German Shepherds are within the weight class I'm looking at. In fact they are in the top 5 of my concidered breeds/mixes.

They are really wonderful dogs, and I'm rather familuar with their protectiveness when the situation absolutely calls for it. Thank you though for making sure I was thinking about them as a possibility.

Link: https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=28957&page=2#11 Author: LDDarcWolf Time Posted: 9/14/2015 at 10:00 PM German Shepherds are within the weight class I'm looking at. In fact they are in the top 5 of my concidered breeds/mixes. They are really wonderful dogs, and I'm rather familuar with their protectiveness when the situation absolutely calls for it. Thank you though for making sure I was thinking about them as a possibility.

:3
*hugs Astra*

Labradors, poodles and certain crosses of those breeds are often used for such things. They're typically intelligent, too.

Hmm. Really, I don't know, but we could probably ask our sister on her thoughts?
She qualified to train service/assistance/companion dogs (the companion dogs being the ones that don't quite make the grade for service/assistance for one reason or another, but are otherwise good) for kids with autism and the like. So she would have a better idea than us.
I do know that most of the dogs she's worked with have been labs and certain poodle-crosses that escape me at this moment.

Don't know how easy it is to acquire official assistance dogs over in America, though...

I love and do well with labs, and I can only work with poodle mixes as purebred poodles and I have never gotten along ever.

The USA's ADA Law permits owner trained and program trained service dogs(there is no such thing as a certified service dog in the USA), however the later is much harder to obtain typically due to the very long waiting lists and/or the person that requiors the service dog needs a service dog that can do more than one branch of service work. Like me I have to owner train due to the fact the nearest program that cross trains for all three branches of service work that I need is located in Georga(it also has last I checked a 3 year minimum waiting list. That is far too long of a wait for me), where as I'm located in California. Meanwhile owner training your own service dog(as I will be doing), allowes me to pick my own breed(or mix), gender, name, and I also get to pick my own list of task related signals for all the tasks my dog will need to perform.

I have updated my first post with the list of breeds/mixes that I'm concidering, and other bits of helpful info.

Ok, I'm no expert, but I know a good bit about dogs. Here's my advice on each breed, or at least the ones I know a bit about.

1). Golden Retriever OR Mix
- Excellent choice, there is a reason they are used as service dogs so often
2). Labrador Retriever OR Mix
- Same as the golden
3). Akita OR Mix(mix prefered)
- I'd avoid. From all I've heard, they tend to be cat-aggressive and independent minded: not so great for a service dog. The cat-aggression could be a strong prey drive... which would be bad in a service dog. Don't want it to go dragging you into a chase after squirrels....
4). Alaskan Malamute OR Mix(mix prefered)
- DEFINITE no. They are hard-headed and SUPER high energy. Has to do with being bred as sled dogs.
9). Newfoundland Mix(mix only due to being classified as a Giant/X-Large breed dog)
- Fantastic dog, bred to help / work. Not sure if temperament is right, but....
10). Rottweiler OR Mix(mix prefered)
- A good one
11). Siberian Husky Mix(mix only due to being classified as a medium sized breed dog)
- NO. Same reason as the Malamute. Fantastic dogs, but SUPER high energy, love to run... And have heads made of solid stone.
15). German Shepherd Dog OR Mix(Would be pleased to have either, but I love GSD mixes)
- You wouldn't think it, but all the German Shepherds I've come across tend to be super-protective (pretty sure it comes from being bred to protect sheep). Properly socialized and trained, it wouldn't be a problem, but I know I've always been far warier of my GSD / Lab mix than about my Pit!

Have you considered a St Bernard mix?

Cheers!
C4.

On your notes of Akita, Malamute, and Husky. That's why I stated mix prefered becuase the common high pray drive gets deluted alot if not entirely. With those three it comes down to how young they are when you get them and how they where rased by the breeder, as many have taken up exposing those breeds to what would be viewed as "pray" animals(small dogs, cats, rabbits, ect.) to reduce/eliminate this aspect from the dogs so they are more readily adoptible. Especially the breeders in my area(CA) where many people have small kids/animals but want a large dog that could really help out.
I had a Mal mix SDiT that passed away in Jan of this year and he LOVED the family cat, and my esa chi and was never violent with either of them. He had absolutely no pray drive. However I do see where you're coming from. I do need a dog that will get me out of the house though so high energy isn't too large of a concern. As far as stubborness, that is a give in with some breeds, that's another reason to seek a mix because mix breeds can be less stubborn than that of the parent breeds. However the pull instincts of the Mal, and Husky would be benifical to me as my mobility issues kinda requior me to have some sort of extra help getting me to move foreward, and IF/When the time comes for a wheelchair having a dog that can pull my wheelchair would be a big help. Just my feelings on working with them.

I do great with vertually every breed(except for pure bred poodles the dislike goes both ways). Any critter in my family that displayed unwanted behaivor was properly corrected till said negitive behaior stoped entirely(yes this included cats).

No I haven't however they do slobber FAR too much and all my exp with them or mixes have showed while loyal and sweet they arent exactly the brigest. The one mix I had prolonged exp with Rudy(a rottie/st bernard mix) was very sweet, thought that he was a lap dog, he was lazy, really freindly(no protective bone in his body, even for protecting himself), and he wasnt very smart either. He didn't really have much drive to do anything. Now I know that not all mixes are going to be like Rudy, BUT that example honestly desn't give me much hope.

My very first dog was a mix of German Shepherd, Golden Retriever, and Labrador...she was wonderful, but finding that mix again to help me isn't likely. However I'm very aware of the GSD possiblity to be over protective, though from what I've seen you can redirect that to the proper situations. I'd have to ask my friend that has a GSD SDiT on how that would work.

I'm gonna reserve this post, and ask my dad what breed would be a good service dog. (he has raised alot of dogs, and knows a ton about them.)

Up here in alaska, there isn't a ban on pits, so yeah.. the main service dogs i've seen that are large breed are German Shepards, Labradors, Golden Retrievers and once a standard poodle.

EDIT: Dobermans. :D

Kk, thanks. :)

Though a note on poodles, only poodle mixes like me...me an pure poodles don't do well together for some reason...though it could totally been entirely the fault of the people that owned the pure poodles I knew on how aweful they turned out.

Do you really think it's wise to use a service dog as a means of intimidating people? If I understood correctly, the guy did nothing more than attempt to talk to you. No one is going to be discouraged from doing that by the presence of a large dog calmly ignoring them, and that's all a service dog should be doing in that situation. Expecting it to double as a guard dog that will scare off unwanted attention is asking for problems.