Animal Matters Training & Swim

11/06/2024

Izzy, Karma, & Lemmie came in last night for their first Puppy Preschool class and they all rocked it!✨ Each of these pups were excited to come in and are already working well as a team. 💪 Way to go pups!

11/04/2024

The holidays are quickly approaching, and we want to make sure your dog is just as ready as you are!🦃🍂 We are offering three Holiday Prep workshops to cover a variety of skills for your dog during holiday activities. These sessions will load you and your dog with skills to be ready for guests visiting, settling during holiday prep, leaving food alone, & management options when training isn't possible.✨

Workshop dates include Saturday November 16th, Saturday December 7th, and Saturday December 14th from 10:30am to 11:30am. An individual workshop can be purchased for $30 and registration for all three is available for $75!✅ Workshops do not require previous class experience but your dog should be comfortable taking treats and working in the presence of other dogs.

Sign up at the link in the comments!🔗

11/03/2024

Daisy and Norby had their first pool session during their last boarding stay, and while Daisy was a fish right away, Norby wasn’t so sure about having to swim to get his toy. Since then, Norby has had a session all on his own, and he’s already showed so much more confidence and is ALMOST paddling on his own!

11/02/2024

If you take nothing else from our training, we always hope you help set your dog up for success and support them when life is hard💙 Learning happens best when mistakes don’t cause punishment.

"Life isn't "purely positive" so I can use a prong/shock collar to train my dog..."

This is a ridiculous trope which is often served up as some kind of gotcha. But it's not.

When we are growing up, life is hard. Many of don't need to imagine this because we've lived it but imagine going through life as a child or teenager and not being able to come home and finding safety or support from your parents abd siblings. Imagine doing a task at home and being worried about being berated or physically harmed by your parents. Would that be necessary for life?

Imagine going into a new place of work where your teammates/supervisor are hostile. Would that help you learn how to do your job? Would it make it easier or harder? Now you not only have to worry about the new skills your learning but you have to defend yourself and let people know you won't be treated that way (or dogs don't have that option under these conditions, if they communicate this, it will lead to more punishment).

You go into a new gym class and either (or both) the instructor and other participants are sneering and nasty. Would you go back? Our dogs don't have the option not to go back.

Let's flip that. A child goes home from a particularly hard day at school and are supported by their parents, who then equip them with the skills of how to deal with the hardship.

A new employee joins your team, are welcomed, and taught properly. Do you think they will give a better performance?

A martial arts class has a new student. The instructor starts at their level and partners them with someone who will meet that level and gently expand their comfort zone.

I could give loads more examples - school, college voluntary work, interactions with people in the street.

Yes, life is hard. We don't need those who are in the position to teach and support us pouring on more pressure when we are already struggling.

Our dogs are the same. Life for them in a human world is hard. They need us to teach them kindly, humanely and effectively and this can all be done by reward based training.

They don't need the added pressure of prong collars, choke chains, slip leads, grot/garotte collars, shock collars etc. It's hard enough for them as it is.

N.B. this page is not a place for anyone to promote, endorse, justify or excuse the use of so-called "balanced" training methods or tools. Take it elsewhere.

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10/31/2024

Happy Halloween👻🎃 Banner, Lilah, and Val came to their training session showing off not only their mat skills but their adorable costumes too!

10/22/2024

We wrapped up another session of Puppy Preschool today and couldn’t be more proud of Bo, Piper, & Wilber for all they’ve accomplished these last 4 weeks! 💓🐶

10/17/2024

Look at these cuties who joined us for class tonight! 📸😍 Bandit, Bentley, Lucy, & Maggie began their training journey in Basic Manners and Beau, Cooper, & Henry are continuing their journey in Puppy Preschool 2. We can’t wait to watch these pups learn the next 4 weeks!✨

10/16/2024

Finn and the shark fin🦈

10/10/2024

Congratulations to Klinger and Ranger for graduating from Puppy Preschool last night! These two pups have grown so much these last four weeks, and we can’t wait to see all these teams accomplish!🎉💗

10/08/2024

Just labs doing lab things!🌊 We get asked frequently what breed of dogs we see the most in the pool and Labrador Retriever is always the #1 answer! Stanley, Gavin, Bo, & Jesse all ventured in the water during the latest pool sessions showing the definition of water dog💦

10/04/2024

New toy alert!📣 As many of our pool clients know, our beloved Zippy Paws toys are discontinued and we’ve been searching for replacement options when the few that we have left reach their end.❤️‍🩹 Our swim dogs (particularly our labs!) have been trying out the Kong Belly Flops lobster🦞, and, so far, it’s been a hit! We’re always keeping an eye out for new toys to try in the pool to keep variety in your dog’s swim sessions🌟

10/02/2024

Izzy joined us for her first puppy training session last week, and we are so excited to see this puppy grow! We got right to work exposing her to a variety of socialization items and building her training foundations. Since we know she's going to be a big girl (30lbs at 3 months already!), we are focusing on greeting people with four on the floor and polite behavior around food! Welcome Izzy!

