Practical Obedience LLC - Custom Dog Training

04/26/2025

🚨 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 🚨

Fearful puppies = a behavioral emergency.

We’re seeing a worrying trend in our community and it’s time to talk about it. Here’s what every dog owner needs to know:

🐾 When you meet a puppy, they should be happy, curious, and eager to engage.
🆘 If they’re hesitant, cowering, or scared — even a little — that’s a red flag. If that fear doesn’t quickly turn into confidence, it’s even more serious.

🐾 A puppy’s brain develops FAST in the first 4 months. This is when they decide:

➡ Is the world a safe place, or a scary one?
➡ Should I approach new things with caution or curiosity?

Early experiences shape their attitude on how to approach life. Positive, low-stress exposure teaches them the world is fun, exciting and safe. Fearful experiences wire them for anxiety and reactivity.

The two biggest problems we’re seeing:
1️⃣ People think fearfulness is "normal" and puppies will "grow out of it."
2️⃣ Socialization or training actually overwhelms scared puppies, making things worse.

💔 The worst part? Even when puppy parents 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘬 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱, many trainers are missing the mark.

Instead of careful support, fearful puppies are thrown into rough, chaotic "playgroups" where they’re left hiding, stressed, and trying to protect themselves.
They’re forced into interactions with humans when they’re desperate to stay away and feel safe.

Each bad experience teaches them one thing: 𝗕𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗱.

Fearful puppies are a behavioral emergency because "typical" socialization efforts can make things worse. Shy or timid puppies need immediate, deliberate, gradual socialization that keeps them feeling safe and moves at the puppy's individual pace. - building confidence, not stress.

If you see your puppy overwhelmed or afraid, step in. Even if the trainer says "they're fine". Protect your puppy's experience in the world at all costs. Their future happiness depends on it.

04/25/2025

Our puppies are all lined up and ready for the draft! They've put on their best Packer gear and are showing off all their skills. Who's your number one pick?

04/24/2025

We're wishing a fond farewell to one of our biggest Puppy DaySchool graduates! Miss Pearl wraps up her 4 week program with us today and learned so many new things in our care. From being a stray pup on the street to one who gives the best snuggles, she's hit the jackpot with her new home and we're so happy we could assist in building her a solid foundation of socialization and training skills. Please help us in wishing Pearl a happy graduation day!!

04/24/2025

We're closing early today! Staff is onsite this morning for Puppy DaySchool but we've cancelled Afternoon Puppy Social due to low enrollment.

Our team will be leaving early and the office will be closed at 1pm today. Please email [email protected] or call/text 920.471.4145 if you need assistance before Monday!

Enjoy your Draft weekend Green Bay! Stay safe!

04/24/2025

🏈 NFL DRAFT DAYS ARE HERE!🏈

While we may be focusing on the excitement, or interruption to our human-world, let's not forget our dogs! The increase of people this weekend will cause traffic headaches for humans or may cause you to steer clear of busy restaurants, it's also a high risk time for dogs - especially sensitive ones.

If you're in the range of the event, please take extra time to keep your dog safe. Keep identification on them at all times. Quick on leash potty breaks, especially at night - even in a fenced in yard - is the safest. Sudden noises can startle dogs and cause them to flee.

There may be extra foot traffic or vehicle traffic, increasing reactivity and risk of accidents. Keep fearful, aggression and reactive dogs out of the action.

Remember - dogs don't understand these human events, so stay patient, stay vigilant and support your dog if they're struggling.

04/22/2025

Lucky 7 Dog Rescue has been focusing on building a quality, educated foster roster this year, committed to using positive reinforcement. We could not be happier to be supporting this mission in our community!

Fostering is life saving for dogs and Lucky 7 does a great job supporting fosters to ensure they have everything you need. Supporting positive training will help create a trickle-down effect to new adopters and ensure they have the resources they need to be successful.

04/21/2025

We have one more ⚾ bat dog ⚾ shout-out to give today and that's for Higgins!

Higgins is our "honorable mention" as he was third in line for the bat dog role. We assure you, he did no wrong in his training - we just had to narrow the field. He and his mom were obviously disappointed to be cut from the team, but were sure to let us know they loved the opportunity with their sweet message:

"But I just want you to know—I gave it my all. I wagged hard. I sat when told. Being part of this training, even for a short time, has been a real treat. Not the beef-flavored kind, but the kind that warms a dog’s heart."

-Thanks for everything,
Higgins (and Tamara, my faithful human sidekick)

Let's give up to Higgins - and the other Puppy DaySchool graduates who came and tried out for this fun job!

04/21/2025

✨ Meet Wally the Bat Dog! ✨

Wally is an 11 month old Labrador Retriever who graduated our Puppy DaySchool program in August of 2024. He is absolutely THRILLED to be part of the bat dog fun. He took to our training especially quickly, thanks to the help of some tasty hot dogs and chicken and with the assistance of his trusty handler, Ally! Wally's training has been so solid that his family reports he's been picking up bats from his neighbor's yard when he's out on walks! 😅

Wally is set to retrieve at most Wednesday night home games, and we hope that you stop by to cheer him on at the Green Bay Rockers' games this summer!

