April was a wonderful trainer and very patient with my scare little rescue. He warmed up to her and learned so quickly - her teaching style focused on transferable skills so I can reinforce training at home. Thanks April! read more

My pup and I just finished our first private session with April, and all I can say is what a wonderful experience it was. Her focus was always on my dog, the entire time explaining to me what and why she was doing what she was doing. April is friendly and approachable and more important, a professional. You can tell she's been doing this for quite awhile and the behavior change I saw in my dog while April worked with her was amazing. I had a clear idea of what was required of me and I'll definitely be setting up a follow on appointment. If you are new to dog training, the results are completely based on how much time you are willing to work with your dog after the trainer leaves your home. April is just top-notch and that first lesson was worth every penny. read more

April is truly wonderful! I was recommended to April from another dog mom I met from another dog school in Alexandria. I am so grateful for the referral! She is knowledgeable, warm, and passionate. Her classes have been so helpful with training my teacup Yorkie puppy. My little Lola LOVES April so very much! April's exercises and training are so effective and straight to the point. The handouts she sends out are useful and easy to follow. I have been to other classes (with other trainers) and have felt like it was sometimes a waste of money and time with redundant material. We have taken her Kindergarten and Middle School classes. We have also boarded our dog with her for two whole weeks and have nothing but positive things to say about her! We have felt that Lola was treated like her own family and we loved seeing how happy she was with the daily pics/videos that April sent while we were on vacation. April has two bigger dogs and I never felt that Lola (3 lbs) was ever unsafe with her dogs or other dogs that boarded at the same time. I loved seeing Lola play with all dogs of different sizes for her socialization and trusted April's judgement. We really felt that April and her family really loved Lola so much. We plan on getting another puppy soon and can't wait to take her classes again! We definitely will be using her boarding services whenever we go on vacation again as well! Thank you for what you do, April!! read more

Core Canine - Pet Training Near Me - Alexandria, Virginia

Love love love! April is beyond a great trainer, she is super friendly and so patient with our pup- and us! We recently got a new best friend and luckily found April to help us train him on one on one sessions. Needless to say training puppies isn't easy, he has learned basic commands and we would definitely insist that if you need a dog trainer, this is your gal! We will be returning to her in the future to learn new skills! read more

We had April to train our 5-month golden last weekend, and we absolutely love her! She is very good with puppies and her method is gentle and effective. We will contact her again if we ever need to train our puppy again(or we get a new puppy :) read more

Core Canine - Pet Training Near Me - Alexandria, Virginia

If your four legged friend needs some structure, training, and manners Core Canine is the way to go! I can't say enough great things about April. She is a wonderful dog trainer who is patient with both animals on each end of the leash. :) April came to our home for some one on one sessions to help our lab puppy learn some basic commands and help us teach her to stop biting. We immediately decided we wanted to enroll our pup into April's Puppy Kindergarten class so she could interact with other dogs and learn more commands like "leave it", "come", and how to walk on a leash without pulling. The time invested was so worth it! The class was nice and small and April took time and care with each puppy. We all learned a lot and had a great time. April was always willing to answer dog behavior questions we had and offer tips to help. She is so nice and a pleasure to work with. I recommend April and Core Canine to everyone, especially those who ask how my puppy got to be so well behaved. Thanks, April!! read more

Core Canine - Kenzie is very proud of her certificate of completion of puppy kindergarten from Core Canine! - Pet Training Near Me - Alexandria, Virginia

This is a great training class! My dog Ginger and I took April's adult obedience class back in September. Her class is very well structured building up on prior weeks and providing detailed "homework" to help owners keep up with training at home! We have been able to successfully continue the practices we learned with April. She is very friendly and approachable, always willing to help with individual dog's needs. I highly recommend taking this class even if you think your dog is well behaved, it's great to have the structure of commands. Plus, the graduation ceremony at the end is the cutest!! Thanks April! read more

There is a reason Core Canine has five stars-- she is such a talented, loving trainer. My pup, Bingsu, is five months old and needed some guidance on simple commands. April came (with plenty of high quality treats and sage advice) and showed him the ropes. When he wasn't "getting" some of the commands because of his terrier stubbornness and puppy attention span-- April said that she would come back again... At no charge! Two full sessions. She really has a great business model. Bingsu can now sit, stay, leave it, and wait! Thank you, April!! read more

