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Sounds like y'all have a great situation for a dog. All breeds you listed are great, but I think each has a different concern. The Greyhound is tricky, they are more independent and cat-like in some ways, but they are sight hounds and it can be tricky to find one that is good with cats. How your cat reacts to a dog is a big factor. If they run from dogs, this could be a bad breed for your situation. My cats don't run from dogs, they let our dogs approach, and sniff, and if they are done with the situation, they exit calmly. This is good because they are not triggering prey drive in my dogs as easily. My almost 11-month-old herding cross has some prey drive and we do a lot of work with her and the cats. It can be done, but you need to be prepared to train through it for the first few months, regardless of the breed of dog. Dachshunds are usually better with cats, the greater concern is they are prone to separation anxiety, so measures will need to be taken to prevent that from happening. If they bond with the cats, then this should lower the chance of that happening. Dobermans are fairly neutral with cats, so this is a good choice. They are prone to separation anxiety and anxiety in general. Because they tend to be more neutral with cats, the chance of them bonding with your cats is lower and that may not help the dog while you and your girlfriend are at work. So it may be more work on your end to keep them from developing anxiety. They are also a breed that you need to be 100% committed to and understand. Side note, check your local ordinances to make sure it is legal to own a Dobbie in your area. Unfortunately, they are not allowed in some areas and I would hate for you to have to deal with that. Dobbies and Greyhounds are not for the underprepared handler, in my opinion. As with any breed, understanding the history and purpose of the breed will help you. Dobbies was bred for the purpose of being a personal guard dog and later was crossed with a Greyhound. Do you want that in a dog, and are you and your girlfriend prepared to handle that kind of power? The Greyhound is an ancient breed bred to chase small prey across the deserts for the pharaohs of old. Are you able/willing to provide for the need for running? I know I asked more questions, but I honestly think that they are important for helping you decide. I hope you find your perfect heart dog.

That is a real concern. Maybe you can figure out how to make it work.

I hope she finds it helpful, both of you feel free to ask me any questions.

@@busywithdogs Thank you❤

Thank you so much!

@@busywithdogs No problem! We absolutely adore cats and dogs!

❤️🐶❤️

Sorry, that I didn't reply fully sooner, had a busy weekend. I am so glad that you found this helpful. If you need more help, let me know and I will try to point you in the right direction.

Joy prefers the scissors too, but it takes sooo long. This works okay, especially around the feet. But it’s not the prettiest, but that could be my complete lack of skill. My favorite thing is how much it helps with clean up.

That is hilarious!😂 Dogs are so smart and funny.

My personal favorite independent breed is the Great Pyrenees, I have had two. However, I know this giant breed is not for everyone. Here is a list of other breeds that I would consider. Chinese Crested (The powder puff ones are adorable!) Greyhound Lhasa Apso Maltese Poodles Keep in mind, that more independent dogs are not always the easiest to train and can require a different tactic to train than other breeds of dogs. They are trainable, but you can't train them with the same tactic as a Golden Retriever. Also, more independent breeds are prone to be escape artists in backyards. They also usually don't make good off-leash dogs. However, all of these traits can be overcome with vigilance on the owner's side. I do have a free system that I use for getting my own dogs, you can find it here. www.busywithdogs.com/dog I hope this helps, let me know if you have any more questions.

Another independent dog is a Shiba Inu!

@@W4ffl3.st4r Yes, wonderful dog. They do require a handler who understands the breed.

@@W4ffl3.st4r theyre independent alright, and stubborn!! definitely would not get bored with one but not a breed for me 😹

Biolab in Georgia, it’s wild that no one is covering it. Face coverings weren’t helpful, the chemicals just cling to them and hold the smell. We are taking precautions: turned off air conditioning and had our air purifier running in high.

There was a chemical fire outside of Atlanta Georgia. They had to evacuate the immediate area and that whole county was put under shelter in place orders. We are in a neighboring county and we were slightly affected. I can only imagine just how awful it was closer.

@@busywithdogs Thank you for your time & clarity. And I'm praying for you all, especially since with this type of calamity, there are usually residual effects that go on for years.

We greatly appreciate the prayers. There will likely be a class action lawsuit since it seems they were storing hyperreactive chemicals where they could get wet. From what I understand, there was a small fire that triggered the water sprinkler system that put out the initial fire, and that triggered the chemical fire. We shall see how that plays out. The good news for us is that the air has cleared up some.

