Viewing a puppy on Sunday-terrified.

[UtterlyTerrified1]

My 19 year old has saved diligently for the 5 months she has been working in order to buy a puppy to be trained as her assistance dog (she has autism and bipolar disorder). We are going to view a chihuahua puppy on Sunday from a reputable breeder. She is desperate for a chihuahua and has been for years. I am terrified!!

We had a French Bulldog x Pug x Staffordshire Bull Terrier for 8 years-rescued him at 2 1/2 and had him until he died. He was very much my dog and I loved him to the moon. However, I have enjoyed the freedom of not having a dog since he passed-no rushing back to make sure he isn’t lonely, no dragging the little dd (aged 4 at the time) out for walks 3 x a day over the holidays or in the evenings on a school night, no incontinence issues etc.

We are in rented accommodation and I am home full time for the next 3 years as I am studying. The landlord is happy for us to have a dog, and as she is to be trained up as an assistance dog she will be dd’s when she moves out (but due to her diagnosis she will not be moving out any time soon). However, I am a very anxious person and am really struggling with this.

I’m scared of the damage to the carpets during toilet training. I’m scared because we don’t have a garden. I’m scared because dd is 19 so all the actual grunt work will fall to me. I’m scared that we will never find anywhere to live if our current landlord gives us notice to quit because we have a dog. I’m scared that the dog won’t like us. I’m scared that I don’t know how to look after a puppy, and I am scared of what will happen when I do go back to work after my degree. I am absolutely fine with having a dog in the house. I love dogs, but all I feel is fear and trepidation at the moment. Please help!

Indicating a complete absence of research

Don’t do it. It sounds like a terrible idea. Training intelligent breeds like labs and collies is hard and time consuming. Training a chihuahua will be very very difficult.

It’s a ridiculous choice of breed as an assistance dog.

Given the OP literally said:

"to buy a puppy to be trained as her assistance dog (she has autism and bipolar disorder)."

You can't blame people for assuming that that was meant.

If what she actually meant was 'not an assistance dog, but for emotional support' then it's on the OP to clarify. Because, as you say, that's a very different thing.

Why did she say "assistance dog" then?

If she meant "emotional support dog", then that's what she should have said

We're all agreeing with her @CovertImage

Getting this puppy is a terrible idea. She's right to be worried

You don’t have to train a dog to be an emotional support animal , that is what most pet dogs are by default .

Right from day one, you have to insist that DD takes full charge of EVERYTHING for the puppy; the feeding, cleaning up, excercise, housetraining, socialising. Buying its food, taking it to the vet for checks and caccinations.

Don't do anything. Leave it to her.

If she's capable of looking after her dog, she must step up. If she can't or won't or loses interest then the dog goes back to the breeder/ gets rehomed.

wrong.

https://bijouandco.com/blogs/chihuahua-guide/can-a-chihuahua-be-a-service-dog

as their lifespan is very long, its a good choice of breed for an esa.

This has disaster written all over it. My jaw dropped on the word "chihuahua".

🧐

Apart from a couple of honourable exceptions this thread has mainly consisted of smart-arsed, negative comments about chihuahuas by people pretending that they didn't realise that the dog is intended as emotional support for her autistic daughter rather than a "true" assistance dog.

Every dog is an emotional support for it's owner, they're just pet dogs at the end of the day.

That’s an American website.

America also have horses as assistance animals.
they have different expectations and regulations on what qualifies and can be let into shops etc.

This is an American site selling assistance vests to enable to take your poor little dog into places where they would normally be prohibited.

Well they are small so it’s not going to pee that much in terms of volume…
Puppy pads. Contain the dog to one room, crate train perhaps, or get some Lino in. That’s what my friend did and she owns her house.

Dogs are renowned for helping people with autism, no? Would have thought a small dog is a good choice here.

That's not an official website for anything - it's someone's blog/shop on a website for "Chihuahua lovers". Of course it's going to say they can be service dogs!

Calm, well-trained dogs are renowned for helping people with autism, yes.

A well-trained adult chihuahua may be a good option, but that's not what we're talking about here.

What are we talking about @cinnamonfrenchtoast ? Any dog breed can be a service dog. Whether they can actually be trained is another matter.

Because all I’m seeing is mocking here. Nobody has posted anything helpful.

Totally get what you're saying, but it's a horrible thing to get a pet with the knowledge that it's more than likely going to end up being rehomed. Far better to do the responsible thing straight up and say no.

Well, yes - as you say, you can call any dog a service dog. That doesn't mean that they're actually going to provide anything useful to the owner (beyond the normal emotional support provided by any pet dog).

