Canine Performance

I too was scammed by Canine Performance. Here's my story...

I gave the service a try because of some ads in my apartment. My girlfriend and I started off by scheduling a meeting with the business owner, Lisa. We both thought she was very personable and were optimistic about our new dog walking service.

What could go wrong? A 30 minute "visit" for 16 bucks! And Lisa had made a good impression with us. It all seemed great. That was until our first scheduled walk. I was working from home that day. When the dog walker came in, I tried to say hi and make normal small talk. The girl barely looked up and didn't say a word back. I figured ok, maybe you don't need social skills to be a good dog walker.

Feeling a little uneasy, I went out to my balcony to see if I could spot the walk in action. I could. The walker was glued to her phone and awkwardly dragging my dog around. She had barely covered any distance when I saw her turn back. She was back at my apartment after 10 minutes.

Obviously, that was really bad. But I decided that had to be a fluke. After all, I had paid for 30 minutes. Surely they can't just cheat customers that bad! So I scheduled another walk. Once again, my dog's Whistle recorded 10 minutes of walking. I should've known better after the first time. Fool me once, shame on you Lisa. Fool me twice...can't get fooled again.

I would give Canine Performance 10 STARS!!!

Lisa and the whole Canine Performance team are the BEST!! We were new puppy parents and were referred to Canine Performance by our vet.
We used Canine Performance for over a year and a half and the only reason we are no longer with them is because we moved out of state. We still miss Lisa and the walkers! We used the monthly mid-day walk packages and we also used Lisa for boarding. Our mini bernedoodle, Emoji (Moji), adores Lisa and all the dog walkers!!

Our Moji can be shy and slow to trust humans but not with Lisa. Moji goes crazy (in a good way) when she reunites with Lisa and the walkers. As an owner, there is no better feeling than when your pup is happy and in good hands. I trust Lisa and the walkers. Moji was always excited and happy for her walks. She got lots of exercise and plenty of playtime. The team is incredibly professional and reliable. They NEVER MISSED a walk! They were also always flexible to accommodate my last minute schedule changes or when I needed to add walks. It didn't matter if I was working from home or away all day, they were VERY CONSISTENT! Lisa is always accessible and they always communicate. It gives me complete ease to know that they take amazing care of Moji. I trust them completely and they are FANTASTIC! They go above and beyond. We had no idea that our pup had an ear infection and Lisa and her team made sure to notify us when our dog was acting off. This made a HUGE difference!

I can't rave enough about Canine Performance, and I highly recommend them! If you live in Arlington, VA you are very very lucky to have Canine Performance. :) :)

Thank you to Lisa and the Canine Performance team for taking attentive care of Grizwald (my labradoodle) for more than 4 years! They were always reliable, fed my diva-doggy his lunch everyday after the walk and always alerted me if they were concerned of anything out of the ordinary with him. We recently moved and had to end our service but I highly recommend them to Arlington dog owners.

As the owner of a new French Bulldog puppy I realized how quickly I wanted/needed understanding, coaching and peace of mind when it came to who was walking him and giving him love and attention while my husband and I were at work. From our first home visit/assessment till now we have seen how our puppy has experienced so much love and support and feel totally at ease with everyone from Canine Performance. We cannot recommend them enough!

What a scammer! I've used many dog boarding services before and this has to be the worst. If you love your dog, steer clear of Lisa. There are so many other options in the area with honest caring businesses. Lisa Meade is irresponsible and manipulative, to say the least, and retained my dog to leverage for more money. All the drama I experienced was frankly because Lisa forgot to pick up the check when she picked up the dog and demanded that I mail her a check over the Christmas weekend. I find it difficult to believe the other reviews considering my experience. Lisa wanted me to pay cash before I could even see my dog and check that my dog was happy and well. The truth was that she didn't even have my dog when I went to go pick her up!

Moreover, she requested I pay $165 plus a late check fee, when the original contract I emailed her was for $120. Lisa kept making excuses for negotiating earlier pickup and later drop off fees and trying to charge extra for requests she made to suit her schedule. I understand that it was Christmas time and I am not concerned about the money as much as how manipulative Lisa was in the end.

