Core Canine

We took our rescue beagle, Oliver, to Core Canine after having him in a few short private lessons at daycare elsewhere. These were fine, but expensive and we didn’t get to see the training in action (most of dog training is really for the owners not the dogs!). Core Canine not only was affordable compared to others in the area, but provided the best standards of training with a friendly and realistic approach. We went through beginner classes all the way to high school with April as our trainer, and she did such a great job meeting us where we were and providing us with training habits that fit our lifestyle and our high-prey-drive Oliver. It’s been a couple of months since we completed high school and we are still using the things we learned in our time at core canine :) highly recommend!

The 5 stars this place has is well deserved. You will not find a better value anywhere else--trust me, I've looked! At the moment it's $195 for a 5-week course (a 1-hour class one day of the week) of any level, and they also have free puppy playdates (you have to register for them). I've seen places where it's almost that much just for one training session. I live in Fairfax Towne Center but the drive to Alexandria was so worth it. I enrolled Chestnut, who was about 4 months old, in puppy kindergarten. Chestnut is our first puppy and our third rescue; our two previous dogs were seniors. I wonder now if I could have trained them with the material we learned for Chestnut; maybe we can teach old dogs new tricks after all, seeing how easy the classes made it for us to train our pup. We had Olivia as our instructor, with the exception of one make-up class where I had April. Having had both, they're both great instructors! I appreciated Olivia's calm and reassuring demeanor in particular. She was very professional and kind, and never seemed to get frustrated or lose her patience. There are no more than 4 dogs per class, and no more than 2 people per dog. The small class size means more individual attention to your pup from the instructor. We have only done puppy kindergarten so far, but we have enrolled Chestnut in middle school starting next month. The things we (both humans and dogs) learn play right into puppies' natural instincts, and we also learn more about canine psychology. For Puppy K, we learned sit, down, stay, place, wait, leave it, come/here, and basic leash manners. They also offer private and at home sessions, though you have to be within a certain radius to take advantage of the latter. I believe they also have courses to help you pass the AKC canine good citizen test. Highly recommend Core Canine to anyone looking to train their pup (which all dog owners should!).