Tyson Nunneley and Ellena Swift Nunneley have shared their passion for training and working dogs for several years and finally decided that it made sense to share the wonderful facilities, experience and knowledge with others wishing to have fun and train their dogs.
Ellena has worked with and trained dogs for over 20 years with the first dog she ever trained (Dora) passing away a few years ago. Dora continued to work her last season enjoying her days out shooting, her many tricks and (albeit slower) agility! All her life Ellena has been surrounded by their family gun dogs, mostly Labradors and Alsatians learning most of her skills from her dad; Robert Swift who's dogs are well known to be immaculately behaved.
Ellena completed a degree in Agriculture and Animal Science from The Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester and consequently became a lecture at Warwickshire College for over eight years. She is a fully qualified Lecturer, A1 Assessor and V1 Internal Verifier in Animal Care, health, Welfare & Behaviour. Her speciality was canine training and behaviour, covering everything from heel work to music to puppy training. She also took weekend classes teaching gun dog training, one to one behavioural referrals and agility. On the theoretical side, she specialised in topics such as animal nutrition, canine behaviour, animal science and canine health, welfare and behaviour. Ellena is also a registered and qualified Master Professional Training Instructor with the Guild of Dog Trainers.
Since leaving Warwickshire College, Ellena has worked within the animal pharmaceutical industry working with veterinarians, selling and developing animal drugs and health products.
Swift Dog Training Ltd was established in 2013 and has gone from strength to strength. Ellena loves nothing more than spending time working, training and playing with her own Alsatians, Border Collie and Labradors. Her passion is training dogs, helping owners and improving the bonds between owners and their best friends. Known well locally for working gun dogs in various capacities; picking up, beating and shooting, she is infamously known for working the less common breed of Alsatians. Determined not to follow suit, she has trained two Alsatians to pick up and hunt better than most Spaniels and Labradors.
Ellena has now competed four homebred dogs to Open level in field trials and taken two dogs to the Irish Retriever Championship 2021. She also represented the England Gundog Team in 2022, 2023 and was selected again 24 with homebred FtCh Swiftlands Briar. More recently Ellena was voted Gundog Trainer of the Year 2022 and 2024. Ellena has a number of younger dogs now beginning their competition careers. Ellena is also a well known author for the Shooting Times magazine and one of their panel experts.
ELLENA SWIFT NUNNELEY
James Whalley
James began working with us in April 2023. We met him when he began having lessons with his own beautiful black Belgian Malinois; Kash. Since then he has been working with a huge variety of trainers learning about various training methods and dog sports. More recently he has competed his first Labrador and achieved a respectable C of M in his very first Novice. He has now bred a super litter and is training one of the dog puppies. James is in charge of managing the kennels and ensuring the dogs are exercised, fed and happy. He is now heavily involved with the training side and will continue shadowing Ellena as his career progresses. We are excited to watch him grow as a trainer and team member.
Tyson grew up on his family farm, being surrounded by his families working Border Collies and Springer Spaniels. He has been a Game Keeper for nearly a decade before moving over to more of the dog training side. In that time he worked his dogs every day, including Springer Spaniels, Labradors and his wonderful Kelpie x Collie.
He first started dog training when he was 15 years old, with his Springer Spaniel; Millie. Having learnt a great deal from her he then moved on to his dark Yellow Labrador bitches, both of which worked nicely in the beating line, on peg and picking up.
He has a lot of experience working sheep dogs; Wispa. She is a Kelpie x Collie and he likes nothing more than working her with the 500 ewes on his working farm.
Tyson now has a young yellow labrador dog called Hunta, who is homebred and he intends to use beating, on the peg and occasionally picking up. He often uses Ellena's retired trialling dogs for all round shooting companions.
Tyson and Ellena now have a large pack of 10+ dogs between them and so decided to invest in some kennels. Swift Dog Training Ltd kennels were thoroughly researched and tested so offer empathy and innovation catering for all a dogs needs. Please ask for more details on kennel design.
Tyson and Ellena moved to their new facility which borders Stratford on Avon in 2024. They have spent a great deal of money and time developing and growing the facility into the wonderful set up it is today. They are continuing to grow and improve every day.
TYSON NUNNELEY
Tamara Pearson
Tamara has always worked with animals. She started with horses but always had her own working Labradors. After an injury ended her career working with horses, she got more heavily involved with the working gundog side. She now has three working black Labradors and enjoys beating, picking up and wildfowling with them. She is also the Hon Secretary of the Midland Gundog Society and heavily involved with competing in and organising in working tests. Tamara is helping us with all aspects of the management and running of Swift Dog Training Ltd. She also is helping with the day to day care outside.
