Puppy vs. 1-2 Year Old Dog?

Previously, I said that I had pretty much decided to go with a Golden Retriever for the future Service Dog for Alyssa. So now, the question is what age of a dog should I get for a service dog, a puppy or a 1-2 year old dog who would be more ready to be trained for its ultimate tasks.

So, now it's time to really try to find an appropriate dog to serve as Alyssa's service dog.  Below, I've written some thoughts on a puppy versus an older dog.  Pure bred Golden Retriever puppies from a good breeder can cost between $1,200.00 to $1,800.00.  If anyone knows of a good breeder, or someone who might consider donating a dog for Alyssa, I would greatly appreciate your help.  Additionally, if anyone would like to make a donation to help with the cost of purchasing and training a dog, that would be very welcome as well.  Thanks in advance to anyone who would consider helping in any way, whatsoever.

Benefits of Puppy Training
One school of thought about starting out with a puppy for a service dog is the benefit of bonding with Alyssa and the other members of the family.  A Wikipedia article on Puppy Training talks about:

Service dog puppies are often fostered by their programs to private families to be reared until they are old enough for advanced training. During this time, the puppies are socialized through extensive interactions with people of all kinds (with variations in age, gender, ethnicity, mode of dress, disability, etc.) as well as with other common domestic animals, especially other dogs. Puppies are also habituated by their foster families so that they become comfortable in a wide variety of situations.^[3] The foster families, called puppy raisers or puppy walkers, take responsibility for teaching the pup basic life skills common to any well behaved dog including basic obedience and manners, including toilet training, not begging or jumping up on people, waiting at doors, riding in cars, coming when called, sit, down, stay and walking politely on a leash.

 This has some good points and some negative factors such as it will be at least a few years before the dog can be fully trained and "in service"

Benefits of an Older Dog
Almost all of the organizations which provide fully trained service dogs to people with disabilities will deliver a 2 year old, or older, dog to the final recipient.  Realizing that it is a long-term process of training a dog to the level it needs to be takes a long time, an older dog may be more desirable to start off with for our purposes.  If we can obtain a dog, whether from an agency or club such as the Dallas-Ft. Worth Golden Retriever Club's Rescue Program that is old enough to begin Advanced Training as a Service Dog might be the better way to go.

Next the serious training begins. Core skills shared by all public access service dogs include proofing to work in spite of distractions and generalization to work in a variety of venues. All service dogs need to learn a working position, usually the heel position, which the dog is responsible for maintaining regardless of how the owner moves and whether or not a leash is dropped. They are taught to toilet only on command when working.
By definition, a service dog is a dog that is individually trained to perform tasks that mitigate the disability of the dog's owner. Since each person is an individual, they experience their disabilities uniquely. Therefore, each dog must be custom-trained for the individual it will be helping. For example, a dog meant to assist a person in a wheel chair might be taught to pick up dropped items, open and close doors, and turn on and off lights.
Core skills ^[4] and tasks are generally taught during the same period when the dog is kept at the training center to work with professional service dog trainers. The last phase, called public access training, is proofing and generalization or teaching the dog to perform his duties without regard for distraction and in any environment. ^[5] This period typically lasts six months to one year.

I like the idea of an older dog for several reasons, the first being that I won't have to wait for the puppy to "grow up" before we start training.  If an older dog already has some basic obedience training already, I could plan on spending a good part of the summer vacation from school working on an  intense of learning how to train a dog for Alyssa, actually training the dog in advanced skills and getting Alyssa to work with the dog of the course of this summer.

References:
Service Dog Training
Service Dog Standards

Initial research into getting a dog for Alyssa

Alyssa with her sister Shannon's puppy

For quite a while now, I have been seriously considering getting and training a service-companion dog for our daughter Alyssa.  She is 18, is autistic, non-verbal and is a special needs child.  Several years ago, I came across the idea of an Autism Service Dog somewhere while looking through the internet.  Although we haven't been "dog people" before, I think this might make us a dog family.

Recently, I've contacted several trainers in Amarillo and San Antonio, TX about what I would like to do, how to choose a dog, what type of dog to try to get and how I could learn to train a dog to be Alyssa's companion and to assist her in her daily living activities.

I've decided to try to develop this blog to chronicle the entire process.  Maybe it will be helpful to someone else in a similar situation and maybe it might try to be a source, eventually, for information about training your own service dog.

What type of dog to choose?
After talking to quite a few dog trainers, I've decided that a Golden Retriever would most likely be a good choice for their intelligence, temperament and their ability to become a good service dog. 

Autism Service Dogs
I started looking specifically for Autism Service Dogs. I came across some really good non-profit 501 3 C corporations which will provide a fully trained dog for your specific needs.  The downside is the cost, a fully trained service dog can be as high as $20,000.00 and the waiting list can be several years long.

