Most people in Vermillion know wherever Serena Clarkson is, so is her dog Daisy. Her pit bull service dog helps Clarkson manage her painful disorder.

VERMILLION, S.D. (KCAU) — Serena Clarkson has CMT a degenerative nerve disease that makes it hard for her to get around on her own. For the past 12 years, her service dog Daisy has assisted her and helped her work through her medical condition. She said Daisy has become her best friend, but that many people fear her just because she’s a pitbull.

Most people in Vermillion know wherever Serena Clarkson is, so is her dog Daisy. Her pit bull service dog helps Clarkson manage her painful disorder.

“There are days where I just lay in bed in pain, there are days where it is hard to walk,” said Clarkson.

Daisy does more than comfort Clarkson through the pain. Often times she is a lifeline.

“There are times where I don’t even have to say anything. If I’m in the bathroom getting sick she knows to go get my husband I don’t have to tell her go get dad. If I fall I don’t have to say Daisy come here, she comes right to me,” said Clarkson.

But when Daisy is doing her job is public, not everyone agrees that a pit bull could be a service dog.

“I’ve had people yell at her, I’ve had people cuss at us because she has been there, I’ve had people kick at her, I’ve had people throw things at her, I’ve had people pushcarts at her to get away from us or them,” said Clarkson.

Clackson also feels wrongfully judged, by airline companies many of them banning pit bulls even if they’re service dogs. Making it difficult for her to travel.

“That’s when I would need her the most and she would be trapped under the plane with no way to get to me. So we just don’t fly we drive and we take her with us,” said Clarkson.

But for this family, Daisy is more than just a pit bull.

“I just think people don’t understand her I mean she is there to do a job, she is not there to make there lives chaotic. She is there to keep mine from becoming chaotic,” said Clarkson.

If you see Clarkson with Daisy out in public, she actually lets people pet Daisy even when she is working, because she wants everyone to know just how friendly and sweet pit bull’s can be.