Team

Lynn Wunderli
Founder & Owner, Chief Trainer

Lynn has been professionally training dogs for over 25 years. Her knowledge and experience with dogs began as a child (her father was a successful breeder and trainer of English Setters and Pointers for over 55 years in Illinois). This early exposure in dog behavior and training was supplemented by her college education in teaching and psychology, and her interest and experience in dog training never stopped.

Lynn has worked in many settings, volunteering at the University of Illinois Vet School, working at an Animal Emergency Center in Atlanta, GA, and continues to further her education in the field of animal behavior, training and grooming. Working in the Department of Media and Training Services at the CDC from 1989-1992 allowed Lynn to learn more about communicable disease and public health, which has been helpful in her understanding diseases similar in the canine world, and assessing the risks in canine community environments.

Lynn worked closely with Paws New England from 2009-2012, acting as a temperament evaluator — fostering, assessing, and re-training problematic rescue dogs; this resulted in a high success rate in placing these dogs with new owners. Lynn is also a liaison for GSCA (Giant Schnauzer Club of America) Rescue, where she donates her time whenever possible - offering dog and home assessments and training.

Lynn has donated her time to The Vet Center (Madison, WI) in assisting U.S. veterans with behavioral modification and obedience training based on the individual team’s needs/goals/objectives.

Lynn is a certified AKC CGC Evaluator, and is also a mentor and evaluator for The Animal Behavior College.

In addition to helping client teams every day, Lynn makes it her goal to attend as many (continuing education) science-based canine conferences and workshops as possible.

Lynn's philosophy is to understand each client’s needs and lifestyle, and to offer solutions and training based on their goals and objectives. Using “relationship-based training,” Lynn teaches dog owners about innate dog behaviors, signals and cues, and how to best communicate with their dogs (and how to best utilize a dog’s innate drives and tendencies). Using behavioral and obedience training methods, Lynn designs a personal program that will improve a client team’s relationship, which leads to a healthier bond. Lynn takes special joy in starting puppies in a relationship-based training program that starts with basic husbandry, obedience, and safe exposure training. Lynn often uses her “model dog” Evvi (Giant Schnauzer, 2.5 years) to “balance train” both puppies and older dogs, and to offer owners an opportunity to see first hand how they may develop their dog. Lynn is Pet CPR and First Aide Trained.

Lynn’s education and affiliations // Have Lynn speak at your event

Peter Wunderli
Co-Founder

Peter has been one of the foremost reasons wunderdog has been such a great success. He has always encouraged Lynn to follow her dreams in the animal world, and has always supported and nurtured that. He sits on the board of our business as primary member and co-founder.

Peter is a microbial immunologist by education and training, and his post-graduate education includes studies at the UI and UGA Colleges of Veterinary Medicine, with focus on Veterinary Pathobiology and Medical Microbiology. During his position as a visiting researcher at the CDC, in Atlanta, GA, he became involved in rabies vaccine potency testing, and has been an invited speaker at international conferences on rabies and other potency test development topics. When not performing handy-man duties for wunderdog, he leads a team of scientists involved in developing and applying potency test methods to ensure the quality of biopharmaceutical products.

Peter was a driving force in the acquiring of our first Giant Schnauzer, and has fancied the breed ever since. Wunderdog would not exist without Peter Wunderli!

Morgan Johnson
Lead Trainer

Morgan is a lead trainer with wunderdog.  From their first meeting, Lynn saw her skill and potential.  She has worked as a professional in the dog industry for over 7 years. Her passion for canines started early (childhood), and as soon as she turned 16, she began work at Cherokee Kennels as a pet attendant for dogs and cats who were boarding there.

Her duties included feeding, medicating, exercising, and overall care of these animals, along with evaluative reports regarding their stay with managers and pet parents.  Morgan left for Ripon college after completing high school, to major in Business Management with an emphasis on Marketing.

She kept finding her way back to dogs.  About a year post-graduation from Ripon, and while working in the corporate world, she started working part time for DogMa.  She was responsible for the in-home care of the client pets as well as assisting with canine rescue.  It was here that she started to truly understand the value of building a meaningful and trusting relationship with the pets she cared for, and their owners.  Morgan felt as though she was missing something.  Corporate life was going well, but she had a desire to do more in the dog world…

She interviewed with Blackjack Canine, LLC, where she was offered a position as a training apprentice.  This position continued to advance until she was an accredited trainer, and decided to work for Blackjack full time, leaving the corporate world behind her.

Her BlackJack training prepared her to work independently with client pet dogs, service dogs, and competition/protection dogs. Morgan was involved in police dog training, and trained to compete in French Ring. Earlier this year, she competed in her first French Ring with her Malinois “Rookie” and took first place in Breve.  

Over time, Morgan knew she wanted to expand her dog training and behavior knowledge further, and recognized the therapeutic benefits of the ever-expanding dog daycare world.  She knew that she could learn more by increasing her knowledge in such an environment.  It was then that she sought and accepted a position at Zen Dogs Center in Waunakee (co-owned by wunderdog owner, Lynn Wunderli) as a “Rufferee”.  Because Morgan is passionate about continued learning and being the best dog advocate and trainer she can be, she inquired about working with wunderdog as well as Zen Dogs!  An amazing relationship has been the outcome, as Morgan is now a wunderdog Trainer. 

Morgan continues to advance her training by learning the latest dog psychology, training and methods with Lynn.   Lynn cannot wait to see her expand her training knowledge the “wunderdog way.”  

Outside of the dog world, Morgan & her fiancé Casey live in Waunakee, where they built their forever home. They own two dogs, Chloe (Husky), and Sabre (Belgian Malinois). For recreation, Morgan enjoys spending time with family and friends, outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, snowboarding, volleyball, soccer, golf (just to name a few), and of course, training her dog Sabre!

James Wickert
ABCDT Certified Trainer

James was first introduced to Lynn when ABC contacted her to interview James for a mentorship with her. James has a been training dogs for over 5 years. He has successfully trained over 50 rescue dogs that would have been sadly cast aside otherwise.

James has a true passion for dog training and the welfare of every dog he meets. This was apparent Lynn, and after he finished his mentorship, she offered him a position teaching our wunderdog group class training classes!.

Although James loves all dogs, he has a special fondness for the working breeds - especially German Shepherd Dogs. James has a special love for the dogs that serve our country every day, in all facets. James has started his own “Day Train” business at his farm in McFarland, where he works with each individual dog from 8am to 4pm, building confidence through positive reinforcement free-shaping obedience and exposure training. He and his wife Kassy are “parents” to dogs Zoey, Molly, and Piper, and are both native Wisconsonites. Kassy plays an integral part in both James’ business and his teaching for wunderdog - you could say they are Team Wickert! For fun, James likes to work with his dog Zoey. Zoey was a rescue that had many issues. James has habituated her to many environments, takes her hiking regularly, and has worked diligently to make her the fine example of his dedication and success in training. James is Pet CPR and First Aide trained.