4 Paws for Ability
Autism Service Dogs of America

There are some good information at Autism and Service Dogs.

What should a Service Dog do for Alyssa
So, the question is what would a service-companion dog do for Alyssa? Alyssa likes to explore, as anyone who knows her will attest to.  At home, she will go outside on her own, if we don't know about it, and she loves to find fun and interesting things in our neighbor's garages.  If we are going shopping or somewhere else out in public, as soon as she gets out of the car, Alyssa has a tendency to take off at the speed of light for the front door of Target or Walmart.  You wouldn't believe how fast she is!  Tethered to a service dog, we are hoping that this behavior will be reduced or eliminated.

Wandering away from Cindy or I in public is another of Alyssa's favorite things.  With a service dog, once again tethered to her, we could keep her in close proximity to us.  I think that adequately trained, at least the dog will come to us with Alyssa in tow even if she won't come when we call her.

Autistic episodes.  Like other Autistic kids, Alyssa has a tendency to get sensory overloaded at times.  This is when she "spazzes out" as Cindy and the kids call it.  She can get loud, very insistent on getting her own way.  A properly trained service-therapy dog can be trained to recognize these episodes and redirect the autistic child to reduce the number of and the intensity of these autistic outbursts.  One of the things that I've found interesting is that many parents of autistic children say that they see a dramatic drop in this kind of behavior once a service dog has entered a child's life.

Where would a dog go with Alyssa?
Essentially, everywhere.  Once it is completely trained, I can foresee that a dog would be with Alyssa most of the day.  At home, at school, on outings and everywhere she goes.  Under the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) any disabled person may have a service dog accompany them anywhere as long it is trained and is working.  What constitutes a trained service dog is open to individual interpretation. 


Kennels
I've visited several kennels and talked to their head trainers and each trainer that I visited with said that they could help us train a dog to become a service dog.

All Dogs Unleashed - San Antonio, TX
Willow Creek Kennels - Amarillo, TX

Yesterday we went out to Willow Creek Kennels in Amarillo to try to find out if they would be able to help us initially.  Alyssa enjoyed visiting an petting several of the dogs.

Today, I saw a very interesting TV show called And Man Created Dogs on the National Geographic Channel.  It had a section on Golden Retriever Service Dogs so I thought that was interesting and watched it for a while.  I've posted a link below where you can view the entire 3 episodes of the show.

And Man Created Dogs

Additional Training
Also, while I was at Willow Creek Kennels they told me about Amarillo Obedience Training Club.  I was told that AOTC might be helpful with more advanced dog training.  Although they are primarily interested in developing Agility Training for competition, they might be a good group to get to know. Their website says that one of their members is a tester for therapy dog certification.  I want to get in contact with that person for some advice.

Next I found that we have a Therapy Dog Club in Amarillo called Love on a Leash.  This group might be a good resource for training Alyssa's dog down the road.

I also ran across an interesting program for advanced training at Top Dogs Service Dog Training.  They have a 2 year training program where, after you and your dog are ready, you travel to Arizona to complete a series of tests and then your dog becomes "Certified".  Stewart Nordensson and Lydia Kelley, two of TOP DOG's founders, have written a two-book training manual entitled ‘TEAMWORK’, devoted to imparting TOP DOG’s philosophy and training methods to the disabled.

Another place I found is Service Dog Training.  This company also uses the Teamwork manuals and I really like this approach.  I think that after we are ready and Alyssa's dog is trained in the basic commands, this is the method I would like to pursue for service dog specific training.

Finding a Dog
While I was cruising the internet last night doing some research on Golden Retrievers, I came across the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metro Golden Retriever Club.  They have a program for Rescue Dogs for whatever reason, are looking for a new home.  I made an application and I hope to talk to them about maybe obtaining a Golden Retriever from them for Alyssa.  This would be a whole lot easier than trying to figure out who a good breeder would be to buy a puppy from as well as they probably have some good resources on how to be able to train a dog for our purpose.  This might have some interesting possibilities.

I spent about 40 minutes on the phone with Ann, from the DFW Golden Retriever Club talking about the adoption of a rescue dog.  She said that she would complete our application, turn it over to the appropriate rescue committee and see if they would consider adopting a dog to Amarillo, as their normal range is about 2 hours from Dallas-Fort Worth, in case they have to go pick up a dog if the adoption doesn't work out.

References: 
Golden Retriever

4 Paws for Ability
Autism Service Dogs of America
Autism and Service Dogs

All Dogs Unleashed - San Antonio, TX
Willow Creek Kennels - Amarillo, TX
And Man Created Dogs
Amarillo Obedience Training Club
Love on a Leash
Top Dogs Service Dog Training
‘TEAMWORK’
 Service Dog Training
 Dallas-Ft. Worth Metro Golden Retriever Club
 Rescue Dogs