I am working towards being able to offer professional service dog training services and am almost at the end of training my first service dog for myself for psychiatric work and momentum pulling and retrieval tasks. That seems pretty similar to what you're looking for. Since there aren't a huge number of people on this forum with personal experience training/working service dogs, I thought I'd chime in.
First, expect to get help in training this dog, and expect to meet with a trainer early and often. You're a first time dog owner and it sounds like you don't have much dog experience, which is difficult enough. Add to that the difficulty of training a dog to the high level of obedience and in the sometimes complex behaviors you need for task work, and you're putting A LOT on you plate. There are a number of places online that you might find help, which I'd be happy to refer you to, as well as multiple organizations that offer distance help with training you own dog that might be worth looking in to.
Don't take this the wrong way, but have you looked in to programs at all? Owner training a SD is hard, and very often does not meet with success, especially when you're starting with a puppy. I can say right now that if I need a SD after my current one retires, I would probably be thinking about trying to find an 8-10 month old dog to start with.
Second, with any kind of psychiatric work, and especially when you're talking about owner training, it's really important to remember that the thing you need above all else is a dog that is not going to get stressed because you are stressed. You don't want a dog that needs you to work it through anxiety while you're anxious and you can't have a dog that decides that it is going to take it upon itself to protect you. Because it sounds like you're planning to owner train this dog, and especially because it sounds like this is your first dog ever, you ideally want a dog that is unlikely to experience these issues at any point in its life, not just as a fully fledged adult. Plenty of dogs in programs have these issues and work through them with experience puppy raisers or with professional trainers from the program. It's not easy for you to be learning how to work through them while trying to work a dog through them, though, and depending on the manifestations of your anxiety, it can be almost impossible. Having just come off 2.5 years learning to work young dogs through these issues while having severe anxiety of my own, I say this from experience.
In terms of your reasoning that Labs and Goldens are susceptible to hip/elbow issues and that's why you don't want to consider them, keep in min that hips are going to be a concern in pretty much any large breed, and elbows are a concern in most large breeds AND many smaller breeds. As someone mentioned above, poodles are also a breed with which hip dysplasia is a concern. However, orthopedic concerns are something that can be tracked through the lineage of a dog with OFA or PenHip standardized testing. If you get a dog that has dogs behind it for 5 generations with appropriate clearances, you greatly reduce the risk of orthopedic issues.
On "Family Affairs"- I've come across them before, and I cannot stress enough to look elsewhere. Their breeding program is at best subpar, and at worst downright alarming. Dogs may come from pedigrees with some health testing, but their breeding dogs pretty much never are. You CANNOT guarentee a dog is free from hip or elbow issues "from parentage", and there are other concerns aside from that that warrant testing. It's also impossible to completely clear a line of orthopedic issues, given that there is a strong environmental component and sometimes even in lines with good hips issues come up. You want an orthopedically educated vet looking at X-rays and making an unbiased call, or you can follow the (IMO more reliable) Penhip protocols to test joint health. They breed at a HUGE volume, which makes it almost impossible to track all their puppies in their new homes for health and temperament, and is in itself something I balk at on principle. They do nothing to prove their dogs- no competing of any kind, which means that the call that any one dog is worth breeding is completely their own and has no outside eyes on it. Their dogs also all live in kennels, which IMO limits what you can really say about their temperament, given these dogs don't seem to really be leaving the property- with that number of dogs and the fact that they don't compete with them, I struggle to believe they're doing much beside staying in their kennels and sometimes playing with one another. Add to that that the breed club has banned them from joining, and it's red flag after red flag. Their website is filled with buzzwords and marketing jargon and pretty pictures. On the surface they do look great, but it's very clear their main goal is to make money selling their puppies, and IME that doesn't go hand in hand with responsible breeding practices.
In terms of actual breed recommendations:
- Stay away from GSDs and other guard/guardian breeds. As a first time dog owner, they'd be a challenge. Add in training a service dog to the mix and you're courting failure already.
- I would personally recommend labs/goldens over poodles, because labs and goldens tend to be more affable and less sensitive from what I've seen of the three breeds. They are IMO/E an easier temperament for a first time owner and trainer to work with. Look for breeders who have placed successful service dogs and have dogs with health tested pedigrees at least 5 generations back.
- If it's a texture issue with the lab coats, that's understandable. While I bet you could find labs with coats you like more (diet plays a huge role in coat texture, so its possible the ones you met just weren't on great food), sometimes texture just isn't right with a certain breed's coat. If you DO want a poodle, I would be looking for lines that have produced a lot of service dogs that are fully trained, not just sold dogs with the intention of them being a service dog.
I really like the facebook group "Fact or Fiction: Uncensored Opinions of Breeders" because it has a wide range of people from a wide range of breeds that can make recommendations.
