Jax and Pint share spotlight as service dog graduates alongside teen handler at Viera High

Pint, like many high-schoolers preparing to graduate in 2023, has gone through it all, from virtual school during the 2020 COVID lockdown to field trips and SAT testing.

The one thing that sets Pint apart from other Viera High School students graduating Friday: He’s a 5-year-old, 50-pound Kerry Blue Terrier and the service dog to Jaxon “Jax” Russack-Cradeur.

“He did have a student ID that could be scanned into the school, even though he’s the only dog at the school,” Russack-Cradeur said.

Without Pint beside her with his vest that reads "SERVICE DOG, DO NOT DISTRACT," Russack-Cradeur looks like an average 18-year-old. She enjoys horseback riding, working in a barn, fishing and engaging in other outdoor activities. In the fall, she'll attend college locally before transferring to University of Central Florida.

But the past five years have been filled with unexpected hurdles as she’s navigated chronic illness, trying to get a diagnosis and being the first person at Viera High School with a service dog.

Dark days without Pint

During eighth grade, Russack-Cradeur caught mono. It’s a viral infection many young people and adults catch that goes away on its own without complications. But for some, an infection like mono, COVID-19 or other illness can trigger autoimmune diseases or other chronic conditions.

That’s what happened to Russack-Cradeur.

“It’s kind of just escalated from there,” said her mother, Bari Russack-Cradeur.

Russack-Cradeur has postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, a chronic illness that causes a person’s heart to beat more quickly than normal when moving from sitting or lying down to standing up, according to the Cleveland Clinic. POTS can cause a variety of symptoms such as dizziness, fainting, heart palpitations, fatigue, chest pain and more. Symptoms can be exacerbated by things like prolonged standing, exercise or warm environments.

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For Russack-Cradeur, it took until just last year to get a diagnosis, though she was able to purchase Pint from a breeder and get him trained as a service dog during ninth grade.

Those months without him were a dark time, she said.

“The only thing I left the house for was for school, and then I’d be in my room,” she said, adding that she was anemic and her immune system does not function well.

“Once (I) got home, I would automatically go into my bed to take a nap because my body was exhausted. It was almost like you’ve been fatigued like you had run a marathon even though you just got up and went to school.”

Adjusting to life with Pint

Both Russack-Cradeur and her mom said bringing Pint to school was an adjustment for Viera High.

“Literally the entire school had to watch these videos (about disabilities) and they were so archaic,” said mom Bari Russack-Cradeur. “There were several dogs in the school system, but it was almost like we landed on Mars, like no one knew what to do.”

Jax recalled that Pint was once mistaken as a drug-sniffing dog while performing deep pressure therapy on her, a task that involves a service dog leaning on or lying on top of their handler to provide comfort, relief from pain, calm the nervous system or mitigate other symptoms. The memory was awkward, she said, though she recalled it with a laugh.

However, by her sophomore year, it was “smooth sailing,” with teachers and returning students recognizing Pint.

“He just became somebody on the campus, and everybody knows him,” she said.

Having Pint with her on campus was vital. Throughout a school day, he often alerted her to sit down, lie down or avoid going up or down stairs if it wasn’t safe — things Jax said she wouldn’t necessarily have noticed or would have pushed through on her own.

“If I’m not doing well, and I’m in a situation where I’m not paying attention, and he’s trying to tell me that I’m going to have an episode, he will bark at me once — he will gruff or huff at me once to get my attention, and he will stop after that, and that’s his way of telling me that, ‘You need to get on the ground now,’” she said.

And outside of school, Pint is always by her side. He’s traveled with her to Disney, flown on planes and kept close to her through years of EKGs, heart monitors and other medical tests as she worked to get a diagnosis.

“He would be at every appointment,” she said. “There’s only one thing he couldn’t come to — the MRI, because his vest is full of metal.”

Unexpected opportunities for education

For the most part, Russack-Cradeur’s illness goes unseen by others. It’s an “invisible disability,” a condition whose symptoms are happening internally and generally not able to be seen by those around her.

With Pint beside her, her disability has become more visible. Sometimes she gets unwanted attention from strangers, but often, classmates at Viera High School have talked to her looking for advice, she said.

“My classmates would ask … and they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s interesting, because my brother has epilepsy, we don’t even know how to get (a service dog),’” she said. “It’s more informing people of the process because they didn’t know how to get one.”

It's also offered a sense of connection between classmates who also have invisible illnesses, or who have family members or friends with disabilities.

"I got ... a lot of people coming to me about themselves as well as their parents having conditions ... stuff like that," she said.

Pint and Jax: college-bound

It’s been a busy week for Russack-Cradeur and Pint. In addition to preparing to walk the stage at Hawk Stadium at the end of the week — where Pint had his own doggy-sized cap and gown — they toured Eastern Florida State College, where Russack-Cradeur plans to spend a year before transferring to University of Central Florida to earn a biology degree.

She also had her first interview for a job — something that’s been challenging to get with a disability that prevents her from standing for prolonged periods of time, and with a service dog.

Though ADA law prevents employers from discriminating against service dog handlers, some companies are still hesitant to hire a person who will have a dog with them at all times. And it can be hard to find one that’s accommodating to her needs, she said.

“You can’t discriminate against somebody with disabilities, but how many hours they put you, or what you’re doing in a job, or for what days and if you can call out sick because hiring somebody with a chronic illness, you never know,” she said.

This job is set up through a vocational rehab program that specifically works to match disabled people with jobs around Brevard, and Russack-Cradeur is excited to get started.

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In a way, she feels that she’s catching up on other experiences her peers have already gone through — things she wasn’t able to do during the height of COVID and continued to try to get diagnosed.

“It was like a year on pause,” the teen said. “I’m now starting to do the firsts for a bunch of stuff — job interview-wise, that kind of stuff.”

As his human companion navigates these new experiences, Pint will remain at her side. Though most service dogs retire at about age 8 and live as pets, it’s a place he’ll be for many, many years, she and her mom believe.

“He frets (without her),” Bari Russack-Cradeur said. “There’s no way they can be separated. There’s just no way.”

Jax Russack-Cradeur plans to follow whatever Pint wishes.

“He will probably be retired out the last year of college,” she said. “But that’s up to him.”

Finch Walker is the education reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at 321-290-4744 or fwalker@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @_finchwalker.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Cap and gown for 'Pint' as Viera teen graduates alongside service dog