Inexperienced - what dog? For therapy - autism

[sageGreen81]

My youngest child has Autism, a PDA profile and we are on the waiting list for ADHD (likely to be diagnosed according to the Doctor who did her ASD assessment).

We are considering a dog but we are inexperienced. We live in a semi rural location but don't have a big garden. I would be free to take the dog on two walks a day. I also work from home in the main.

Any suggestions?

Hello thank you for the responses to answer some questions:

DD is calm around some feisty family dogs we have, dogs seem drawn to her - she just sits there and strokes them. These are both poodle crosses.

My uncle owns a farm and has a collie, he was very good with my DD.

She's in a mainstream school and for now achieving academically. The biggest thing for her is just the comfort of having a dog around.

With wfh mine is pretty flexible as I run my own business, I often go on walks with my friends with their dogs (I'm the only dog less one).

I'd pay for grooming.

My neighbour has a working Labrador as a pet, I thought of one of them?

Interestingly my best friend has a much older working Labrador and her and my little one are the best of buddies together

I'd say working labs and poodle crosses are where we've had most of our experience.

You need to think very carefully, puppies can easily become stressed and overwhelmed by behaviours even in neurotypical children. What will you do if the relationship doesn't work? Also with the breed 'working' and 'show' are totally different traits and working labradors/doodles do get bored and become destructive if there's not enough stimulation around.
Previous poster mentioned Canine Partners, their trained dogs are adults only and to rehome a 'failed' one you need to live within 50 miles of their training centre.
So, look for a slightly older dog from a breed specific rescue and really think through what happens if it doesn't work out (we have 3 spaniel aid dogs and they have so many young dogs coming in where the dog can't cope in that sort of environment and start to snap etc)

I suspect though, that doing it yourself you’d still be approaching 5 figures by the time you’ve bought a decently bred puppy, paid for the amount of training help you’d need and paid out all the costs of keeping a dog for a couple of years.

Plus you’d have given yourself a hell of a job for a couple of years and there’s every chance the dog wouldn’t be capable of doing what it was intended for anyway - guide dogs have a 40% failure rate and they’ve got their own breeding and training programme.

Our PDA child was absolutely besotted by dogs. Asked for years if we could get one.

When we finally got a dog, child decided they prefer cats and asked for a cat. 🤦🏻‍♀️😆

(It's fine, the dog was a long thought out family decision and not for the child, but I may have rolled my eyes quite hard at that one!)

Please be very wary of Autism Dogs - you will have to pay at least £15K

We looked into and applied, went for the assessment day etc but in the end there were a fair few red flags for us, so please do your research…. I’ve known negative reviews of them suddenly disappear…. Take care x

One red flag for us was that the dogs are ‘ready’ and trained from as young as 10 months old…. It’s simply not possible for an assistance dog to be fully trained by 10 months - it’s not got to the adult dog stage yet. Other charity assistance dogs would be minimum 18 months but often closer to 2 years by the time they go to owner…

We are training through an owner trained organisation. We've been lucky that our dog is doing well and has a good temperament for it. We are well supported. But I do think you have to go into it with the mindset that you're getting a dog who might one day be able to be an assistance dog for your child, and if they can't, you'll still be committed to the dog that they are.

My ASD DC wouldn't sleep alone, one of many issues but v important. We got a cockapoo puppy and from day 1 he slept with DC and it was a game changer. He was 7. Now 16, they still sleep together.
Honestly, I'm thinking of registering my dog for PAT (Pets as Therapy) as he's so good with people.

Pure poodle. Mid size.
i haven’t met one that isn’t calm and cant tolerate lots of touching from kids.

My friend has a dog for her ND child.
The dog has resource guarding problems - you have to be extremely careful around food. He will bite.
The meltdowns worry the dog, so the dog is very much the mum’s rather than the child’s.

Dogs are not naturally inclined to be a support to a child, regardless of what Disney and TV would like you to think.

Training a therapy dog takes hours of training each week for a few years. And that’s if the dog has the right personality to be a therapy dog.

@Lougle Do you mind telling me the organisation? This is the route we are looking at as assistance dogs either cost a fortune or have ridiculously long waiting lists.

Dogs for Good train Autism Dogs for Children, but their waitlist is currently closed. They offer online workshops for families, to help you choose a dog type, support the dog and help with training. It's about £60. I had a quick look and I think the next is April.

That may be a good starting point.

www.dogsforgood.org/how-we-help/family-dog/

So you don't want a therapy dog, you need a pet dog. Retired greyhound, cuddles and security for your daughter.

We have a standard poodle. He's just a pet dog, but he's fantastic with our autistic DS.
They have an amazing relationship. DS recently said to me "I sometimes forget he's a dog. It's like he's my little brother"

what about a retired guide dog?

My friend got a dog for this reason. The dog is very lovely but it added another level of chaos to the family. It is one of these poodle cross type things and is extremely lively and out of control. It bonded with the mum because she is the one at home all day and has to do most of the feeding and walks. The dog has to sleep in the mum’s room at night otherwise it gets upset. The whole family love the dog and are happy with it, but it isn’t the calming therapy dog that they imagined.

Thank you perhaps it isn't a therapy dog im seeking then? The most the dog might do is sleep in my daughter's room on an evening before we moved them downstairs. We have a large house there is plenty of room.

I guess my daughter struggles to show affection sometimes but this isn't the case when there are dogs around. She can sit with them for ages and stoke them and they warm to her and stay close to her

@HoraceCope a retired guide dog sounds like a good idea. However I would worry about how long they're live and DD coping with their loss. I know this could happen with any dog.

can she work, volunteer, in horse rescue sort of place, or other animal rescue?

I genuinely can’t think of anything worse than getting a puppy if you’re already struggling with to balance young DC, work and SEN. They’re such hard work - practically a full time job for the first year and to reach any kind of therapy dog standard the amount of training (and investment) needed would be huge. Even within litters personalities can vary wildly and you could easily end up with an unsuitable dog. I’ve owned golden retrievers for my entire adult life, they’re typically calm and relatively easy to train - our latest girl has just turned 2 and to be frank she is absolutely nuts, our house + lives have practically been upside down since she arrived. It’s not worth the risk given your circumstances in my opinion.

Talking Labradors, you mention working type labs. I’d in your situation go for a show type lab (bigger heads, generally thicker set). Working labs have a lot more energy, and are generally a bit more nervy. We’ve got both types and whilst our show type one mooches around very calmly our working type has a slight edge of angst all the time. This is in a chilled out household! In your situation go for the couch potato, not the one who’s slightly manic until they’ve collected loads of dead birds!

This has so many ways to go wrong and if it does you are saddled with the burden of looking after the dog, which is really grinding, on top of your already increased workload.