Grand Rapids entrepreneur gives downtown dogs a new leash on life

Five years after being downsized from her job and creating her own dog walking business all in the same day, Frances Gentile has more four-legged friends in downtown Grand Rapids than ever before.Gentile (pronounced gen-TEEL-lee), 56, owns Frances Walks Your Dog and operates it from her Eastown home. In 2005, Gentile launched the business with just three clients. Now a typical workweek involves walking 14 dogs, many of whom have marked new territory near their owners’ downtown condos.”I have clients who live in The Fitzgerald, City View Condos and Front Row Condos,” Gentile says. “And now I’m on the preferred vendor list for The Gallery apartments.”Downtown is a terrific place to walk dogs with Rosa Parks Circle and Veterans Park. And sometimes I go to Ah-Nab-Awen Park if time permits,” she adds, and then laughs. “There’s a ton of squirrel activity there.”Gentile never walks the dogs in packs, but always attends to them on a per client basis — and their human counterparts are her clients, not the dogs. She has a specific appointment time for each client and lets herself in with a key they provide, but keeps her hours as flexible as possible to accommodate clients’ changing schedules. Each dog gets a daily report card so clients know how Fido did that day. Other communication is via notes stuck on the ‘fridge or by phone or email. “There are some clients I’ve only met once,” Gentile says. “And my Saturday and Sunday trade is very different than my weekday trade — it’s almost always different people and it’s always last minute.”Source: Frances Gentile, Frances Walks Your DogWriter: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News EditorRelated ArticlesVroom With A ViewThe Bark Unleashed