Lisa B. Henderson

History
Lisa has always had a love of animals, especially dogs, and she has been working professionally with them since 2001. Early on in her career she worked as a doggy daycare attendant, dog groomer, vet assistant and a caregiver at an animal shelter. After getting her B.A. in Human Services, she quickly made her way back to shelter work, earning her Certified Professional Dog Trainer certification. Love of rescues, and a real passion for animal rights has inspired her to focus on dog training to make sure dogs are well trained and happy in their forever homes.

Training Philosophy
Lisa believes that in order to see training results, you and your dog must have mutual respect for each other. She can show you how to achieve this through the use of positive reinforcement training techniques, rewarding the good and ignoring the "bad". Communication, consistency and follow through are key!

Services

• Puppy Training
• Basic Obedience
• Advanced Obedience
• Behavior Modification
• Adoption and Breed Consulting
• Board and Train for puppies
• Boarding
• Day Training

Certifications
Certified Professional Dog Trainer- Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA)

Specializations
Puppy training, basic and advanced obedience, and problem behavior modification.

Training Methods
Positive reinforcement training techniques

Customer Reviews

Kelly G.: "My husband and I just had our 5 month old German Short Haired Pointer, Hazel, work with Lisa and it was fantastic! We can't say enough good things about it. Lisa worked with Hazel and with us to figure out the best way to train our very energetic pup. We can't recommend Silver Spring Dog Training and Lisa enough."

Annabel P.: "As a client of Silver Spring Dog Training, I have been very happy with their service. I met Lisa Henderson when she taught a Puppy Kindergarten class at Washington Animal Rescue League. I noticed right away that she had a wonderful way with the dogs as well as their human guardians. Since then, I have used her to train my rescue puppy on behavior issues. He is very smart so I need someone who can understand him and encourage good habits. I would recommend Lisa Henderson to anyone who is looking for a competent dog trainer."

Dan L.: "My wife and I needed some help with training our dog to be more attentive to our commands, better behaved when someone comes to our door, and more compliant with food guarding. Lisa came over to our house and showed us some great techniques for working with him on his bad habits. She has a very upbeat and professional approach to working with dogs, focusing on rewarding him for positive behaviors, and she's done a great job in giving us information and guidance to keep training him on our own."

Elizabeth P.: "I am writing to recommend Lisa Henderson in the highest possible terms.
Lisa was an immense help and provided us with thorough guidance and a steady hand in working with our dog Barley, who's loveable, but a challenge. As a trainer, Lisa is thoughtful, kind, patient, understanding, and determined to get the best outcome for any pet and his or her family. She is non-judgmental about a pet's weaknesses, and tailors her training to a particular pet or family's needs. Lisa has a warm and wonderful presence around dogs, and was able to make even our fearful dog feel comfortable immediately. If you are looking for help with anything from training a new puppy to erasing bad habits in an older dog, Lisa is the absolute best!
We rescued our dog Barley after he was surrendered by a family for biting. It took time for us to realize that Barley had developed a pattern of biting; once we did, we sought help. We first turned to a different dog trainer who charged us nearly $500 for an hour of her time and the privilege of emailing her in the future (she didn't plan to meet with us again in person). The training exercises that the trainer had me do resulted in me being bitten within the first week! I wrote to that trainer to ask for guidance about what to do—a matter that felt urgent and incredibly stressful—and had to wait several days to even receive a response. The response that I did receive was that I must have done too much,
too soon (even though I was only following her training exercises).
This is when we found Lisa, and thank goodness we did. Throughout our training, Lisa was extremely responsive by email. She was flexible about setting up times to meet. In advance of our sessions, she would send along rules designed to make our training sessions go as smoothly as possible. During sessions, we would be given 100 percent of Lisa's attention, hands on guidance, instructions about exercises that would help improve Barley's behavior, and explanations about why and how these exercises worked. After the session, we were given training exercises to do over the week—these exercises were discussed in person and over email. In between training sessions, I would ask Lisa all of my training questions by email and she was incredibly responsive (exceeding all of my expectations!) providing helpful guidance on topics ranging from enforcing boundaries to expanding Barley's comfort zone.
As a result of the training, we learned that because of Barley's prior lack of socialization, he was scared around all people. One training exercise was to pet Barley for 15 to 30 minutes until he was totally relaxed. It was amazing how much of a struggle this was for Barley at the beginning—he was completely unable to relax! Over time, though, he calmed down, rolled over, showed us his tummy, and nodded off—a sign that being touched was no longer as much of a stressor. We also learned about basic training approaches (including the leadership protocol), training particularly suited for resource guarding, and training designed to make Barley less fearful of people.
Today Barley is a different dog. With major thanks and extreme gratitude to Lisa, and with help from a green tea pill and anti-anxiety pheromone collar, Barley is much calmer, much happier, not inclined to guard his objects, and is a pleasure to be around. We're so incredibly thankful that we found Lisa, and know that she is a trainer that anyone could have
!"

