back from walk, had lunch and now have a minute to post a little more info before work.

here is the website for Ohio that I looked at to find a prison program. I contacted the officer in charge of several programs and told them what I was looking for - a pup between 4-7 months with definite Border Collie or Australian Shepherd on one side, with a trainable breed on the other, that would have a shorter coat, and be 45-75 lbs. for service work. It took a year, but finally this litter came up and when they were ready to go, I had my pick of 4 pups. Your state's prison system should have a similar list. Prison dog training programs are becoming very popular. I would, however, caution to start with a young dog, or pup, as in researching this, I heard some bad stories about adopting older dogs that have been in the prison system. Seems pups that go through are fine.. but the older dogs are usually the ones that shelters don't think will be adopted otherwise, or have some issue or another that make them unadoptable, so they put them in the prison program to see if they can train them out of it. With a dog like mine, that went in at 10 weeks, it's like puppy basic training and you should be fine. The 5-7 month age seems perfect to adopt.

http://www.drc.state.oh.us/WEB/commserv_dogs.htm

This is the website for a woman who is on one of the Yahoo groups. She is not handicapped, but runs a place that trains handicapped dogs. These are videos of her training her "demonstration" dog, which came from a shelter. They think she is Border Collie and German Shepherd. She makes training look super simple. It is, if you build a good trusting relationship, and start with a solid foundation so that they understand the clicker training. It also helps A LOT if you have a dog that already has the will to learn and to please - like the dogs I list below...
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=...08&view=videos

If you want to learn more about clicker training, or see just how amazing it is... check out this woman's website. She has a ton of videos. Her dog Splash knew more at 4 months than most dogs learn in a lifetime.
http://www.youtube.com/user/kikopup

I have an older Australian Shepherd.. she is 12. She's a great dog. She blew her shoulder at a very young age and it was either very expensive surgery or make her a house dog and stop walking and frisbee... so she's been a house dog for years. I found, getting Josie, the new dog, has been good for me. She needs walked, and taken out to train. I didn't realize I could walk on my RSD feet like I can. It hurts.. believe me it hurts... but no more than if I wasn't walking on them. I have been a lot happier since going walking with her. Today we went 3-1/2 miles.

I am spending the time right now getting her used to going all sorts of places. Several businesses have allowed me to come in and train in them. So she's learned to lay quietly at my feet in the bank, post office, library, an art gallery, she's been in Lowe's, a garden center, all the pet stores in town - places like that. She's learned to heel without pulling AT ALL... and is now learning to heel on both sides of me by me using two different words for it. She's doing great. She's learning to wear a harness, and soon I will order her service vest - they are pricy, so have been waiting till she gets 9 months old so I will only have to order one.

I plan on teaching her to pick things up, carry a pack, turn on/off light switches, pull me up, get the phone, and get my Mom. My elderly Mom lives with me, so will teach her to get me, for my Mom, and to get Mom, for me, in case either of us falls. The same with getting the phone in case we fall. I am not sure what else I will teach her yet. OH, also pulling up the covers for me when I am in bed. I lay on my good side, and it's very hard and painful for me to pull up the covers with my bad arm. I saw a video of a person's dog pulling up the covers for them. And, the main thing... help me pull off my coat sleeves. I have a terrible time with that, since I my hands don't meet behind my back unless I really strain and it hurts a LOT... so if she would tug on my bad arm's clothing sleeve ... it would make undressing SO much easier!

It takes a lot of time to train a dog right to become a service dog. BUT you also end up with one heck of a good companion, also a dog will protect you, alert you to things etc.

Here in Ohio, you need an assistance dog to do 3 tasks for you, and be able to pass a canine good citizen test, even though they don't have to take the test, they need to be able to do all the things. That is stuff like heel, sit, down. You also need a prescription from your doctor. The dogs used for depression only need to be well behaved. They don't need to do anything but be a friend.

Take into account what problems you have physically when you choose what type of dog you have. What type of exercise can you give your dog? I chose a dog that was a combination of two very high energy breeds -- but I got one that was very very laid back for those breeds. I have RSD in my shoulders, so it is CRITICAL that she does not pull on me. So, I chose a dog that is not a natural puller... like a husky would be... and like a Border Collie can be... but I waited and looked for well over a year till I found just the right temperment dog. The wait will be worth it when the dog will match your purpose and your personality and situation.

Even though your heart wants a husky - you may find that a smaller dog, such as a sheltie cross would be the better dog for you. A really small dog that was always top in the obedience ring is a Papillon. Great little dog.

I needed a dog that could help pull me up on bad days, so I needed the extra size of the Lab in the mix, or I would have gone with a straight Border Collie, as that is what I am familiar with. When I showed dogs in the past, I either had Borders or Aussies.

I did a little search for intelligence by breed. The criteria of the most common sited ranking I saw in my quick search was Understanding new command in 5 repetitions, and will obey first command 95% of the time.
1 Border Collie. 2 Poodle. 3 German Shepherd. 4 Golden Retriever. 5 Doberman 6 Shetland Sheepdog 7 Labrador Retriever 8 Papillon 9 Rottweiler 10 Australian Cattle Dog

I think if you could find one of these 10 breeds, or a combination of them, you would find a dog that's easy to train. Being easy to train makes a difference to those of us with some physical challenges. I think all of these dogs have a high level of desire to please. That's where I think your husky breed would fall behind. Try doing a search for the breed, rescue and the state you live in, and generally the rescue groups have mixed breeds on their sites also...

Also consider that the bigger the dog, generally the shorter the lifespan.

And, like Ali said.. consider the cost. I saved up for mine over the 1-1/2 years I was looking - and still went over budget. She was $125 from shelter, $135 for spay another $75 for shots, heartworm meds, $35 for supply of flea and tick med, $140 for good large crate, $30 for crate mat, a lot in toys till I found some stuff she could not chew up.... collars, leashes, food, etc. Then, she has had chronic loose stools that ended up costing me nearly $400 SO FAR in medications and tests, because she was full of parasites and bacterias. It's been almost 3 months of treatments and she probably has 2 more months of meds before she's clear.

Would I do it again? You bet.

Does that help? I did a ton of research into this, so hope I can help if you have any questions.