TIER 1 K9 TEAM

Charles Henderson

Charles Henderson has been heavily involved with dogs his whole life.  Growing up, he was involved in breeding and training German Shepherd Dogs for working purposes and English Springer Spaniels as hunting dogs. 

Charles has been heavily involved with animal rescue for the past 10 years.  In 2012, Charles opened The Rescue Society, an IRS approved 501c3 non-profit no kill animal rescue in Brooklyn, New York.   Charles has made a significant impact in the animal rescue world, rescuing and rehoming almost 8000 dogs and 4000 cats over the past decade.

Charles is a nationally recognized dog trainer, rehabilitator and behaviorist with the Association of Professional Dog Trainers.  He has provided and trained K9s with NYPD, served as a consultant for Amtrak K9, trained and certified service and therapy dogs with DELTA Society/ Pet Partners and has served as a Narcotics K9 Handler with MSA Security working at various high profile locations such as Madison Square Garden.

Charles was educated at Columbia University where he studied Psychology and Business Administration, specifically, Neural Science Behavior and Financial Economics and played football for the Columbia Lions as a Strong Safety.  Charles went thru Naval Special Warfare training with BUD/S Class 146 and received orders to SEAL Team 2 as well as Navy Search & Rescue Swimmer School and ultimately served in special operations in Combat Search and Rescue and other duties in the US Navy.

Additionally, Charles serves as a behaviorist and behavior modification specialist responsible for rehabilitating and modifying dogs that have behavioral challenges. Charles has been lauded as the dog whisperer of the east coast, but Charles loathes such grandiose titles and simply prefers to be considered the fixer, as he usually comes in after several other dog trainers have exhausted all their options and fixes the issues, in short order most of the time. Most of the time it’s the human not the dog that needs fixing. Dogs will behave however they are taught to behave including good and bad behaviors.

A veteran, Charles cares deeply about veterans well being and is responsible for developing and starting a therapy dog program at the VA Hospitals in Manhattan and Brooklyn which have been highly successful and in place for over a decade implementing several therapy dogs teams that have visited 1000s of veterans over the years.

It's not about thinking Charles is the best dog trainer or about Charles thinking he’s the greatest and has a overinflated sense of importance or ego.  In fact, it's because of Charles’ lack of ego and his self-effacing modesty, humility and true love for dogs that provides him the special talents and abilities that he is able to leverage in order to be so successful with dogs.  

Charles has a special gift to read, talk and connect with dogs. As demonstrated by the amount of dogs Charles has rescued and rehomed, Charles loves dogs immensely and has a very special gift of understanding and working with dogs. 

From working dogs to companion dogs, Dogs are his life.