Lisa L. Lima, MSW LSW ABCDT
Founder, President, Owner of My Life Unleashed
Service Dog Trainer & Animal-Assisted Therapist
Lisa Lima is a nationally respected service dog trainer, licensed mental health professional, competitive obedience handler, and founder of My Life Unleashed, a Colorado-based organization dedicated to transforming lives through expertly trained service dogs. With nearly two decades of experience in canine behavior and social work, Lisa brings a rare combination of empathy, clinical insight, and elite-level training expertise to every client and canine partner she serves.
She began her nearly 2 decade long dog training journey in South Florida, working on behavioral modification with various breeds. She graduated from Animal Behavior College in 2008. Over the years, she has trained thousands of dogs and has just as many satisfied customers.
She also has a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and earned a Masters degree in Social Work from Florida Atlantic University in 2016. Since opening My Life Unleashed in the Pikes Peak Region of Colorado, Lisa earned her licensure in Clinical Social Work and has dedicated her expertise toward working with service dog teams.
She offers professional services in the areas of service dog training and animal assisted therapy, both offered by separate contracts.
Lisa offers a deeply personalized approach to service dog training. She works closely with individuals across the country, offering guidance that is practical, compassionate, and proven effective.
A hallmark of Lisa’s method is her commitment to empowering dogs to think critically, problem-solve, and learn through engagement. Her training philosophy emphasizes confidence-building, communication, and the development of real-world skills — preparing dogs not just to follow commands, but to understand and navigate the complexities of service work. This developmental approach strengthens the human-canine bond and creates highly capable, responsive working partners.
Lisa’s experience as a competitive obedience handler brings an added layer of precision, focus, and reliability to her service dog training. Her time in the obedience ring has honed her ability to read dogs at a granular level, cultivate consistency under pressure, and train to the highest standards of performance — skills she integrates seamlessly into both her program dog development and owner-handler coaching.
In addition to supporting owner-trainers, Lisa also personally trains select program dogs to meet high standards of performance and reliability. These dogs are carefully developed for advanced task work, public access, and handler-specific placement. Lisa blends rigorous structure with compassionate, thoughtful training to reach a pinnacle of service dog excellence with dogs that combine intuition, advanced obedience, and confidence to task in even the most demanding environments.
When Lisa’s approach is combined with dedicated handlers that work with the dogs under her guidance to maintain and improve performance, the results are spectacular.
Lisa and her team use a wide range of science-based methods and custom-tailored training plans to help clients achieve elite success, whether through in-person coaching, board & train co-or raise programs, or trainer-raised program dogs. Finally, Lisa also hosts national workshops for service dog handlers and trainers.
Her mission is to unleash potential — for people and dogs — and to build lifelong working partnerships rooted in trust, purpose, and independence.
