She Almost Lost Her Dog: This Company Changed Everything

For many Americans living with PTSD, depression, anxiety, and other mental health challenges, the most consistent source of daily stability is not medication or a therapist. It is an animal. And the question of whether they are allowed to keep that animal—in their home, without penalty, without having to prove themselves to a skeptical landlord—has become one of the more consequential and least-discussed issues in mental health access today. American Service Pets was built around that question.

“My divorce left me isolated, unable to work, eat, or sleep. In my darkest moments, she was my light. Because of Maui, I am here today.”

The woman who wrote that wasn't describing a pet. She was describing the animal that kept her functioning through the worst period of her life—a cat named Maui, whose presence provided what nothing else could. Her story is one of hundreds of thousands that have passed through American Service Pets since the company launched in 2018.

Chris Picou, co-founder and CEO of American Service Pets, didn’t set out to get involved in the world of emotional support animals back in 2017. But after being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder and Compulsive Behavioral Disorder three years earlier, he had spent most of his life relying on dogs to help him cope. When he came across a blog post on ESA documentation, he started looking into what legitimate options actually existed.

What he discovered was alarming. Most of the websites offering ESA products and services appeared to be scams.

As the CEO of Lido Labs, a digital marketing company, he recognized the gap immediately: real people with real mental health challenges were being preyed on by fake registries and fraudulent certification mills. No one was connecting them with actual licensed mental health professionals. No one was doing it the right way.

So he set out to build something that would.

American Service Pets launched on June 24, 2018. In that first month, 78 people in California were connected with a licensed doctor for a clinical ESA evaluation. It was a start—a small one—but the mission was clear from day one: build a verified network of Licensed Mental Health Professionals across all 50 states and, when clinically appropriate, provide people with a path to documentation issued by professionals licensed to practice in their state.

This process took three years and was funded entirely through reinvested revenue, with no outside investment. To date, the organization has helped more than 325,000 individuals connect with a Licensed Mental Health Professional in their state, allowing them to receive an evaluation that could help them certify their animal as an Emotional Support Animal or Psychiatric Service Animal. In 2023, the first year it applied, American Service Pets became the 764th entry in the Inc.5000 list of America's fastest-growing private companies.

The work never stopped at documentation. As landlord organizations pushed to tighten restrictions for ESA users, and as third-party pet screening services engaged in practices that bordered on discrimination against patients with proper documentation, American Service Pets decided to step into a role that others had left largely unfilled: advocacy.

The company’s position is clear on this point. It’s reasonable to conduct proper validations of ESA documents. What is not reasonable is when the screening process leads to discrimination or violates the federal and state legal protections patients are entitled to.

A second gap demanded attention. Psychiatric service dog training costs thousands of dollars and is out of the reach for most people who need it. Under federal law, handlers are actually permitted to train their own service animals—but most had no idea where to start.

In 2022, American Service Pets launched iTrain Academy, a program for at-home training of service dogs—professionally developed, available on any device, and affordable. Thousands of dog owners have since completed the course and trained their own Psychiatric Service Animals.

American Service Pets now connects patients with Licensed Mental Health Professionals across all 50 states. Its training programs continue to expand. And the company’s push for accountability around discriminatory practices is gaining momentum, with efforts underway to hold organizations liable when they violate the federal disability protections patients are entitled to—a fight Picou describes as just the beginning.

“I want to know I brought peace of mind and confidence to the people we exist to serve,” he says. “I want to be proud that we made a difference in people’s lives.”

For the hundreds of thousands of people who’ve come through the platform, animals by their sides, that work is already well underway.