For years, intense nightmares brought on by anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorders kept Jordan Danger trapped in sleep even when her alarm was going off.

Jordan Danger and her service dog, Corben. (Alan Neal/CBC) But since Corben the Australian Shepherd has entered her life as a service dog, the Barrhaven woman says her mornings are much smoother.

"I actually recorded myself saying, 'Good morning, Corben.' And so when that goes off, he knows that it's time to jump up on the bed, and he will paw me and lick me and whine at me until I get up," she told Alan Neal on CBC Radio's All In A Day.

"It's amazing. I can actually get up on time now for the first time in years and years."

Danger is on a mission to raise awareness about the broad skills of service dogs. She started working with photographers on a series of shoots about their lives together, and has been using the hashtag #servicedogsCAN to promote her campaign on social media.

Danger initially thought a service dog would help her deal with high-stress situations and make it possible for her to travel internationally alone.

"I felt like in my daily life, I had it under control but it wasn't until I had a service dog that I realized I was coping but I wasn't really thriving," she said.

'He actually makes me more able'

Danger never used to wear her anxiety "on the outside," but now that she has Corben she has endured the stigma of sharing that with the world.

"Where you used to have an invisible disability, now it's highly visible," she said.

She emphasized that Corben has made living with anxiety and PTSD easier.

"People don't seem to understand that a service dog is not a sign that I am less able. He's a prosthetic or a wheelchair or anything else like that. He's a piece of medical equipment — not to sound unloving — but he actually makes me more able," she said.

Her goal now is to debunk myths about service dogs under the theme of what they "can" do by asking people to complete the phrase, "Service dogs can _____."

One example is that service dogs can play.

"What I hear a lot is, 'Oh, your poor dog, he has to work all the time.' Well, he plays a lot," she said.