Not talking about daily scooping out, I was talking about deep cleaning it. Removing the old litter, scrubbing the box, and putting fresh litter in. Sorry for the confusion.

That is a lot of work. I hope it works for you. We had to do a similar process last year when we had an infestation. This tag is working nicely as a preventative, which I love because of how much work we had to do in the past. Just a caution: I had a dog that had seizures caused by pine-based cleaning products, so I stopped using them entirely. It may not be an issue for your furbabies, but it is worth mentioning.

🤣 You keep thinking that, I am going to enjoy my flea free home while you do.

Definitely worth pursuing! I know that Service Dogs can be trained to interrupt skin picking and can be trained to do a task to support the handler for anxiety.

Hey, thank you for the suggestions. We did just that last year and years past (AND MORE) but still had to resort to chemical flea prevention. This is the first year we have not had flea issues. In the first part of the year, we continued with the Nexguard but over the summer we have been able to transition all three dogs to the BioPower PetShield, and after several months with these tags still no fleas, even during the heart of flea season. Where we live flea season is roughly 9 months long and is intense, this is the first natural product that has worked for our animals. The tag is easy to use and is supposed to last for an entire year. The amount of time, energy, and money that I used to battle fleas for my animals was a lot and unsuccessful. I am a classically trained holistic practitioner and have been using natural products my whole life, and I was getting very disheartened with the lack of good results with natural remedies for flea prevention. I still believe in using those products, my dogs get brewer's yeast every day and we keep Diatomaceous Earth on hand at all times. (Yes, it is a good source.) My dogs also take apple cider vinegar and other things to help with the fleas. The tag has been an absolute blessing and has made the work I have to do to prevent my animals from getting fleas go down significantly. I am a busy mom with multiple disabilities and this product has just been a God send. I understand that it is not for everyone, but it is for me and my family.

Oh cool, what breed? Clover is a German Heeler (hybrid of German Shepherd and Australian Cattle Dog)

I also get really bad stress and anxiety, to where I bite my nails and skin, and scratch my scalp, but I feel as if those are a lost cause, because I've been to 4 therapist and they weren't able to help, its gotten so bad this past year though to wear all my fingers a badly scarred, and I'm very prone to infections, and my finger tips are always bleeding, but again those I believe are a lost cause to fix/help, but if that gives more info about me, and help with what you might think about if I should/shouldn't get a service dog, then, there you go. :( I don't know.

