Meet the Trainers
Meaghan Tower
Co-owner & Head Trainer
Meaghan is the co-owner of Unleashed Academy and has been a trainer with Unleashed in Evanston since 2011.
She studied canine social behavior and theory of mind in puppies at the University of Michigan and received her B.S. in 2010. Meaghan has worked with several experienced canine behaviorists including Dr. Barbara Smuts, Dr. Camille Ward, Maggie Fahner and Jeff Millman.
She currently teaches a number of group classes and offers in-home private lessons for a variety of behavioral issues specializing in leash reactivity and aggression toward people entering the home.
Meg has her Aussie, Layne, to thank for constant learning (from scentwork to reactivity to managing kids and dogs) and continuous improvement as a pet parent.
Brian Huebner
Head Trainer
For as long as Brian can remember, he has loved dogs and cannot imagine a life without them.
That love led him to FetchFind Academy for dog training, where he spent two years learning positive reinforcement training and dog behavior. After a few years working with private clients, Brian began an apprenticeship at Unleashed in January of 2019 where he learned how to use his training expertise to lead group classes. Brian is now one of the head trainers at Unleashed, offers private lessons and teaches a variety of group classes including his very popular Adolescence class.
Vanessa Batista
Trainer
Right out of high school, Vanessa began working with animals. She spent many years working as a vet assistant and volunteering at Beardsley Zoo in Connecticut. Soon after, life took a different path, and she became a Construction Project Manager, working for companies like Whole Foods, Amazon, and Parachute Home. In the meantime, she volunteered at shelters and fostered many dogs.
During Covid, she started to train dogs for friends and neighbors, and having found her calling, she never looked back. Since then, Vanessa has completed many animal behavior programs including Animal Behavior College and Michael Shakisho’s Aggressive Dog Master Class. She is currently studying both Karen Pryor’s Dog Trainer Foundation Immersion and Enrichment Framework for Behavior Modification Master Class with Emily Strong and Allie Bender. Vanessa loves learning and her passion for continuing education has set her up with many different training and behavior modification paths to help you and your dog as individuals.
Claire Derning
Trainer
Claire has been a trainer at Unleashed since 2017.
She graduated from North Park University with B.A. in Psychology and interned at PAWS Chicago for a year before apprenticing under Meg.
Claire teaches a variety of classes at Unleashed including Basic Obedience, Fungility and Puppy Classes. Her family's sheepadoodle, Porthos, keeps her on her toes and has given her plenty of experience working with very intelligent (but stubborn) dogs! She also has a special place in her heart for big, slobbery hounds like Roscoe (pictured).
Mick Schwartz
Trainer
Mick has had a love of dogs since an early age when he would bring strays home.
His love never wavered and as an adult his passion for dogs become an avocation. Mick is certified in TTouch and Nosework and has attended many workshops in obedience, agility and scent work over the past 20 years, which has fueled his interest in passing his knowledge onto others. He has experience instructing obedience, agility, and scent work at various clubs as well as working independently.
In his spare time, Mick enjoys competing with his dogs in obedience, rally, agility and scent work. His biggest passion is instructing and he loves working with Unleashed clients!
Madeleine Naylor
Daycare Manager & Trainer
Maddie is Unleashed's general manager and one of our Fungility trainers. She studied animal behavior and hormones in graduate school and earned a PhD in Zoology in 2017 from Oklahoma State University.
Maddie and her dog, Haymitch, started taking Fungility classes with Meg in 2019 and decided quickly that she would love to work at Unleashed. Her passion for observing and understanding animal behavior has only grown while working with the Unleashed daycare and training dogs and she seems to learn something new every day. You can find Maddie and her dog Haymitch running agility courses every week at Unleashed!
Marjorie Thomas
Trainer
Animals have always been a part of Marjorie’s family and instrumental in the way she understands and connects with the world. Marjorie attributes her early love of animals to Honna, her beloved childhood wire-haired dachshund, to Beastie, the unschooled horse she brought up on her own as a teen, and of course, to Bingley, a five week old shepherd/terrier mix that Marjorie adopted while in her twenties.
In addition to her love for animals, Marjorie also has a strong affinity for both learning and teaching others. She is a high school English teacher by day and canine athletic trainer by night. Before finishing college and embarking on her primary career, Marjorie took a gap year and worked as an assistant horse trainer in a California barn. Her experience as a horse trainer and school educator has contributed to her impeccable timing, patience, and creativity when it comes to working with dogs and their people.
Marjorie has been part of the Unleashed family since 2018, when her parents, who decided another Rat Terrier puppy would be too much for them in their elder years, transferred their puppy pick to Marjorie. She and her family welcomed Blue Bayou and enrolled him into Unleashed’s puppy program. After graduating from Basic Obedience, Blue and Marjorie enrolled in FUNgility and their agility learning journey commenced. Fast-forward to spring of 2021 when the Thomas-Marter family welcomed a second Decker Rat Terrier into their home, Clementine. Clementine’s drive and love of work has inspired Marjorie to explore competitive agility and the world of canine conditioning. As we watched Marjorie work with both Blue and Clementine, we knew she would be a perfect fit for the Unleashed Training Team!
Marjorie is currently enrolled in Karen Pryor’s Academy for Animal Training and Behavior and teaches Fungility and Fit Fido classes at Unleashed.