Service dog / emotional support animal breed suggestions?

[Rik-E]

    My 7 year old son recently lost his emotional support dog & is having a lot of issues stemming from that trauma. We are hoping to find a new dog that he will connect with ASAP. He is requesting a small dog -- his cousin has a lovely mini chihuahua that he adore. Just looking for anyone's experience or recommendations for small dog breeds or breed mixes.

   For reference his previous dog was a mix breed from the shelter, presumed to be pug & aussie shepard mix, about 30 pounds. We got her when my son was 3 years old & the dog was about 9 months.

   My son has aspergers, anxiety disorders NOS, and is borderline adhd from the anxiety. He is very attached to animals, especially dogs. He does most of the dog's care himself with prompting & is not rough or mean. He would not pose a threat to a small dog, for those who are worried about it.

[blessedwithboys]

Toy poodle!

Mine is about to be 7yo and she is as frisky as a puppy.  I feed her well and don't vax and expect her to live close to 20 yrs.

She is fantastic with children.  Sooo smart and super easy to train.  The thing I love about her is that I don't actually spend time training her.  She just sort of understands English.  I can speak to her in complete sentences and 9 times out of 10 she knows exactly what I expect from her.

She is "my" dog, but she loves both of my boys very much.  Whenever one of them has been gone for the weekend (visitation with exdh) she goes to sniff their bedrooms as if she misses them and then when they come home she goes completely apesh*t for the first 10 mins they are home.

Whenever one of us sick she knows before we even feel it coming on.  She'll climb up on our chest and lay down...it's funny, bc if she does it while the person isn't already laying down, she sort of makes them lay down or else she would fall off.  That may not make sense, sorry.  LOL

She barks to protect our home, but isn't the least bit aggressive.  She's a very confident dog.

The only negative thing I can say about poodles is that the constant grooming can make me weary at times.

I would recommend to you that if you should choose to get a dog from a breeder, you be VERY selective.  Poodles are way overbred and poorly so.  I tried to get a dog from one of the local rescues, but they had too many "rules".  I was told I couldn't afford a poodle since I was a single mom who worked part-time.  I ended up getting a 3yo dog from a lady on CL who had just had a baby.  She most assuredly was not a BYB and loved the dog very much.  It worked out for me but a friend ignored my advice and bought from a BYB who had her pick up the puppy at 5 wks (not even legal in our state!) and the dog had major issues with bite inhibition or lack thereof.

If you can't get a dog through a rescue, there is a fantastic breeder in CA who is very active in the comformation world and raw feeds.  I found another one who was just as good and offered to leave a puppy with an undocked tail for me.

Any other questions about poodles just LMK!

[Rik-E]

Thank you for the input! I know that standard poodles are often trained as service dogs. I will keep an eye out for a small poople.

We can't adopt form most of the local "rescue" groups either! Mainly because we do have kids under the age of 10.
 

Originally Posted by blessedwithboys 

Toy poodle!

Mine is about to be 7yo and she is as frisky as a puppy.  I feed her well and don't vax and expect her to live close to 20 yrs.

She is fantastic with children.  Sooo smart and super easy to train.  The thing I love about her is that I don't actually spend time training her.  She just sort of understands English.  I can speak to her in complete sentences and 9 times out of 10 she knows exactly what I expect from her.

She is "my" dog, but she loves both of my boys very much.  Whenever one of them has been gone for the weekend (visitation with exdh) she goes to sniff their bedrooms as if she misses them and then when they come home she goes completely apesh*t for the first 10 mins they are home.

Whenever one of us sick she knows before we even feel it coming on.  She'll climb up on our chest and lay down...it's funny, bc if she does it while the person isn't already laying down, she sort of makes them lay down or else she would fall off.  That may not make sense, sorry.  LOL

She barks to protect our home, but isn't the least bit aggressive.  She's a very confident dog.

The only negative thing I can say about poodles is that the constant grooming can make me weary at times.

I would recommend to you that if you should choose to get a dog from a breeder, you be VERY selective.  Poodles are way overbred and poorly so.  I tried to get a dog from one of the local rescues, but they had too many "rules".  I was told I couldn't afford a poodle since I was a single mom who worked part-time.  I ended up getting a 3yo dog from a lady on CL who had just had a baby.  She most assuredly was not a BYB and loved the dog very much.  It worked out for me but a friend ignored my advice and bought from a BYB who had her pick up the puppy at 5 wks (not even legal in our state!) and the dog had major issues with bite inhibition or lack thereof.

If you can't get a dog through a rescue, there is a fantastic breeder in CA who is very active in the comformation world and raw feeds.  I found another one who was just as good and offered to leave a puppy with an undocked tail for me.

Any other questions about poodles just LMK!