I cannot recommend Core Canine enough! I never write Yelp reviews but our experience has been so great I had to share. We adopted a 9 (ish) month old lab mix in June who didn't even know "sit" and as my first dog, I knew nothing about dog training. April and Olivia have been fantastic! We had private sessions to start with Olivia (highly recommend these types of sessions if you're a first-time dog owner or think you might have a specific behavioral concern to address) and then we completed both puppy kindergarten and middle school with April. I've seen a great deal of progress with our pup (and I feel like I actually know what I'm doing now!) We will be back for High School! read more

April and Olivia are both amazing. Highly recommend Core Canine to new dog owners!!

April came by to assist with my Pom puppies. She took a lot of time with my hyper puppy to help him focus. He learned several commands that will help us both. All of my dogs loved the time and attention received. read more

Core Canine - He is calmer today - Pet Training Near Me - Alexandria, Virginia

My fiancé and I tried almost everything with our little one who has, to say the least, a very reactive streak. We've not had great experience with our previous positive reinforcement school, and in desperation found ourselves at the other end of the spectrum with another trainer using to a prong collar for her to keep her heel. It absolutely killed us to use it and decided to give positive reinforcement another shot. Enter April, who after hearing our story quickly contacted us and expressed her desire to help. We spoke for over half an hour, but it was was immediately clear that she was genuinely invested in our success. I sounds strange, but felt like I was venting to a friend. She was stunned at some of the things past trainers taught us to do, and really empathized with us and our frustration. So far we've had two sessions with her, and it's already made a difference. I never in a million years thought that counter-conditioning would work with our Olive, but it turns out we just needed a little more personal guidance. She's been so generous with her time, and the homework she's given us has been a push in the right direction. Both times that we've seen her, we never had the feeling that we were "on the clock", which is a very nice change. I won't pretend that Olive's been cured overnight, but April has shown us that progress IS possible, and that we don't have to be alone in finding it. I'd readily recommend April any day of the week. read more

I decided to look into working with a professional trainer when my abundantly energetic dog had me close to losing my mind. I could not have chosen a better person than April. She was incredibly kind and patient with him and made the whole process fun instead of stressful. Within our first session she worked with him on some basic obedience (especially "touch" and "leave it") and we did some work on leash manners. The second session was dedicated solely to walking politely on the leash. What I loved the most about April was the fact that she also did a great job of training me! She was able to give tips and answer my never ending chain of questions. I walked away feeling like I had a better understanding of the "why" behind my pup's behaviors as well as a strong foundation to build on. Finally, it was so easy scheduling everything and following up with her when I had any additional questions. read more

April, the owner and trainer, is awesome! For me living in DC so long, it was a breath of fresh air working with April. Its clear how much she invest in the dogs as a priority and gives more than expected, while never nickle or dime you. She really wants what is best for you and your dog. And spends the necessary time to ensure they success in learning and well being of your dog. Throughout the several week class I felt like we were all a big doggie family with lots of individual attention from April. Due to how the classes are structured it allowed for the flexibility of the topics to be covered based on your dog's individual needs. We were able to focus on the areas that the dogs need more help with and fly through the topics where our dogs already had down. Overall, my dog had such a good experience he still gets excited when we drive by there even though its months after our last class. I'm sure he misses April. read more

We came home from a dog adoption with more than we could chew. The kids (5 and 3) had fallen in love with him. He was a puppy with massive paws and the last thing the adoption agency said as we finalized the paperwork was "maybe he's part mastiff too." We called April. We had lots of reservations about this situation. The kids were so small. The dog would be so big. She worked with the whole family one-on-one and helped us to work with Pumpkin. She had strategies in hand and homework for everyone. Even the three-year-old looked the puppy in the eye (at eye level to boot) and commanded him to "Focus, Focus, Focus". We had some setbacks. Some puppy play became roughhousing and he now outweighed the kids. We called April. She was a great sounding board. She gave us some strategies for adjusting the behavior and was understanding as we weighed our optons. She also stopped by to evaluate Pumpkin for any signs of aggression we may be overlooking. In August Pumpkin celebrated his first birthday and his 6th month with the family. Throughout April provided great guidance, was a very helpful sounding board, and was both pragmatic and sympathetic as we evaluated this new member of the family. We can't recommend her enough. read more

