Rye's Favorite Canine Companion

Deirdre Curran is just the kind of gal you want walking your dog. She's great fun to talk to, she's jolly and laughs easily, but she's tough enough to scare a coyote down, too. If Mary Poppins and Dirty Harry Callahan had a baby, it would be something like Ms. Curran.

"I started doing this job after 9/11," said Curran, who grew up in Larchmont. "I had been a paralegal on Wall Street and I was suddenly unemployed, which was okay. I was miserable doing the job, anyway. So, I began to think, 'What can I do to make a living that I can actually look forward to each day?'"

Not long after, she got hired by a dog walking business in White Plains. 

"I don't remember the name now, which makes sense. The woman who ran it wasn't too pleasant. But I stayed with her for six months and learned the ropes. What to do, what not to do. For one thing, our clients were way too far apart, so I was driving ridiculous amounts every week. Once the six months were over, I felt confident I could go out on my own."

Curran, ever -plucky, said she spent Memorial Day weekend in 2003 figuring out how to design a simple website for her business. Then, she made up cards. By April of 2004, things had taken off.

"I have about 100 clients now, although not all of them are steady. People's schedules change and with the economy being shaky, you lose a few and gain a few. But this is pretty much the number."

"One of the reasons why this is a good area to be a dog walker is the workforce. So many people in Rye have demanding jobs, 12 and 14 hours a day," she added. "And, in most families, husbands and wives are working. Dogs can't wait that long to go out. That's where I come in."

Curran, who as child use to constantly bring home strays ("probably around 25 total, though some were my neighbor's dogs), said she is not like the typical, harried dog walker you see in, say, Manhattan.

"I only take one dog out at a time, which makes things pretty easy. I see those New York walkers sometimes and I'm just stunned. How do they bring eight or 10 pups with them at once without everyone killing one another? Someday, I want to shadow one of them. I'm curious to see how they do it."

Now, if you think Ms. Curran has advice for everyone out there who walks their own dogs, you'd be right. Especially, if the topic is coyotes.

"These recent attacks, as upsetting as they were, were not that big a surprise to me," Curran said. "For years now, I've noticed some bad trends among the coyote population. They seem to be getting bigger and they are nowhere near as fearful of humans as they once were. My guess is they are mating with wild dogs in the area, which is making them not just larger but bolder."

Curran nearly had her own horror story to tell about these new genetically-engineered coy-dogs.

"About two years ago, I was walking a Jack Russell in Rye and we came upon a coyote. Now, in the past, they never got near humans. This one not only got close, but took a full minute sizing up both me and the dog. It was only after I started yelling that he slowly ambled off."

Curran, who has in the past carried a baseball bat for just such encounters, said that local dog walkers should be proactive.

"Don't let them get close or feel confident, If you see a coyote, yell, stamp your feet, throw a rock, carry a stick. You have to get the drop on them."

When she's not walking her Rye charges or chasing coyotes down the street, Curran (currently taking care of a lovely, elderly terrier named Daisy) is also advocating for adoption. For older dogs, especially.

"I really hope that when people in the area want to get a dog, they'll always think adoption first. Also, if you're going in that direction, I also want them to not rule out getting an older dog. As with kids, the older dogs in shelters tend to not seem as attractive as puppies when really they are easier to deal with, less manic and so full of love for anyone who takes them in."

Curran's clients say her passion for dogs is undeniable. 

"Prior to moving out to the suburbs, we had an excellent husband and wife dog walker team in Manhattan that I was convinced would be irreplaceable," said Rye resident Gia Doron. "On our first day here, we interviewed two dog walkers to walk Jackson, our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Deirdre came first and sat on the floor to play with Jackson during the entire interview. The other dog walker, while very nice, sat at our dining table to speak with us. Jackson immediately formed a bond with Deirdre and we knew this would be a great relationship."

Dyana Summer also praised Curran's skills.

"Not only has Deidre been walking our Wheaten Terrier, Mattie, since she was a three month old puppy, but she has helped us learn how to socialize her with other dogs and just basically manage a lot of potentially difficult puppy behavior," Summer said. 

Summer mentioned that after Curran learned that Mattie was jumping up too much on strangers, the Rye dog walker mixed some training in with their walks and within a week the Wheaten was no longer jumping up to say hello.

Curran is modest but confident about her dog skills, from walking to training to adopting. So much so that she notices one thing that many of her clients mention to her somewhere down the line.

"A lot of owners tough out some pretty bad behavior, from chewing things up to 'going' in the house. Most of these people hang in there until the bad behavior has stopped. However, they all have pretty much the same thing to say after they've hired me: 'I wish I'd talked to you before I got a dog!"

Deirdre Curran can be reached at www.curranspets.com or, for her pet consultant expertise, at www.jugglingdaisy.com.