Lessard is one of the nation's top bird-dog trainers. People send him their pointers, setters, german shorthairs, vizslas and other quail-hunting dogs.
He teaches the dogs to stop moving when someone says "Stop!"; to hunt when somone says "Hunt"!; to work nearby instead of racing out of sight. In short, Lessard teaches them to obey commands, the same commands you probably wish the family pooch would obey.
Some trainers say he's the best, at least when it comes to training dogs in shoot-to-retrieve field trials, a competition very close to actual hunting conditions.
That's where dogs are pitted against each other to see which can find the most birds, present and hold the best pointing posture, and generally obey the handler's commands, even when a shotgun is blasting.
Among Lessard's fans is Fred Gray, who runs a small furniture and appliance store in the Eastern Shore town of Eastville, the Northampton County seat.
Gray lives just down the road from Lessard's 18th century farmhouse, the home of his Stockley Kennels.
"If there's a better dog trainer in this country, I don't know who it would be," says Gray. "Neil and I are close friends, so I may be opinionated. But I'm also honest. The man knows bird dogs."
The modest Lessard's trophy room attests to that. Most awards are for matches staged by the National Shoot-to-Retrieve Field Trial Association in which quail are scattered about a field and the dog and handler are judged on a variety of points.
The key to the competition is a good dog's ability to come to a complete halt, as if sculpted of marble, when he gets a whiff of a bird's aroma. Lessard believes a quail smells to a good bird dog "like a woman with perfume smells to a man after he's had two or three beers."
Just a few weeks ago, Lessard reached the high point of his career when Gray's pointer, Stonegate Rolex, won the Champion of Champions trial in Indiana. It pitted 165 of the top birds dogs and owners/handlers from the United States and Canada.
Lessard, who trained Rolex, also handled the 5-year-old because Gray couldn't make the trip. Gray said Lessard trained the owner as well, teaching him a lot about dogs.
What makes Lessard a great trainer, Gray says, is a combination of intelligence and an uncanny understanding of dogs.
"Neil is smart," Gray says. "He's one of those gifted people who not only can do everything and do it well but who is also innovative. He's always coming up with new ideas.
"But he knows dogs. He understands them. He knows how much the average dog wants to please the handler, and he knows just how far to push a dog on any day before the dog loses interest."
Lessard, 42, was born in Massachusetts and grew up in a military family. The family moved to Virginia Beach when Lessard was an infant. He graduated from Kellam High School in 1972 and moved to the Eastern Shore about seven years ago.
Lessard credits the late Rufus Jordan, a Virginia Beach farmer/sportsman, with piquing his interest in hunting bobwhite quail, or "birds" as they are generally known to hunters.
"I've always loved to hunt," he says. "Rufus had this big farm teeming with wildlife. So I finally worked up enough courage to ask him for hunting permission.
"He told me I could hunt for deer, squirrel, rabbit or anything else. But he warned me of dire consequences if I shot even one of his birds."
Finally, one day Jordan invited him to go bird hunting.
I was about 17," says Lessard, "and I was hooked right from that first day. It was a thrill to see a bird dog just completely freeze and stay frozen at the smell of a quail."
By 19, Lessard bought his first dog and started training it. As he learned, his reputation began to spread. Soon other hunters were asking for help with their dogs.
At the time, he was training dogs as a sideline and working as a building contractor in Virginia Beach.
When the building business fell off about 8 or 9 years ago, I had to do something to pay the bills, so I went full-time as a trainer," he says. "I'd been coming to the Eastern Shore to hunt for several years, and I decided this was the place to be if I was going to make a name as a trainer. So we moved."
"We" includes wife Judy, a Michigan native who helps with the business, plus daughter Tammy, 17, and son Clinton, 19.
Lessard gets $300 a month for training each dog, with a 10 dog limit under his wing at any one time. The dogs come from throughout the United States and Canada. He keeps the average dog four to six months. But some, those with little talent, may be returned in less than a month.
"That's the hardest part of this job," he says, "telling an owner that if he wants to hunt birds, he needs to get another dog. Not many want to hear that about an animal they have come to love.
"Most owners just want their dogs broke enough so they won't be embarassed to take them hunting. Then there are some who want a completely finished product, one they can enter in a field trial.
That's why I'm active in the National Shoot-to-Retrieve Feild Trial Association. It's the closest to actual hunting you can come, not like some of the other organizations, which really don't offer a true hunting atmosphere.
"Working with a field-trial dog takes training two or three steps beyond just training a hunting dog."
Dogs learn proper hunting, not straying too far, pointing properly, backing another dog, retrieving and not breaking when a hunter shoots.
Lessard also breeds, buys and sells bird dogs. The standard breeding fee is $350. He has paid as much as $5,000 for a dog and sold them for as much as $15,000.
"But $15,000 dogs don't come along every day," he says. "That's a special dog."
Lessard still can't believe how successful he has been.
"This is a great life," he says, "to get paid to do something you really love to do. Not everyone can say that.
"I spend a lot of time with the dogs. I hunt a lot and I get to go to a lot of field trials. And all the time I'm getting paid.
"I just hope people will keep bringing me their dogs."