If you’ve been to the Atascadero Senior Center or Transitions-Mental Health in San Luis Obispo, you may have run into a popular furry friend — service dog Ranger.
Along with his owner, John Crippen, Ranger is part of an ongoing project to create public awareness around service dog laws to help the public become more informed about how these special animals can help people.
According to the National Center for PTSD, six percent of the U.S. population suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. A service dog can be life-changing for many people.
Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. For people with PTSD, like Crippen, Ranger is there to calm him down during an anxiety attack
“With a psychiatric service dog, they can wake you up in the morning, they can remind you to take your medications and they can medically alert you if you have an anxiety attack or panic attack, they can come up and apply pressure to you," explained Crippen who is also a Transitions-Mental Health Association Behavioral Health Navigator.
Ranger was adopted when he was two years old and is now a registered service dog for PTSD.
According to Share America, in 2021, Americans utilized over 500,000 service animals in the United States.
“You know, a lot of our individuals, they isolate in their homes," said Trista Ochoa, Transitions-Mental Health Behavioral Health Navigation Program Manager. "They don't really go outside. Well, having a dog really doesn't allow you to do that.”
Crippen was a client at Lifehouse Wellness Center in Atascadero for six years and ended up getting an internship with Transitions-Mental Health Association. Now, he’s been working with the team for two years.
“For my own lived experience, my anxiety, PTSD got so bad that I didn't leave the house for almost two or three years," Crippen said. "After I got my first service dog, the trainer shadowed me for a few weeks. Two weeks into having my first service dog, I went in a Costco. He literally gave me my life back”
Service dogs are required to have training in three specific areas: basic obedience, public access, and performing at least two service dog tasks for the handler.
“We are constantly running high levels of cortisol, and so to have that service animal next to us, touching us, putting pressure on us, reassuring us that they're there, that actually helps lower that and really combats a lot of like social anxiety or just general anxiety disorders,” Ochoa said.
She adds that with Ranger present, Crippen has been able to break through to non-verbal clients
“He comes out and he visits them with me and he has a calming effect on all my clients," Crippen beamed. "They see him, takes their anxiety down like three notches. They get a smile on their face and he provides support for them as well as he does for myself.”
People looking to get a service dog typically first talk to a psychiatrist or a therapist. The next step is to find a reputable service dog trainer who can write up a proposal for the insurance company.
If you suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or other mental health issues and you’d like to see how to register your pet, click here for more.
Common questions about service dogs and the expectations and responsibilities of service dog handlers can be found here with the help of Ranger and John.
