I met a young woman at Dream Catchers yesterday who has a 7 year old handicapped son (confined to a wheelchair) and a 3 year old as well.
She has just brought an 8 week old Siberian Husky pup into the house to help her son learn to work with dogs... I honestly don't know much about huskies, but my initial reaction was this was a very poor choice.
She is a single mom, in the military, and her son has had two service dogs taken away due to them not bonding with her young son.
I casually asked if she had ever heard of marker training, and she had not, so I offered to loan her my dvds.
She then said the pup was doing pretty well except for "happily peeing outside and then coming back inside to poop"... I asked about crate training and she said "The service dog folks suggested that but it seems so cruel...." I offered to get a crate for her and some more information, but it was not the best time to talk about dogs since she was focusing on her son's first lesson at the barn, and I could see her attention was torn.
My gut tells me this is not the right breed for a handicapped child, and since this young boy has already had two dogs removed, I know how important it is for this to go well, but honestly fear the worst. Am I way off track?
Any thoughts or advice? I've only met this woman once but will see her weekly.
Regardless if this is a mismatch with breed to boy, maybe showing the boy how to do some marker training. The touch game should be pretty easily understood with a 7 year old unless he is significantly cognitively delayed. Touch is fun. You could pretty much teach the dog in one visit and transfer it to the boy. It may help with bonding?
As far as poop in the house, not your house. You give the info on the crate, or suggestions about tethering. But, at the end of the day, the dog is pooping on her carpet. If she wants to do something about it, she has the information.
AND my other comment. How does any 7 year old take on a dog????? Let alone a child in a wheelchair. My kids begged for a dog that they would walk, love, pick up the poop in the yard. Well, they loved the dog (but I was on walk and poop duty)
I can imagine that huskies could care less about a child in a wheelchair, let alone any other child...(my friends had one before they had kids, kids came along, dog bit kids).
Oh, I think this is a good place for an OY VEY!! That mom needs a serious dose of reality.
ETA: I'm not saying that huskies are inherently bad. But need to be understood.
Understood, and neither am I. They simply have requirements/need which are going to be difficult to be met by a handicapped child and a single mom with two young children.
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Siberian Huskies
I honestly don't know much about huskies, but my initial reaction was this was a very poor choice. 
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