This is long overdue! My grand dog Norman came to stay with me in May and June and with my daughter's agreement, we decided to start his puppy training here before he went back to Chicago. Somehow with a lot of luck and a little research, I decided to go with April and Core Canine and signed up for her Puppy Kindergarten. It was a great experience for Norman as well as me. April is the owner/trainer and puts 150% into the training. And wow does April know and understand dogs and how to train them. These crazy little puppies paid attention to her from the get go because she knows when to be firm and when to be kind. I was so nervous about Norman playing with the other dogs and getting hurt but she calmed me down with great knowledge and explanations of dog behavior. I got trained, as well as Norman and I learned so much. In fact, when he visits me again, I am signing up for another course with April. read more

Core Canine - Norman's graduation pic from Core Canine! - Pet Training Near Me - Alexandria, Virginia

When traveling I always board my dog with April at Core Canine. I trust very few people and places to leave my pup but April is so loving to him and treats him like her own. I highly recommend her! read more

Our puppy benefitted greatly from the puppy kindergarten class! As a first time dog owner, it was super helpful to learn how best to teach him new commands and he's overall better behaved after the 5 week course. April is an awesome and patient instructor, and Cooper loves her! Looking forward to taking more classes in the future. read more

We love April and so does our pup. She is friendly, thorough, and her methods are effective. She gave us the tools to ensure that our rescue pup, Floyd, succeeds in his training. She seems to genuinely care about the animals and that's very important to us. I highly recommend her and will definitely be using her in the future should the need arise. Thanks April! read more

We just got our 6 month old puppy Munch this this week. As a person who has never had a dog, I found April on Yelp before he arrived and scheduled her visit. April is incredibly patient and kind. She was great with our family and our new family member, Munch! She taught him some basic commands and taught us even more. Munch just loved her! Her methods are very positive and easy to remember. My 10 year old daughter remembered it all the next day! April's follow up email recapping the visit is invaluable! We plan to have her back next month. At her incredibly reasonable rates, it is not hard to ask her to come back. Did I mention that April kindly responded to my millions of email questions, before and after her visit?? Whether you are getting a new dog or need help with your old friend - get Core Canine. I just wish she could train my husband as easily as my dog! read more

My partner and I looked into many options in the area and went with Core Canine because of the ability to schedule one course at a time rather than buying a package. Also, April had amazing reviews on Yelp! We were not disappointed! Our recently adopted (1 week ago) rescue boxer mix Cooper is a bundle of energy and we believe had never experienced a leash before coming to our home (he threw out my partner's back on day 2 - he's so strong!). She recommended a great harness, gave us strategies to practice good leash walking skills and we saw significant improvement THAT DAY (yesterday!). This is the only Yelp review I've ever left but we felt so strongly about how amazing she was, I had to post this. Also, April taught us how to teach "Leave it" and "Touch" which are two things I've never taught a dog before but will ALWAYS use moving forward. Incredibly useful and so fun to work on with Cooper. On rainy days, "touch" is a great way to get your dog motivated to walk around inside without having to move too much yourself. Even though she answered all of our questions and gave us all of the required training we felt we needed in the first lesson (which was so highly appreciated!), we'll be booking with her again to continue fine-tuning what we learned and maybe move on to trickier lessons. Plus, Cooper is IN LOVE with her! read more

You guys!! If you need an affordable, professional, effective dog trainer, this is it. April was amazing with my 9 week old puppy. Spent two hours with us and gave me all the tools to get my pup acting right. And bonus, he walks up the stairs now!! She answered all my questions, gave detailed instructions and even before we met, she checked in to give tips. I'm very impressed. 10/10! read more

We are so glad we found April through online reviews. We needed a trainer for our 3 month old Cane Corso Puppy - Scotch. April was amazing with the personal one on one training and her puppy kindergarten classes. She has such great energy and truly cares about the dogs and the owners, which really meant a lot. Not to mention Scotch adores her too! We plan on also using April for our boarding needs as well. Be sure to sign your pups up as her classes fill up fast!! Thanks April!! read more

