dogs for children with autism?

[thisisyesterday]

Hi all, hoping you can offer me some good sensible advice here!
DS1 has been desperate for a dog for ages. Neither dp and I have ever had dogs before, so don't know a thing about what caring for a dog involves.

We've always said to DS1 that he can't have a dog until he is old enough to walk it himself and we have a bigger house.
DS1 also has ASD, and recently I have been reading about the benefits a dog can offer children with autism so I have been thinkikng a bit more about getting one.

My worries are that it would take up too much time. I have 3 kids (6, 4 and 2) and I am busy busy busy.
I am worried that in the middle of winter no-one will want to walk it... are there dogs that need/like less exercise?
We only have 2 rooms downstairs (kitchen and lounge) and a tiny hallway... I am worried that a dog would need more space?
Our back garden is tiny too and currently contains 4 rabbits...

How do you balance looking after children and caring for a dog at the same time?

oh and roughly what does it cost to care for a dog?

Hi, my son is, 6 years old with minimum verbal, He has ASD with medium functioning.. We are giving him lots of therapies and nutritional intervention and he is improving a lot. We really like to adopt a dog, since there are lots of cases that a dog can help with his speech and social interactions, but we would like to learn how to look after a dog first. We would like to offer a free dog sitting or dog walking, for us to get use to having a dog. We live in a lovely 3 storey home in a private residential complex.

I have to say that taking on a puppy with young kids will be seriously tough! Our one is now 10 months old and the kids (8&10) is only now properly bonding with him. Yes they liked the cute puppy stage when he was a sleep but then it really is full on and the kids couldn't run past him without him jumping and mouthing them. They couldn't play football in the garden as the dog again would be crazy trying to join in. Then you have the hard work of training him to be reliable outside, not jumping on strangers, running after bicycles, joggers or kids etc. I love him to bits and he is calming down but it's definitely a life changer and hard work