Dogs for people with ASD

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I understand what your saying but I have really bad auditory sensitivity and I'm fine with dogs. Maybe because I've been around them since I was born or maybe because I know their bark is protective.

My current fluffball Is a great pyreenes/german shepherd mix. Pyrs are known to be one of the biggest barkers. When I let him outside he runs the perimeter of the yard and barks to say this I my territory to protect, he also does this before we go to bed at night. I know he's doing it for his packs (our) safety. So it's reassuring to me. Yes it is loud and I don't let him bark non-stop, he knows that's not acceptable behavior. Like any animal, training is key. Also, he doesn't bark in the house unless, he hears something suspicious, which is rare.

My dog startles me by barking, but his voice doesn’t hurt my ears. The neighbors’ terriers, on the other hand... Our next-door neighbors and neighbors to the back both have terriers, and when they’re all out at the same time it’s a sensory nightmare for me. I could never have a small dog because their voices are painful to me.

High-pitched sounds tend to affect people more than low-pitched sounds.

Spunge42 - thank you so much for replying and your offer of help. I am so sorry for your loss, it makes my stomach sick just thinking about how terrible that had to be for you.

No apologies needed, I could talk dogs in general, German Shepherds, and mine in particular all day long.

tl;dr - My GSD is dog reactive (non-aggressive) so I'm not sure he could be trained for service.

I'm not sure that my Murphy has the temperament for a service dog, he has issues barking and lunging at other dogs. I've had him to a trainer that specializes in issues like this and has trained autism service dogs. The trainer told me that Murph wants to play and doesn't understand boundaries or how to greet and interact with other dogs, especially on a leash. The closer the dog is, the more extreme his reaction. He even reacts to dogs on TV (which is no fun when I'm trying to find something to watch late at night and my husband is asleep). In every session the trainer had Murph walking next to and playing with another dog within 30 minutes.

Other than the dog reactivity he's amazing; we joke that he would be perfect but, since nothing can ever really be perfect, he has dog reactivity. Other shep people, even a K-9 officer, have told me that he will calm down at two, three, and three and a half years old. He will be three in May so here's hoping! The only time he's truly calm and quiet is when he is very tired or actually sleeping. One lady said he's "busy", that is a perfect description.

It would be like a dream come true if he could be trained to be my service dog but, I'm not hopeful.

edit: typo

Last edited by PetyaGSD73 on 08 Mar 2021, 6:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

yere in all fairness, i have met one dog that was given to one girl with ASD, to help her cope with stress.
I, myself am extremely hypersensitive to sound.

And this dog, which is like the dog from the toilet roll adverts but black, is super soft and sensitive
and doesn't bark. Just really friendly and kind hearted.

And to be honest, i am not massively into dogs.

some times I wish I were this girls dog though, The amount of attention and love he gets.
Much more than I have ever got apart from from my mum....

I always say if I can be reincarnated into a fluffy dog with an active owner that likes hiking I'd be in heaven! My Appa has more friends and people love him than I've had in my whole life.

Some of the places we frequent know his name but not mine when I go to the fabric store, which is often. Someone always announces on the headsets that Appa is here and everyone comes to greet him. He loves the snuggles.

And PetyaGSD73: yes, I could talk dogs all day too and they will usually calm down around 3ish. I hope he does so you can get him certified! Have you tried the dog park? Maybe desensitization to other dogs would help? I dunno, I know some dogs don't grow out of it, but some if you give them time to play with others will calm down the rest of the time.

My Merlin is pretty reactive to other dogs (though he seems able to tell the difference between dogs on TV and dogs he can hear from outside), but he’s fine around humans he doesn’t know if he has his vest on (ideally at least for situations like mine where the dog does not need to be “on duty” all the time, they’re trained so they know the vest means they’re working and on working behavior, and if they don’t have the vest on they basically get to just be a regular dog, although a vest is not required by law for a service animal). He’s slowly making progress on that. When he’s working, he doesn’t usually encounter other dogs, so it’s rarely an issue for us, and it didn’t keep him from passing his (unofficial) certification exam. But he was trained from the time he was a puppy, and most of his training was done when I got him, so I’m afraid I can’t really give much advice on training or anything, but I can say that being reactive about other dogs isn’t necessarily an automatic disqualifier. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve had to take Merlin outside because he misbehaved while on duty, and I’ve had him for over five years. In the car on the way, however...

Here's the dogs that I previously once had and all three of them had passed away.