Our Story
Alexis was born and raised in Brooklyn, Ny. Her love of dogs started at the age of 9 by growing up with her miniature schnauzer, Sebastian. Sebastian lived a happy and active lifestyle until around the age of 7 where he started to develop rheumatoid arthritis and canine dementia. As her senior project in high school, Alexis designed and constructed a custom wheelchair for him and worked with his vet to learn how to administer injections and perform massage therapy at home. This catalyst pushed her to begin working at HOPE Veterinary Services in Brooklyn, NY at the age of 16. She then went on to volunteer at NYC's ASPCA for 3 years, taking their canine handling education courses and working with the adoptions team.
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Early into college, Alexis has worked for dog daycares like Ciao Bow Wow and AKC's Spot Canine Club, then shelters like the ASPCA and Beacon Dog Rescue. Later on, she leaned into her passion of training animals by working with Instinct Dog Behavior and Training as an assistant puppy class trainer. Alexis then spent 10 years receiving formal instruction under Bijan Samawat, head trainer of ORA Dog Training and most recently Mike Figueroa, head trainer of Delta K9 Training.
Alexis has travelled to train families and dogs in NY, ME, FL, NM, and SC and is currently working towards her CPDT-KA, Police Tracking Certification, and AKC Fit Dog Certification. She currently has a pup of her own, Cedar, who is a Great Dane and occasionally accompanies her on training sessions to act as a demo dog - assisting by guiding dogs to be calm and well behaved members of society. ​
Alexis started Barkitect with the premise of not only training dogs to become well behaved members of their families, but also to train humans to understand their dogs better. Additionally, the better we can train our dogs, the more freedom they have - and the less stress you'll have. Her aim is to help owners and families incorporate their dogs into their lives better and hopefully create the foundations of something beautiful to be built upon. ​
In her spare time, Alexis works as a visual artist, illustrator, welder and fabricator. She loves to snowboard, practice horticulture, read science fiction, build tiny homes, and hike around the Hudson Valley mountains.