April did such an amazing job with our dog Elliott! We are amazed at the progress we have seen in just over a week! Our dog Elliott is a rescue and has always been a little bit nervous around other dogs, despite being an absolute sweetheart. Lately, his nervousness/protectiveness was getting noticeably worse, resulting in a lot of barking on walks and leash aggression. April worked with us and Elliott on leadership skills, counter-conditioning, and positive reinforcement. She showed us how to walk Elliott and how to praise him correctly for the behaviors we want to see. He was a changed dog after just a few hours! Of course every dog is different, but Elliott is very eager to please and we realized that we were the ones who did not know how to channel his enthusiasm correctly. Once we were taught by April how to teach and reinforce proper behaviors with Elliott, he responded to us right away. Why didn't we do this earlier!? The other thing we really appreciated about April is that she explained to us the reasoning behind everything she was teaching us, rather than just being the 'sage of the stage' so to speak. She was so patient with our questions and very knowledgeable. The other thing we really loved about April is that she charges by the hour not by the amount of dogs, as we have multiple pups. We also loved that she gave us the tools to use on our own rather than recommending we meet for several sessions. We felt that April was very honest with pricing and would not pressure us at all in to more sessions than were needed. We would highly recommend April to anyone looking for an awesome trainer! read more

A bit late in reviewing but I wanted to be sure to share that April is simply great. We adopted our puppy, Olive, last year and was looking for a good trainer to teach basic puppy manners. It can be overwhelming to begin the search for a quality, effective trainer who is also affordable and April was all of those things. Our Olive is a bundle of energy and being the puppy she is I sometimes worried about how quickly she'd catch on but April made sure our pup knew all the important basics and she's been doing well since completing puppy kindergarten. We have since done some specialty training at other places and I was so glad that Olive already knew a lot of the things April taught her as they inevitably came up. I can't emphasize enough how much April cares about the dogs and she always made sure to make herself available to us if we felt our pup needed some extra attention. read more

I just love April and her techniques. I was impressed when I signed up and she limited class size to just 4 puppies. She also has a very gentle teaching technique, using treats and positive reinforcement for training. That worked great with my pup's shy personality. April's love of canines is obvious, but also her dedication to training. I couldn't make the last lesson, so she gracefully volunteered to come to my home for the last lesson. I can't speak highly enough of her and her business. read more

April just left my home after spending a couple of hours working with me, my sister, and our dog. She is amazing! I'm really excited to try her tips and commands. I appreciate her availability to help my dog in the future whether by phone or email for free or to stop by for another session of private training. My dog responded quickly to her work. I highly recommend her. I knew from her initial email to my questions that she was a good choice to help with my dog's behavioral issues. Thank you, April! read more

April is great. We did the puppy class and the middle school class with our Lab and both were really good. The space is small but April keeps the numbers down, only 4 dogs in each class, and in middle school, you end up outside a lot. She has a great positive attitude and we learned a lot. Highly recommend. read more

I can not say enough good things about April- I looked at many places, but decided to go with Core Canine because of the great things I read. As of now, we have had 2 private training lessons and both times she was able to teach Miss Lexi and I new tricks, which isn't easy when dealing with a 12 week old puppy and a new dog owner, but somehow April made it work. She is very knowledgeable, patient and very up beat which transfers to the dogs. We will be using April in the future as we need to master walking on a leash "properly". If you are on the fence whether to call or not, get off it and call April, you won't be disappointed. read more

April is fantastic! Super friendly and really takes her job seriously - and she's great at it! She goes above and beyond. We called her the "dog whisperer." In just five weeks, Spock learned all the basic commands necessary for how to be a good dog - and an added bonus (and my personal favorite, "shake/paw!") Highly recommend! read more

We adopted a puppy a few weeks ago and wanted to begin training him as soon as possible. April was absolutely wonderful in helping us with common commands and guided us through the first few weeks. Next, we focused on more challenging issues (biting, eating anything/everything on walks, leash/harness training). Again, her advice was spot on and she left us with fabulous tools to help us. We are just thrilled with April. Our pup is drawn to her warm and friendly personality and we couldn't be happier with April's knowledge and training tools. She provides us with everything we need to ensure our young pup grows into a good doggy citizen. We highly recommend April and will continue to have sessions with her. Her pricing is very reasonable for the amount of time and education she provides. Core Canine/April's 5 star rating is very well deserved! read more