I don't think it's "mocking" to point out the obvious - which is that chihuahuas are not service dogs. They are pets. You might be able to train it to do a few useful things but that's not remotely the same thing.

I agree. Depends what the child needs. Actual assistance dogs could be any breed - she won’t get a Labrador in a flat. Depends if the dog has to do ‘jobs’ or is just a ‘friend’ for want of words.

I have a lab (not assistance dog, his mother was a certified therapy dog). But I have been asked by doctors at the local hospital and nursing home to bring in. (My aunt was admitted to both). I did take him in as requested. Depends what the needs are. My dog just raised the patients spirits, he’s not a particularly well behaved dog either- and I wasn’t keen. He’s huge and powerful, boisterous. But nobody cared as long as those patients were smiling, engaging and smoothing him. He has the best temperament, even if he’s clumsy.

A chihuahua can be a great little dog, my aunt had one. Temperament was good, they do require more exercise than people think though.

I’d rescue a dog in the OP’s circumstances, be sure of temperament before committing and house training would likely be done or not need so much work (though she may not get one in a flat).

Don't do it, you haven't done the research.
A colleague of mine trains assistance dogs, this is not one.
It's just your daughter wanting a dog, which your household can't facilitate at the moment.

Chihuahua are really hard to house train. A friends one is the calmest sweetest little dog and we say often he would make a great therapy dog but that's not the same as assistance.

I know quite a few and honestly they are notorious for not being house trained.

We have a pet Labrador who instinctively supports our autistic son. She just seems to ‘get’ when he needs cuddles with her or when he’s having a meltdown.

We are also puppy raising a Golden Retriever/Labrador for Guide Dogs. He is bred specifically by Guide Dogs’ own broods and sires to get the best combination of genetics possible to make him likely to qualify as a guide dog. (I am not remotely anything scientific so apologies if I have stated this clumsily.) But even with the finest assistance dog genes, our boy may not make the cut. Many dogs specifically bred as future assistance dogs don’t.

My personal feeling is that picking a random chihuahua from a random litter and expecting it to become an assistance dog is, at best, naive. However if what OP and her daughter actually want is an emotional support dog, that’s a different matter and hopefully a whole lot more achievable.

It has taken me a while to come back to this thread as I needed a bit of a hard hat on to read some comments.

There is a lot of emotional baggage built up in this decision. I am not adverse to getting a dog, but I am worried about getting a puppy. We have fostered dogs between our ddog dying and looking at this puppy and so I am viewing this through the lens of non house-trained, emotionally (and in some cases physically) scarred adult dogs with no training (one of whom was an Irish Wolfhound so was massive and had volumous pees). I am used to going out 4 times a day in the pouring rain with a small child in tow. I know the realities of dog ownership. However, these were fosters, and so commitments of a few months, not 16 years. I am scared that I won’t be good enough for her or that something might happen to me in the next 16 years-a close family member died in their sleep last week and so I am really panicking about what would happen to her if that were to happen here.

I was incorrect in my labelling of her too-she is there to provide emotional support and a calming space for dd, not to open washing machine doors and answer the door. It is more than possible to litter box train chihuahua’s, which is what we will be doing. She will be walked daily and we do have an outside drive (we live in a house, not a flat) but no lawned garden.

We visited her and she was very calm and lovely. I know she is just a pup and her temperament and personality will develop over time, but she was absolutely lovely. We are viewing again on Tuesday, but we were all taken with her, and even my stone cold heart melted a bit cuddling her. She is a lovely pup.

Thank you for coming back, can understand the hard hat.
That’s much more of an explanation of your situation. You’ve obviously had some dog experience, various breeds to boot. Your house, you say a drive. Do you have a yard, like most terraced houses? A hard floored space rather than a garden. Is the drive fenced or could it be, a gate or something to make it secure so you could at least take the puppy outside for a wee? That would make things easier. Puppy pads can be ok but are a bit of a problem sometimes. I speak from a situation of trying to deal with something similar with them. I’ve always had dogs, several at a time, & never had a problem house training till a puppy have now. Her breeder, a top Crufts judge no less, had never let her out into her garden, she trains her puppies to pads. My little one is clever, so willing to please, been easy to train every other way, BUT she has it in her head that to have a wee anywhere except on a pad is wrong. So much so she’ll go into the garden, poo, play for ages, watch my other dogs wee, no matter how long I wait, or praise her to high heaven on the very odd success, then comes inside & wees on her “ toilet” the pad. I’ve tried moving it, taking it up, putting it outside, nothing will convince that it isn’t very wrong to do it anywhere but on the pad in the self same place. After over fifty years of successfully training dogs this has got me stumped I can tell you.