Meet the Trainer
Lisa Russell has always had a love for animals and a strong desire to understand their behavior. At the age of 9, she began riding and training horses, and by 16, she was competing in Eventing and Show Jumping with a Thoroughbred and former racehorse named Midnight Suite.
Immediately after graduating High School, she took a position at the Harrisburg Humane Society where she remained a full time employee from 2008 to 2011. Her responsibilities included but were not limited to the daily care and maintenance of animals residing at the facility, often exceeding 150 dogs.
She not only worked as part of the kennel staff and with the medical department, but was also a member of the behavior team. Lisa assisted in creating “The Shelter Animal Behavior Guide,” used by staff and volunteers to better understand canine and feline behavior. This guide helped others recognize serious and/or dangerous canine behavior and body language, as well as how to safely handle such animals.
She was also instrumental in implementing and maintaining “The Quiet Kennel Program.” This program is designed for long-term residents and highly stressed new arrivals. It provides structure, discipline, affection, and kennel enrichment to improve the animals’ quality of life.
Wild, David Balmat, Billy Gaston, and Guess
“GUESS” TRAINED BY LISA RUSSELL)
Lisa’s trained antler detection dog, “Guess”, who demonstrated the level of training on his first outing in Colorado by locating and retrieving numerous antlers off the mountain.
She specializes in dog-on-dog issues. Whether it’s a dog that exhibits severe aggression toward other dogs, a pet that is fearful of new dogs, a dog that lashes out at the end of the leash, or a dog that is too pushy with others, she is self-taught and a master of the craft of behavior modification and canine socialization.
Lisa Russell is a Canine Good Citizen Evaluator & has been an animal trainer for HBO’s series, “The Leftovers”. She also worked on Rooster Teeth Production’s drama web series, “Day 5” with her two personal dogs, Guess and Choctaw.