The day after Christmas, I went to go pick up my dog at her apartment, she said she wanted the cash even though a check was already en route, as clearly requested by Lisa. I already paid via check but I went to the bank to cancel the check right before attempting to pick up my dog. When I showed up, Lisa wasn't there at her apartment!!

Then after numerous texts and phone calls, she asked me to leave the cash with the concierge and she would drop the dog off at my house later at 3PM. I refused, since I wanted to see my dog first before paying. Then, she suddenly appeared at her apartment complex and again demanded the cash, and I requested to see my dog first. She said she wanted to discuss the situation and I said we could when the police arrived. So she she stormed out of her apartment lobby. The police came shortly after and recommended I wait for her to return. After waiting 3 hours, I called the police again and the second time they knocked on her apartment door and apparently the dog was not even in the apartment this whole time!! Hence, even if I paid before seeing my dog, I still couldn't have gotten my dog back!

Thanks to the Arlington police, I got my dog back later that evening, with a chewed up harness and missing name tag. Luckily, my dog didn't seem traumatized.

Needless to say, if you love your dog, I strongly do not recommend this business.

I recently moved into a large complex in Arlington and was recommended to Lisa by management which by itself is an strong endorsement. My lab Jackson loves almost everyone however, I'm a tough sell. Lisa is good people. She is genuine, down to earth, real and clearly loves animals. We discussed her families history with dogs and her philosophy handling training etc.

My gut said all green lights so I scheduled numerous visits right away, including consecutive visits where I was away to Florida overnight for business.

I didn't see Jackson for about 36 hours, and during that time he was visited on schedule and fed as requested. He was his normal excited self when I got home which is all a dog owner can ask for when trusting someone else to watch after him.

Today, I was home for lunch and happened to run into one of Lisa's walkers, the same who visited Jackson while I was away. He acts a certain way to strangers and a certain way to people he knows and likes. She got the later response; Jackson was very excited to see her and that to me was all the confirmation I needed to know about the kind of person Lisa sent to see my dog.

Trusting someone with your dog is a big deal. A building complex recommending someone be allowed to watch after dogs in their complex is also a big deal. Even more, my building complex allows Lisa's service to come into this building and enter homes when owners are not around. Those things by themselves are big endorsements.

For me, the biggest endorsement of Lisa came from Jackson. He was his normal self when I got home and he was very excited when we bumped into his walker.

Dog's know good people, so do I and only good people are allowed around either of us. Canine Performance will be getting my business for the foreseeable future. I definitely recommend anyone consider them to take care of their dog.

Canine performance has been so wonderful! I use canine performance for mid-day walks and have used them for overnight boarding/walks for my puppy. Lisa and her team are extremely reliable and accommodating. I have a somewhat flexible job where my telework schedule changes a lot. Canine performance is well organized when I change up my days/times from my normal scheduled walks, and their customers come first. Glad to know my pup is always in great hands!

We love Lisa! She and others from her team have been walking our Frenchie for over a year now and they're fabulous. We have never had one missed walk or anything. We had so many issues with our dog walkers before we moved to Arlington and we've really had a great experiences with Lisa, Jamie and the rest of Canine Performance. She goes above and beyond! Also, we totally trust her and anyone she hires.
If you're looking for a reliable, enthusiastic and knowledgeable walker to take care of your fur babies, look no further than Canine Performance!

We love the Canine Performance team! Lisa and her team of dog walkers took great care of our chocolate lab puppy, Coco. They were very responsive and knowledgable. It was great to know that our puppy was in good hands while we were at work. Coco was always happy when we got home. She loved her 2 walks a day and lunch time with Lisa! I highly recommend Canine Performance. If we hadn't moved to Texas, Coco would still be getting walks from Canine Performance :)

Update: I used Lisa and team to walk my dog until just recently. The only reason we left was because we moved. In the ~15 months they walked my dog, we had a generally great experience.