effect them. Abrams is very responsive and when he is "working" he is 100% focused on his "job" and getting it done, to the point of ignoring almost all distractions.

He is also a very physical dog, and being able to brace/touch/counter balance is something he could do very well. And they are definitely sensitive enough to respond to your emotional state, but not so sensitive as to react with you.

 

[RetrieverFever]

I love chessies! I never really considered them before and I'm not sure why. There were two on my SAR unit when I lived in Florida that I absolutely loved. They were all about their handler when off duty, but totally focused and on the scent during a search, and impressively persistent. I pet sat a young chessie (3 months up to a year old) for a friend often and that dog has also stood out in my mind. Pretty wild puppy but her drive was incredible and she learned the ropes of retrieving and hunting very fast.

I think that persistence could work very well channeled the right way as a service dog as well.

Do you have any breeder recommendations? Preferably up north. I live in NY but hope to be living in Connecticut by the time I get my pup.

 

[SizzleDog]

I third a Chessie. They sound perfect for your needs.

 

[Elrohwen]

I train with a woman who breeds Chessies in NY (Hudson Valley, so close to CT as well). I just PMed you with her info. Her dogs are lovely and very versatile with titles in conformation, obedience, agility, and hunt tests.

 

[StompinT]

It sounds to me like you are describing a Bouvier des Flandres. I think it would be a great fit.

 

[Muttkip]

What about a well bred Rottie?

 

[RetrieverFever]

What about a well bred Rottie?

I would definitely consider one. My boss has three rotties and is breeding his bitch next fall. Depending on what stud he chooses, I may get one from her litter. She's fairly short though (if I had to guess 23" - 24") his are German conformation lines which I don't prefer the look of (I prefer the look of american conformation lines) but I'm trying to keep in mind functionality over what I find attractive in a breed. I don't know if a pup from her would top out big enough though. Do you know of any rottie breeders up north?

 

[Muttkip]

I would definitely consider one. My boss has three rotties and is breeding his bitch next fall. Depending on what stud he chooses, I may get one from her litter. She's fairly short though (if I had to guess 23" - 24") his are German conformation lines which I don't prefer the look of (I prefer the look of american conformation lines) but I'm trying to keep in mind functionality over what I find attractive in a breed. I don't know if a pup from her would top out big enough though. Do you know of any rottie breeders up north?

Well if you were to get a male, you'd be looking at an easy 25-28' tall dog which would be a good size.

But sadly no I don't know any Rottie breeds, I only know the breeder of my FIL's Rottie and she no longer breeds.

 

[*blackrose]

Do you have any breeder recommendations? Preferably up north. I live in NY but hope to be living in Connecticut by the time I get my pup.

Abrams' breeder is located in MI, and the only other one I'm familiar with is down south. So....no. Unless you want to drive 12 hours. If you're interested, though, I can PM you!

 

[Romy]

The right borzoi 100% fits everything you listed. Both of mine are trained to do all of that. Plus they are both natural blood sugar alerters. They are super intelligent. I had no idea blood sugar was even a issue for me until Strider began alerting. He even decided to bring me food after alerting, all on his own, because Mr. Smartypants realized that if I ate I would feel better. I never trained that. Dog that brings you chocolate when you're sick = awesome.

Both of mine are 31" which is pretty average. Boys are bigger. My boy is from smaller lines. Kaia is big for a bitch, and her dad, brothers, and sons are 33"-34". Long life span. Strider is 6, both his parents are still around. Kaia's dad is 11 and he and his siblings are going strong.

The wonderful thing about using zois as psych SDs is that they are very in tune and handler oriented, yet they are emotionally independent so they don't mirror their handler's emotional state like a lot of herding breeds tend to do. They make wonderful anchors.

 

[MisssAshby]

I would definitely consider one. My boss has three rotties and is breeding his bitch next fall. Depending on what stud he chooses, I may get one from her litter. She's fairly short though (if I had to guess 23" - 24") his are German conformation lines which I don't prefer the look of (I prefer the look of american conformation lines) but I'm trying to keep in mind functionality over what I find attractive in a breed. I don't know if a pup from her would top out big enough though. Do you know of any rottie breeders up north?

There are a lot of great Rottweiler breeders in that area. If you are interested private message me and I can provide you the contact information for a few of them.