Hi, sweets, nothing about what you are going through is dumb, that is very heavy stuff, and even if it were "just in your head" that is still what you are going through and no one should have to live like that. I am sorry that you are going through this and that therapists have not been able to help you, I hope and pray that you can find someone who can help you. I do think that a Service Dog could improve the quality of your life, but, before you go do the journey of getting a service dog make sure you and your family and support team are all open to the idea. I would also highly recommend you and your family watch Laura @doggyu www.youtube.com/@DoggyU she is a Service Dog trainer, she uses a Service Dog herself, and will be getting her a new Prospect this Fall. She has a lot of information on Service Dogs and what to look for in a dog, how to handle going out in public, and more. A book that I found very helpful is "The Ultimate Service Dog Training Manual" amzn.to/3MrPLSK (Amazon affiliate link) but I found it at my local library. This book explains the legal rights of Service Dogs, what qualifies a dog to be a Service Dog and more. All of the things that you mentioned above are tasks that Service Dogs can be trained to help with. For the "panic" episodes that you experience, a dog can be trained to help you find a safe space to be in, to interrupt your behavior and bring you out of it, or to go get help. There are so many nuances to what you described I think that you do not need to go the owner training route, you need an already trained dog that a professional trainer can help you tailor the dog's tasks to your needs. For the picking at yourself, a dog can be trained to interrupt that as well or go get help, however, you do need a professional trainer who can evaluate you and the dog to decide what is going to be the best and safest choice for both you and the dog. For the mobility stuff, that is definitely something a dog can help with and I am going to be training my Service Dog Prospect to do it. Clover is 9 months old and can already close cabinets and the fridge for me. I will be branching out to train her to open them soon. I also will be training her to pick things up for me. Dogs can be trained to do brace, but again, a professional Service Dog Trainer would be able to help you to know what is going to be the best method for you and your dog. Depending on the source of your pain, some dogs can be trained to smell it. There are migraine detection dogs that use scent to detect a migraine a few hours before the handler experiences any symptoms. This is very difficult to train, but it can be done. Clover is very in tune with me and is starting to show me that she knows when I am in pain or if a food will trigger pain. This is something that she is presenting on her own, not all dogs will take to this naturally. I will say, I do think you need to be VERY specific about what breed you get. I do not think that a herding breed like Clover is the best option for you. Herding breeds are extremely in tune with their handler's emotion and they are prone to be reactive in nature. So if you have an emotional episode a herding dog will want to react and get the "bad guy", take control of the situation, and protect you from what is upsetting you. They can become anxious because of this. This could leave you trying to control an anxious animal which will not help you. A breed like a Golden Retriever from the correct breeding line with good family temperament will not get sucked into your emotional state because of their happy-go-lucky demeanor, this will allow them to do their job and do the task needed to help you in that state. Whereas a breed like a German Shepherd or Australian Cattle Dog are both prone to anxiety in these situations. Yes, there are exceptions to this, however, when you are talking about getting a Service Dog the success rate is already low, 30%, so choosing a breed that is going to have a better match to begin with is going to increase your odds of success. Also, you mentioned wanting a dog to retrieve things for you, having a retrieving breed will LIVE to bring you your things. Goldens have what's called a "soft mouth" meaning that they do not tend to bite hard on the item that they are carrying. But, this also means that they don't like to pick up hard objects and have to be trained for it. But again, working with a trainer will help. I hope that you find this helpful, the truth is, only you and your support team (family, friends, doctors, or whoever you have to help you) can decide if a Service Dog is right for you, but again, I can definitely see that one could greatly improve the quality of your life and that you do have REAL needs that a Service Dog can be trained to assist with. If you and your team decide that this is the right route for you keep in mind that is a long, hard road, and it can get expensive. Sometimes insurance and different programs can help, other times they won't. There are often long wait lists. It's a long and hard road. Even with Owner Training, it took me almost a full year to find a breeder, and that is shorter than most people's time frames. You also need to make sure that you and your support team are emotionally, mentally, physically, and financially able to take care of a dog. Service Dogs' needs are more than the average dog's because of the jobs that we ask them to do, but they do incredible jobs. And, this may seem obvious, but you do need to be a dog person or are willing to become a dog person. Your lifestyle will become about you and your dog. You will be a team, so you need to like dogs. I hope that this answer helps, I know that it was long, but a short answer would just not do. I am rooting for you. Let me know if you have any more questions, and I will try to answer or help you find resources to people who can answer your questions. Blessings.

Have you talked to a doctor about this? You really should, and you'll want it on record that you have something disabling, even if you don't have an official diagnosis.

@@Izamota-q5v not really, I'm pretty closed off, and feel like when I talk about my issues to people Im being dramatic, with one problem after another and so on and so forth, but I would like to as long is its not a rushed thing, like I go to a Dr and they ask me about everything, but are also rushing me to get to the next person, although I know that's how it is, I know I could get a therapists opinion and they could recommend me a service dog or something, but I don't have the money or time right now, plus my mom always working (Im 17) and I feel like Im a bother if I was to ask her to take me to see a Dr for my issues I've just lived with for as long as I could remember, almost like in my head it plays her getting mad, and stuff that I'm complaining a lot more now, and how all this stuff is just coming up, but really it's something I just didn't talk about much then, I also asked her opinion about a service dog for me and actually let her read what I had wrote above telling all the reasons, but she said no, the reason was valid I guess though, I have 2 dogs and 4 cats one which I'm just taking care of for a year, the others are mine, but before I started taking care of the 4th cat I had a puppy, who passes from a disease common in puppy, I was actually going to try and train her part mobility help, and stuff that I could, but never got to it before she passed, I would have had 3 dogs 3 cats, now I have 2 dogs 4 cats, but my mom wants me to get rid of all 4 of the cats, saying another dog is to much, which I do get, but getting rid of all my cats for one dog, which I would have had along with my 3 cats, I don't fully think that's fair, but she's my mom, so unless I get a stable(good) income and could get a house, Im unable to get a service dog to help me. I'm just ranting I guess, it's a bit upsetting for me, for her to think I'd give all my cats away for 1 dog, but, I'm just not going to try again, I break down in the face of conflict so in just giving up, but it was nice to think I could have gotten help, and another buddy, and that people do think what's a daily to me is actually serious, and that I do need help. :( thanks for helping me realize I would actually benefit from a service dog though.

