Meet Ella Nesius | Dog trainer and photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ella Nesius and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ella, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
For a while, dog training and photographing animals has been a passion and a hobby that brought me a lot of joy and taught me new things about myself. Both things have brought amazing people into my life and connected me with the greatest minds who helped me found myself and craft a beautiful skill. I never planned for my passion to become the main source of income, but after spending so much time working on myself and the skill of handling and understanding dogs made it something inevitable. I realized I’m not interested in pursuing what I went to school for, which was criminal law, and decided to put my full effort into learning about dogs. I moved to the United States from Ukraine in 2018, and starting my own business in a new country has been the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. From a language barrier to new laws and processes, it often felt overwhelming and there’s been many times I thought I just can’t do it. I’m very thankful for a strong and supportive community of friends and other dog professionals who have pushed me, mentored me, and guided me through this difficult process.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I see dog training as art. Even though I started my dog journey with photographing animals, my early experience interacting with dogs allowed me to learn a lot about dog behavior, struggles in a society of dog owners, common problems people are facing with their dogs and things people want to improve on, but don’t know where to start. My artistic approach allowed me to observe moments of struggles and highlight moments of joy. My never ending curiosity gave me purpose to push through the difficulties and my fascination for dog and human relationship reminded me of why I made the commitment in the first place. Working with families, observing different relationships and family environments taught me a lot about psychology, how conflicts should and should not be resolved, and most importantly it taught me how much people love their family pets and how far they are willing to go to give their dogs good and happy lives.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’ve had an enormous support from family and friends, professionals who shared their skill and experience with me, and supported me in times when I felt stuck or felt like I don’t know where I’m going. One of my early mentors and friends, Siobhen Bayne, who is also a dog professional and runs a dog shop in Tucson, employed me as a dog trainer at D’Ogee’s Place and invested in the future of my skill, provided education and allowed me to grow in a supportive and healthy environment while I figured out what is it that I truly want to do, and which path in dog training I’d like to focus on.

Website: Pointandhowl.com

Instagram: Instagram.com/pointandhowl

Image Credits
Point and Howl Dog Training