04/20/2025

Our puppies are wishing everyone a very Happy Easter today! We hope you all enjoy time with family, friends, and your pets of course! May your day be filled with lots of Easter treats! ❤

04/20/2025

✨ Meet Scout the Bat Dog! ✨

Scout is a 10 month old Labrador Retriever who completed her Puppy DaySchool training in October of 2024. Scout was our first "guinea pig" of the bat dog program; she learned how to be a bat dog right alongside Kailey who was learning how to teach a pup to retrieve! Her early introduction to these skills was so rock solid that she crushed the selection process, making her a clear bat dog candidate. Her charismatic, high energy personality is sure to charm everyone in the stadium.

Scout will be hard at work most Monday night home games. We hope to see you there to cheer on Scout and the Green Bay Rockers!!

04/19/2025

Thorfinn is an adolescent golden retriever and today is his first birthday!! For his birthday gift, we're celebrating all the new things he's been learning! His training program has included polite manners in and out of the house, and luckily Shana is here to show him all the ropes!

His training work started by putting a polite greeting plan in place so that he can great people without leaping all over them. This went hand-in-hand with some loose leash skills and a new harness to prevent him from pulling over his owners. As a back-up plan, his family has been building a new recall cue, just in case he slips away. He's been doing phenomenal in DayTraining and we're sure his family will be excited to see his new repertoire of skills in his upcoming Coaching session!

🎉Happy Birthday Thor! We hope you get all the extra treats! 🎉

04/18/2025

We took lots of action shots this week in Puppy DaySchool! Everyone was getting in on the playtime fun!!

04/18/2025

🎉 We let the Green Bay Rockers Baseball Club announce our super secret surprise yesterday but now it's our turn! 🎉

At the beginning of this year, we were approached by the Green Bay Rockers to supply this year's bat dogs! They've seen the popularity of this in past years and are ready to bring it local with a training team in the community.

For those of you unfamiliar with the art of bat dogs, their job during a baseball game is to retrieve the bats from home plate and bring them back to the dugout (in place of a bat boy or girl). We spent the beginning of this year trialing seven different dogs who were graduates of our Puppy DaySchool to see which pups were up to s***f! At the end of our trials, we had two clear winners who proved above and beyond that they were born to retrieve bats!

That leads us to our new bat dogs! Meet Wally (left) and Scout! These two have partnered up with Ally and Kailey respectively. Their practice started at the training center, learning how to lift and carry the bat, bring it back to us, and ignore any distractions that come their way. This week, we've started practicing on the field and both dogs have been crushing it! 💪

Stay tuned this weekend as we'll be sharing more information about these two rockstars. We'll be retrieving bats for the first few innings at most Monday and Wednesday home games this year, so consider coming out to cheer on us and the Green Bay Rockers!!

04/18/2025

Our second DaySchool graduate is the ever-adorable Sunny! Sunny's first few days with us he presented on the shy side, but boy have we forgotten those days! Now, he comes flying into the room ready to greet any pup or trainer who will have him. He has expert play skills and has even coaxed a bit of play from our teeniest, shiest pups. And if no one wants to play, he's happy to make himself at home on a lap and wiggle around for some scritches. We're sad to see Sunny go, but so proud of the progress he has made!

04/17/2025

We're wishing a very big congratulations to two of our littles on their graduation from Puppy DaySchool! Our first is Jax and he truly as confident as they come! He's thrilled about food and taken well to all his training skills. We've even begun to tackle some other "naughty" puppy behaviors (like helping himself to jumping up on the kitchen counter! 😉) There wasn't a single other pup that he didn't adore and his favorite game was definitely chasing everyone else around! Despite doing full 8 hour days with us, we could never quite get him tired; must be all his s***k and spice! Congratulations Jax!!

04/17/2025

We are SO excited to finally share our new training project we've been working on behind the scenes!

We've trained up TWO dogs - Scout & Wally - to retrieve bats for the Green Bay Rockers Baseball Club! They're going to be participating in every Monday & Wednesday game throughout the season!

This has been such a fun adventure for our team and the client pups who were chosen for this fun task! We hope many of our friends and followers will be joining our bat dogs for some games to support our local community!

Let's give two paws up to some new players! 🐕 This year, we are partnering with Practical Obedience LLC - Custom Dog Training and Misfit Hills Pet Services to give you the Bat Dogs! Say hello to Scout, Wally, and Cooper!

Check out the Bat Dog Schedule and Learn more here: https://tinyurl.com/4xjw3azj

04/17/2025

Tomorrow is a big day here at Practical Obedience, so you're going to want to tune in!

We've got TWO puppies graduating our Puppy DaySchool (which means we have room for more next week!) AND we're sharing details on a new, fun community collaboration project.

Trust us... you're gonna wanna join in the fun. ;)

See you here Thursday. 😉

04/16/2025

This big ball of fluff is Guster and he is a 2 year old Great Pyrenees. His DayTraining program with Kailey has been centered around all things reactivity.

After attending our Reactive Rover group class, Guster's family has been tackling his reactivity at home, with he and Kailey work on some supplementary skills in DayTraining. At nearly 100 pounds, Guster is a really big guy, so to give his family some added support on walks, he has been learning to wear a gentle leader while on walks. With a new piece of equipment comes a new set of walking skills, so Guster is learning that the gentle leader means no pulling on leash. They've also implemented a reliable recall at home and are already seeing success with it at the dog park!

While Guster was a little suspicious about working with us at first, he's learning that our training center means lots of cheese and beef liver for him and we've loved watching him loosen up while developing his new skills!