View Message

I train with an organization that works with team training.
I buy my own dog with their help and train the dog with their help
The organization is ADI and ADEU accredited.
This means I can pick a breed of my choice and I can name my dog.

Of course, there are people with "emotional support" pets (sometimes specially trained, more often not, and sometimes not even having basic obedience training) and call them service dogs so they can bring them into restaurants and other places where only "service dogs" are normally allowed.

---

With actual service dogs associated with an organization, the dogs are bred and born at a facility, named, evaluated as to whether they are good candidates for the work, and as young pups live with foster families to be trained and socialized and get accustomed to being out and about in various public settings. Then at, I believe, around 18 months, they go back to the facility to learn specific skills, like guiding a blind person or assisting someone with poor mobility. They're already around two years old when they are paired with their human, who typically comes to the facility and stays for several weeks to learn to work with the dog.

---

I have a close friend who is blind and who at one time considered getting a guide dog.

---

(Also, you don't get to choose the sex of your dog; they're all neutered early on so there's not much reason to prefer one over the other.)