That is a lot of animals, so I understand Mom's position. I hope you and your mom can find a doctor who will listen to you and help you. If you are in the U.S. (you don't have to tell me) your doctor works for you, so if they are not listening, you can fire them and find a new one. I know it is not that it is not as simple as it sounds, but there are ways. If you can, find someone who can help you and your mom advocate for you. You deserve to be listened to, and if you know something is wrong, then your doctor should listen to you. It is not attention-seeking to get help. It is not being over dramatic. And even if it were, that would in itself be a sign of a need to be helped. But, getting help can take time, it can take a lot of searching. So, have heart and don't give up. It may be worth looking into Holistic Doctors, they look at the whole person and also take more time with their patients/clients. Many will spend an hour with them. Also, chiropractors (not all) often have holistic practices and tend to listen more in-depth to their patients. As far as the Service Dog, if you know this is the path you want to take in the future, take time to work on being the best dog handler you can be with your current dogs. In the meantime, do all the research you can and get all the help you can get. It's a long process, so take time to learn and prepare as you can. You may decide that this is not the route you want to take. Even if Mom was on board to get one right now, it would still likely be a few years before you could get one. You have a future to prepare for, with or without a Service Dog, so do all you can to have a good life.

Aww thanks, Friends is my comfort and is my favorite show. We would have so much fun shopping! No, she actually doesn't react to my kids when they do decide to be bratty towards her, which is WILD to me. I do get onto them when they are rude to our dogs, our 4 year old is the only one likes to tease the dogs and he gets into a lot of trouble for it. It doesn't happen often. I also do not leave my small children alone with any of our dogs for any length of time. He just run into the room loudly and she knows noise bothers me. We working really hard to let her know that it is okay that the kids run around and make noise and that it's not her job to stop them. My kids have started telling her, "not your job, Clo" and that seems to help. I think it's like you said with Clea, she is just knows mama doesn't like it, therefore it must be stopped. She goes into Cattle dog herding mode to stop them. I want to get her a herding ball so she has a better outlet for her instincts. She is not spayed, but she has already gone through her first heat, and that was INTENSE. We had to keep her from the other dogs while her hormones did their thing. We will get her spayed, but I prefer to wait until my dogs are 1-2 years old. She is overall a great dog and I know this phase will end, I just have to make sure that she isn't picking up nasty habits along the way.

Side note: a situation just happened that she would normal go into Cattle Dog Control It mode and she kept her cool and I was able to give her some cookies. So, we are getting there.

@@busywithdogs It's in my top 4 fav shows of all time. I would skip things just to watch it when it aired. I wasn't trying to say you should spay her, hope it didn't come out that way, just saying it's the hormones lol which you know. I'm sure her going into heat was fun. I wish I would have waited for my girls but we had so many male dogs coming to our house we had to do it sooner. They never went through it. I think she's doing amazing. We have a similar saying here especially with Sully. "I don't need your help sir" lol They really pick up on so much from us and what we like and are feeling.

@@busywithdogs She will get there. You know what you're doing. Your other baby was beautiful by the way.

@TheHeelerMama it’s a great show. I know you weren’t, but I went ahead and put it out there because it’s TH-cam and you know how people can get in the comments. 😅 Aww thank you! Selah was one of a kind like your Silver. Thank you for encouragement, it means so much coming from you. ❤️

I love Laura! Did you hear that she is getting her prospect this Fall? I am so excited for her. Sometimes back to basics is what you have to do with training, and it really is okay. She is the 5th puppy that I have raised and in many ways, her teenage phase has been the easiest to deal with. Thanks for the encouragement! How old is your prospect now?

@@busywithdogs YES!!! I can’t wait to watch him grow up and become an amazing SD for her …. My boy is 1 year and 8 months old.

​​⁠It is going to be amazing to watch her journey. Getting closer to adulthood! How is task training going, if you don’t mind my asking.

She slams drawers, the fridge, and gates closed. She does hide bowls under my bed. She also steals my phone. So yeah, check to them all. (She really does do all of those things!)

@@busywithdogs😂😂😂

Thank you sharing and your sweet comment. I am having a bad health day and this made my day. ❤️ It is a journey! May I ask what helped you make the decision to get a Service Dog? Best of luck to you and your dog!

Adorable

We also have to be really careful with perfumes, and this really is light! My goodness, blessings of good health to you!❤️

Thanks for the tip, but we have tried that and it did not help. Too many animals, too much work, and not effective for us. We do give our animals ACV in their food or water to help with all kinds of things.