Nose to tail
If your dog is out of control there is a man in Paphos who understands. And it’s not usually the dog that needs retraining, but the owner
Stephen Ellis was 16 when he bought his first dog. Saving the money from his wages wasn’t easy; in 1964 £60 was a huge amount for a German shepherd. “I knew this was the dog I had to have, having wanted one since I was 11 years old. I had read all the library books on how to train and care for a pet so I put everything into training Rebel and she turned out a marvelous dog,” he remembered.
That was the start of Stephen’s long and fruitful relationship with man’s best friend and, as his training progressed with Rebel, so did his interest in learning more about how the canine brain worked.
“I learnt a lot from Rebel, in fact everyone can learn a great deal from dogs, not only are they good companions that introduce you to new experiences, it’s always been a case of the more you put into a dog the more you get in return.”
Stephen now works as a self styled canine whisperer, he’s not a qualified dog behaviourist but the gentlest of men, possessed of a skill to communicate with dogs and re-educate them out of the bad habits we humans usually inflict upon our pets.
Now retired from the British police service, Stephen outlined how his job as a policeman brought him into contact with a great deal of animal cruelty. “There’s nothing worse than someone abusing a dog. I follow the line of thinking that says there’s no such thing as a bad dog just ignorant owners who knowingly or unknowingly encourage bad behaviour in the first place, and that’s really the biggest part of my job, the re-education of owners.
“Believe me, dogs are usually easier to retrain than family members. Part of that includes teaching them how to create a healthy environment for their animal and vital to this process are the basic rules governing a dog. Owners should always give clear and consistent demands and maintain this programme for ever, you also have to learn to read the animal and understand its motivations. Dogs, like children, need strict boundaries and, just as parents teach, so must the dog owner, enforcing the basic needs of a dog: shelter, healthcare, exercise and love. Get all this right and you will then be worthy of a dog’s trust.
“Don’t however make the mistake of putting affection before discipline and before exercise. The latter is key as dogs need to be stimulated or they get stressed out and that’s when they can wreck a household”.
Helping troubled canines get back on track by creating order out of doggy chaos is second nature to Stephen and many owners have been deeply grateful for his expertise. Nala, a frisky golden Labrador puppy, would chew anything that could go in her mouth, she jumped on people, whined and barked if left outside in the garden and although a very affectionate beast was seemingly getting way out of control. “Taking her for a walk was a nightmare,” said owner Ian Inglis. “She hauled you along, refused to take any commands and, despite an enormous love for the creature, we were more than concerned our three-year-old daughter would accidentally be felled by her.”
That’s when they called in Stephen for some simple doggie psychiatry. The theory is that positive actions should be rewarded by positive consequences and negative actions by negative consequences, also the animal must feel safe throughout its initial training. Twice a week Ian and Stephen worked with Nala and now the neighbourhood has a well disciplined and very happy addition – she sits on command, has stopped jumping up when you are eating at the table, doesn’t bowl you over when ever you enter the house and seems to be more part of the family than before.
Stephen can work the seemingly impossible, he had a Yorkshire terrier that would race out of the house and chase cats, he trained it to stop at the garden wall. “In fact, he said, “when it came to that invisible boundary it would actually skid to halt”.
But was there ever a dog he couldn’t train? “Yes, a Rottweiller that hated children, and all other dogs. He was terribly unreliable, the previous owners had done the damage and although I managed to turn some of his bad traits round, he was quite old and these habits were almost ingrained in him. That’s why it’s important to start proper training from three months old and don’t forget dogs, unlike babies, never really grow up, a fully developed dog only ever has the mental age of a six year old.
“Last week my Cypriot neighbour got rid of his hunting dog (ie abandoned him) because he took him out the day after he bought him from a friend and the dog wouldn’t come to his commands. This is one of the biggest problems we have here in Cyprus – people who sell hunting dogs to hunters, telling them the animal is fully trained to the gun. What they don’t tell the new owner is that the dog is fully trained to adhere to the original owner’s commands. These dogs need to be understood and patiently retrained by the new owner.”
So, if your Alsatian attacks shopping trolleys, eats light bulbs, you have a mongrel who molests skateboards and eats the sofa, or a Labrador that refuses to stop relentlessly jumping into the swimming pool and you desire a docile lapdog then just call in Stephen for a bit of nose to tail consultation.
Stephen Ellis
Tel 99 756076 (Paphos)