After witnessing our dog's on leash behavior,the owner of our dog walking service recommended April at Core Canine to us. We could not be happier with her training and the impact it's had on our dog. April is so professional and personable, and she taught our dog multiple commands and techniques we could use to reaffirm our role as his leaders. She even walked around our apartment complex with us, demonstrating methods to help distract our pup from his need to destroy passerby and other dogs. I've noticed a big change in him in less than a week, but we'll definitely have April work with him again if he needs it. I would recommend her in a heartbeat. read more

What can I say, April truly worked wonders with my Jack Russell pup Hopper. He developed an issue a few months after we adopted him and couldn't handle meeting other dogs while he was on the leash. He would bark and flip out. After meeting with April, Hopper is now as sweet on the leash as he is off leash with his puppy pals and we couldn't be happier. Hopper absolutely adored April and she had a way that made him feel very comfortable during the training - as well as my husband and I, and we had no doubt she would be able to help us. Even after our session we were able to refer back for further advice, so we never felt as though we were on our own, and she stuck with us to find alternative solutions until his behavior had resolved. If I could give more than 5 stars, I would!! read more

A fantastic trainer, our 11 week old Goldendoodle puppy responded so well to April! She came to our house for a 2 hour private session and gave us easy to follow guidance on training him. April listened to our list of puppy behaviors we wanted to work on and began her training with those solutions. She also gave us a few options when working to fix some of those habits, which we appreciated. We've incorporated her instructions in to his routine and we're seeing good results so far. We anticipate participating in future training sessions as well as puppy school. Additionally: April was very responsive to emails and easy to work with. Booking the appointment online was a big help, it made the whole process very smooth. I recommend her services highly! read more

Core Canine and April are amazing! We took our three-month (now four) Golden Retriever puppy Lemon to puppy classes there, and she graduates today. From our experience, we will definitely recommend April to any friends of ours who need dog training. First of all, April is very professional, her training techniques are not only based on experience and practice, but supported by up-to-date researches, which makes us super confident to let Lemon follow whatever is taught in class. Second, April is really nice and patient. As first-time dog owners (both my GF and I), we have a lot of questions about Lemon's training and daily behaviors, and April is always happy to provide suggestions that perfectly match our scenarios. Last but not least, all Lemon's classmates and their parents are wonderful, I think this must be related to April's efforts letting puppies/owners feel comfortable during the training process. read more

April is a great instructor! She taught us owners the right positive-reinforced methods to get our puppy to learn the basics. The basics covered a wide range that helped build the ground work. Now it's a matter of practicing what we learned everyday! She's very attentive to all the participants and there's not so many people that she can't answer questions or guide in one-on-one. read more

Extremely affordable and excellent dog training. April was very professional and her training methods were super effective with our dog Lucy. In under 2 hours she taught her sit, come, leave it and wait. We were amazed at how much she accomplished in such a short time and she is by far the the most affordable trainer in NOVA that we've found. Exceeded all expectations! read more

April really knows how to run a business. Customer satisfaction is her priority and it shows. We enrolled our six month old shih-tzu for some training in her five week course. We really only needed to get her to learn a few specific things but the price for the five classes seemed reasonable. While our first class was really good, we realized that our little girl, though friendly with other dogs was a little intimidated by the playtime at the beginning and end of class only because the other puppies in the class were already too big for her. She came home from her first class pretty stressed out. So I contacted April, expressed my concerns and she was able to arrange a private lesson and was more than fair about refunding us the difference in the price of the five classes. She gave us very useful tools to help us teach our cute, but rambunctious and rather stubborn puppy how to behave, followed up by an e-mail with all of the commands recapped so we wouldn't forget. And on top of that, April is a nice person.You can see that she loves what she does and she loves the animals she works with. An hour after she left, our little girl was still crying looking for her. To anyone looking for someone to help you train your dog with positive reinforcement, I'd highly suggest you try April at Core Canine. It's worth every penny. read more

Highly recommend April and her obedience class! Our dog learned so much, and April has been willing to go out of her way to help us work on some specific problem behaviors. This is a great and very reasonably priced option in the Alexandria area! read more

April was incredibly patient w/ me and my dog, Hank. He was an 'older student' who wasn't quite as eager to learn new behaviors as some of his younger counterparts. April was a huge help! read more