The Robies: "Lisa at Silver Spring Dog Training has been a gamechanger for our dog, Indiana. Indy is our very sweet pup, but over the past few years he started showing signs of fear and anxiety with strangers or on a walk. With a baby on the way, we needed to be sure he would handle the changes well. A few sessions with Lisa gave us the tips and tricks we needed to make Indy less jumpy and fearful while we are on a walk. And thanks to some prep ideas from Lisa, Indy also plays really well with our now 10-month-old son. Indy LOVES Lisa, and we know we can always rely on her when we need help with Indy - whether it's dogsitting or behavioral training. We cannot recommend her enough!"

Jennifer P.: "We were so impressed with Lisa and Silver Spring Dog Training! She was friendly and professional and obviously a dog whisperer of the highest order.
Lisa had great insights for us into our dogs' behavior, but we never felt as though she was judging us and she never made us feel like we were responsible - just gave us great advice and tips on how to fix it. After just a few days of her interventions we are already seeing a difference in our dogs' behavior."

Margy O: "Lisa was very helpful in helping us identify the root causes of some behavioral issues we had with our dogs and in making a plan to correct this. I would enthusiastically recommend her!"

C.P.: "Our family has been so happy with Lisa's expertise -- she helped us pick our rescue puppy and helped us train her into the perfect pup she is today! If you are starting your dog search, I would highly recommend that you call Lisa at the early stages, so that she can help you pick the dog that will best fit into your family."

Erin J.: "We saw a huge improvement in our dog's walking after working with Lisa. She has a good read on dog behavior and gave us a lot of practical advice."

Rune D.: "We recommend Lisa very strongly. In our experience with Lisa, she has gone above and beyond to be professional and helpful. She understands dogs, and their owners, and is a fantastic trainer.
We met Lisa when we hired her to help us adjust to having a new puppy--the puppy was challenging us in ways we weren't expecting. We contacted Lisa with an email that basically said "Help us figure out what we're doing wrong!" Lisa brought a professional perspective to the situation that we desperately needed. After listening to us and spending some time working with the puppy, she noticed all sorts of warning signs (resource guarding, being high-strung, an inability to settle) that suggested that this puppy's temperament was simply too much for most people, including us, to handle. She recommended we return the puppy to the breeder and guided us through the entire process, even when the breeder became hostile.
Months later, when we wanted to adopt a rescue dog, we knew we had to hire her to consult. She came with us to the meet and greet and asked all of the right questions. When the foster's answers were unclear, she politely followed-up, facilitating an extremely helpful conversation that enabled us to make the most informed decision. Once we adopted the dog, we were having some problems with him chasing our cat. Once again, we called Lisa--she made training recommendations that have helped enormously, helping us understand the situation from the dog's perspective and giving us guidance on how to redirect and re-shape his behavior using positive training."

Lillian P.: "Lisa is a miracle worker. She has been working with us and our hound mix who was rescued from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. He had some trauma and developed some negative behaviors we needed to work on. After our first session with Lisa, the whole family felt like we knew what to do and how to work with him, and as a result, he has made astonishing progress! Walking him is no longer difficult and we aren't worried about him barking or lunging on the leash. As a result, the whole family (humans and dogs) is feeling more relaxed and confident. Lisa has been especially great at working with our 14 and 13 year old sons on how to train our dog and enlisting them in the process. She's a great and patient trainer - calm and utterly competent - with dogs and humans. We love her and I would recommend her to anyone who is struggling with any issue with their dog - do yourself and your dog a favor and call Lisa - she will alleviate so much worry and anxiety in your life!"