- (952) 955.3240
- 10710 Swede Lake Road Watertown, Minnesota
When you bring your dog to Wings and Whistles, we structure our training program around your dog’s nature. We are dedicated to training through positive reinforcement and repetition. In this way, your dog will eagerly develop to its fullest potential.
You need to be able to reinforce and maintain the training after your dog is home. This is accomplished through a couple scheduled sessions with the trainer. These are lengthy, one-on-one, hands-on sessions where you are handling your dog with the trainer. It has been our experience that this is really liked by our clients and it is beneficial to the overall training experience.
Your dog will be worked on a daily basis, benefiting from our schedule. While staying here your dog gets to know us and that Wings and Whistles is a safe, secure, happy home away from home. Many of our clients comment that their dog gets excited when they turn onto our road, knowing it is coming to stay at Wings and Whistles.
Mike has trained various dogs his family has owned throughout his life, then when he got married, he trained his Golden Retriever and English Setter. In 1985, Mike started training a friend’s dog. After more and more requests, what started out as a beloved hobby, turned into his full-time profession in 1989. Mike and his wife, Linda, bought their property in 1988 and started building the kennel with help from their friends and family. In 2000, an addition to the building was built to further accommodate their fast-growing business.
Mike’s reputation is most known for his honesty, integrity, and hard work. He developed the training programs to handle any dog- any size, breed, or temperament. He believes each dog is unique and enjoys the challenge of understanding the dogs’ individual personalities. He genuinely wants every person who steps through the doors to be successful with the training he provides and sets a high standard for all of his trainers to do and believe the same.
While Mike doesn’t train as much as he used to, he has personally trained all our training staff and is still at the kennel daily to help in the office or to give advice (you may even see him in his new “Janitorial Services” role).
In Mike’s free time he enjoys spending time with his family: wife, Linda; daughter and son-in-law, Rachael and Andrew; son and daughter-in-law, Peter and Krista; and granddaughter, Micah. He also spends time woodworking, hunting, and fishing.
Linda is married to Mike and helped him start Wings and Whistles. Linda handles the books and other administrative duties for the business and works in the kennel office on the weekends. She and Mike currently own a Jack Russel, Zinnia, and a black lab, Jet. Linda’s loves to travel and in her free time you can find her with a good book or outside in gardening with Mike.
Rachael is Mike and Linda’s daughter, who grew up doing many things at Wings and Whistles. At just 8 years old, she would offer extra brushing for customer’s dogs during their stay. Later, in her teens, she started doing daily kennel chores. In 2016 she pursued becoming the general obedience trainer for Wings & Whistles, capitalizing on the high demand for obedience dog training that the business was getting. Just like her dad, she has a natural talent when it comes to training dogs. She was privileged to be able to learn from Mike for many years. Rachael is also a good teacher when it comes to training the owners in the one-on-one sessions in the obedience program.
Rachael enjoys reading, spending time with friends, baking, and drawing.
Andrew is Mike and Linda’s son-in-law. After marrying Rachael in 2020, he decided to join the family business full-time in 2022. Andrew started out doing in-home dog obedience training which evolved into training solely at the kennel part time and helping with bookwork and also working in the office handling scheduling customers, making phone calls, and dealing with pick-ups/drop-offs.
Andrew and Rachael have 2 Springers, Lucina and Kiwi.
Andrew enjoys baking and cooking, playing board games, and knows everything football.
Krista is Mike and Linda’s daughter-in-law. She first started working in the office when she broke her wrist in 2022 and couldn’t work at her job as an x-ray tech. In 2023, she decided 6 years in healthcare was enough and joined the kennel full-time. She assists with scheduling, phone calls, pick-ups/drop-offs, and is learning the bookkeeping for the business. She enjoys interacting with all the dogs that come and go, ensuring each of them are taken care of, and anything having to do with organization. Krista had a dog throughout her grade school and college years, Barney. But, as of now she and her husband, Peter, have 2 Maine Coon cats, Mudd and Oakley.
In Krista’s spare time, she is mainly trying to keep up with her daughter, Micah. She also enjoys playing volleyball, reading, and teaching herself how to sew.
Alia and Hannah play integral roles to the business. They are the ones busy behind the scenes taking care of anything “dog”. They are responsible for feeding, letting out, and bathing all of the dogs staying with us. They get to know each dog throughout their stay and take the dogs out for extra playtimes. They maintain clean environments for the dogs to stay in and take pride in treating each dog as if it were their own. Alia and Hannah work full-time and also take on various extra roles that help keep the kennel running smoothly. Alia is a part of our Bird and Gun program, and Hannah a part of the Obedience program.