10/01/2024

Bo and Wilberforce joined us for their first week for Puppy Preschool this morning, and we know there are good things in store for these two puppies✨

09/30/2024

Luka the long haired Chihuahua joined us in the pool last week as part of his weight loss journey and to lessen the effect of his degenerative disc disease diagnosis. While he may not choose to swim, we know the benefits its offering him (and he sure is cute while he's doing it😍)! We are looking forward to seeing him every week and watching his waist slim down a little.😉

09/28/2024

Some of our pool dogs from this last week!🌊

09/27/2024

Another title for Ms. Freya! Last week, we checked off Freya's AKC Intermediate Trick Dog title✅ We love watching her learn and seeing her show off her skills. Way to go team Freya!

09/26/2024

We have a unique opportunity one month from today - Saturday October 26th! We are offering 20 minute pool socialization sessions for puppies under 6 months from 10am until 1pm🐶 These sessions are designed to offer positive exposure to water, swimming, and/or wearing a life jacket with our certified trainer. During the 20 minutes, we will go at your puppy's pace and focus on whichever element of water exposure you are hoping for.🌊 For some puppies, that may include taking that step to swim and others may just want to dip their toes in - whatever your puppy decides!

All you need to bring is your puppy! We have a variety of toys to use during the session, and our trainer will have treats on hand if your dog prefers food encouragement. Our pool is equipped with a shower head to rinse them off at the end of their session, and we have towels to dry them off.

There are a limited number of sessions, so please reach out today to sign your puppy up!🌟

APPT TIMES: 11AM, 11:30AM, 12PM, 12:30PM

09/26/2024

More puppy cuteness with Klinger and Ranger tonight exploring our socialization items during Puppy Preschool! These two boys are so fun to work with and already learning great foundation skills to start them off on the right track!

09/24/2024

We wrapped up our last Drink With Your Dog of the season last night and are so grateful to have such wonderful dog teams join us! Congratulations to Beau, Gizmo, Lucy, Pretzel, & Tony for all of their handwork these last few weeks🎉 We cannot be more proud of each of your progress and the support you showed your dogs.

If you missed this year’s sessions of our brewery manners class, don’t hesitate to be put on the list for next year! Thank you Zambaldi Beer for being such gracious hosts and offering your wonderful patio!

09/21/2024

Brother’s Breaker & Kai have been getting some extra one-on-one time while during their daycare days with pool sessions! While their owners know they aren’t much for water dogs, the boys have loved getting time to play with each other and uninterrupted attention from the staff. Plus, it’s great enrichment for them to have a new place to explore and sniff out!

09/19/2024

We welcomed Klinger, Piper, and Ranger last night in their first Puppy Preschool group class! All of the puppies are proving to be quick learners and a blast to work with. We’re looking forward to watch all of the progress these pups make and be a part of their training journey these next four weeks!

09/18/2024

Last month, we met with Bella and her owner to discuss some behaviors they had been noticing with her. Many of them were common puppy concerns such as crate training and socialization. During our session, we noticed she seemed to be concerned about a number of novel items in the room which prompted us to build a more focused plan to address Bella's concerns. Last week, we worked with sweet Bella again, and it was clear her owners have put in the hard work to help her be a confident, adventurous dog! She had no hesitation exploring a number of our socialization items and even got to venture around the lobby. Now that she is feeling more comfortable with her surroundings, we're able to get started with her training goals! Way to go Team Bella!

09/16/2024

Don’t let busy evenings stop you from helping your puppy receive critical training and socialization! We are offering our first DAY TIME Puppy Preschool group class. This class covers important puppy behaviors ranging from sit & down to place & loose leash walking while offering valuable discussion regarding raising a confident, social puppy.

This session meets for four weeks at 11am starting Tuesday October 1st. Class is limited to four puppies and is taught by our certified trainer. The session is $100.

We do still have a couple of spots left in our evening session starting THIS Wednesday (9/18)! Reach out to sign your puppy up!

09/15/2024

Ms. Ruthie participated in a number of training sessions last week while she was boarding TailWaggers Doggy Daycare De Pere & Bellevue (De Pere), and to say we are impressed with this little girl is an understatement! With a solid training foundation, we were able to build more advanced behaviors with Ruthie like a sit/stay for examination, loose leash walking around distractions, & heel. With no hesitation, Ruthie jumped right in to training and was just as excited to participate as we were to work with her. She aced all of her training goals, and we can't wait to work with her during future boarding stays!

Here is a snippet of some of our training sessions while she was boarding!

09/05/2024

The heat and humidity last week postponed our final night of Drink With Your Dog, but we are happy to share that we were able to celebrate the graduation of 7 teams last night at our make up class at Zambaldi Beer! Congratulations to Archie, Bailey, Benny, Bonnie, Luna, Misa, and Rocco 🎓 While we missed a few of our teams with the changed date, we will get to celebrate their accomplishments at the end of September.🎉 Our teams last night showed off all of the things they’ve learned like settling on their mat (including with food present!), walking on a loose leash while their owners carried a “beer,” and even waiting in line with the other dogs! At the end, we finished it off with a trick and congratulations for everyone. 👏🏻

If you want to join this fun class, we have ONE session left this summer starting Monday September 9th! Reach out today to sign your pup up!