Our Team

Jeff Silverman

Jeff is one of our owners and specializes in aggression, separation anxiety, and behavior issues in shelter and rescue dogs. He has played a leading role in setting standards for the dog training industry. He is a past president of the world’s largest association for animal behavior professionals, the Association of Professional Dog Trainers. He also served on the certification review committee of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants. You can read Jeff’s work at Dr. Ian Dunbar’s website Dog Star Daily. He has also been published in the Chronicle of the Dog and profiled in the St. Lous Post Dispatch. Jeff has lectured to local veterinary associations and a variety of animal welfare organizations and has been featured on WMUB ‘s free advice program.

Jeff’s volunteer work with shelter dogs led him to a career in animal behavior. After years of volunteering, fostering shy dogs, and studying animal behavior as a hobby, he began teaching classes with an AKC obedience club in 1996. In 1998, he started his own business in St. Louis, MO specializing in behavior consultations for shy and aggressive dogs as well as consulting for animal shelters on issues like behavioral enrichment programs, behavior help lines, behavior assessments, obedience class curriculum, and development of volunteer and staff training programs. In 2004, he moved to Ohio to join Training Tracks and (more importantly) marry Mel.

Jeff does dog behavior consulting throughout Cincinnati, and does most of our in-home dog training in Hyde Park, Mt. Lookout, Indian Hill, Oakley, Mt. Adams, Clifton, and downtown Cincinnati.

Melissa “Mel” Bussey Silverman

Our other owner started Training Tracks in 1998. She has travelled the country studying with the world’s best dog trainers. She runs our board and train program  and also specializes in working with fear, dog aggression. She remains most passionate about leveraging the knowledge gained working these difficult cases to develop simple practical solutions to families’ everyday dog behavior problems.

Mel has played a leading role in the professionalization of dog training. She served for 9 years on the Board of Directors for the world’s largest association of animal behavior professionals, the Association of Pet Dog Trainers. Her writing has been published in The Chronicle of the Dog and the book “The APDT’s Top Tips from Top Trainers.” She was featured in an episode of Dr. Ian Dunbar’s online TV series “America’s Dog Trainer” and on WMUB’s free advice program, and is a recurring guest on WVXU’s Cincinnati Edition. She also teaches continuing education courses for other animal behavior professionals through Raising Canine. Locally, Mel served as the Vice President of the Oxford Dog Owners’ Group (OXDOG) and has volunteered her time and expertise for the Animal Adoption Foundation, the Animal Friends Humane Society, and a variety of private rescue groups.

Ariel Turner

Ariel is the Training Director for our West Chester facility.  She is a graduate of the CATCH Canine Trainers Academy. She worked as a dog sitter and walker for several years before joining the Training Tracks team.

When she was growing up, Ariel’s family often joked that she was either going to be an artist or a vet. Her childhood hero was Steve Irwin, deeply ingraining a passion for wildlife conservation to compliment her love of dogs. When time for college came around, it looked like art would win out over animals for Ariel’s career. She completed an Associate in Arts at Sinclair Community College in 2013, but ultimately decided that she needed to work with animals. Ariel is currently enrolled at Unity College working toward her B.S. in Animal Health and Behavior.

Lindsay Buchanan

Lindsay is the Training Director at our Oxford facility. She came to Training Tracks in 2016 to complete the internship portion of her training through Animal Behavior College. We always offer interns the opportunity to shadow us as much as they like, and boy did Lindsay take advantage of it. She was here nearly every day and was obviously a natural born trainer. We were so impressed that we offered her a job before she even finished her education program, and she jumped right in.

Lindsay has been obsessed with animals ever since she was a little girl. She went from rescuing butterflies as a very young child, to the stray animals in her neighborhood in grade school, to helping rehabilitate wildlife at 16. She knew that she wanted to make a difference with animals, but it took a while to pinpoint her real passion. She explored becoming a veterinarian, then a vet tech. Training began to interest her as she explored her career options, but she became obsessed with training and animal behavior when she adopted Sammie, a rescue dog with some behavioral issues. Giving Sammie a chance when nobody else would and working to help him overcome his fears made it clear that she wanted a career making a difference in the lives of families and their pets.

Hannah Bishop

Hannah is our official Senior Executive Puppy Snuggler for our board and train dogs. She works as an animal care technician helping with everything from feeding to walks to cleaning. Her most important duty is helping to make sure that all the dogs get one-on-one attention and play like they would at home.

Hannah completed the veterinary science program at Butler Tech.  She worked as a veterinary technician for 2.5 years before joining Training Tracks. and it shows in her knack for teaching dogs to happily accept grooming and handling.

Like most of our employees, Hannah started as a volunteer assisting in classes and with board and train dogs. Her deep passion for dogs shone through right away, both to us and the dogs, so we offered her a job.