Zue & O’Brian’s Story
Zue & O’Brian’s Story
Zue Kupfer
Founder & Co-Owner
O'Brian Grady
Co-Owner
After people find out that our dog walking business is not just a side gig, but our main income the next question is always, how it all started. It might be no surprise that I stumbled upon my own business rather by accident.
Zue with her dog Sid in 1998.
Growing up I was lucky enough to count two beagles as my own fur babies. And even though he didn’t stay with us for long, I was also madly in love with my cat Robbie.
When I first came to the U.S. from Germany in 2005 as an Au Pair, I would walk dogs during the day while the kids I was watching were in school. Back then I had no idea that professional dog walkers even existed!
I went on to complete my Bachelor in International Management and work for Aldi as a District Manager. Finally in 2013 after working 80 hours/week for years, I decided to call it quits.
I wanted to start something of my own and through a few detours I found out that having a dog walking business was a viable source of income – even in South Orange, NJ!
After I told my husband O’Brian about the idea to start my own dog walking business, he was immediately on board, so we started Silver Hound Dog Walking in April of 2014.
O’Brian had an even more extensive track record of calling fur babies his own.
Since his family moved to Maplewood, NJ in the 60s they have rescued and adopted out cats on the regular.
They lived right up the hill of the former South Orange Animal Shelter. The SO Animal Shelter does not exist anymore, but when they did they would release the cats instead of killing them once they got too full.
That’s when they discovered that there were some humans (us) that were available to help them out up the hill. We would eventually try to find a home for them, but a lot of them became our cats. He also had two special dogs in his life, called ‘Scrappy’ and ‘Animal’.
Silver Hound’s first Marketing picture.
We needed to pose with our neighbor’s dog Oreo, because we only had cats and no dog at that time.
O’Brian with his “son” Scrappy.
With all of that animal experience under our belts it was only natural to follow the pull to start our own dog walking and cat sitting business.
I always envisioned providing care for our clients that are of the highest standard.
Highest standard in pet care and client care, as well.
Through my corporate position at ALDI I was able to take a lot of the teachings of professionalism and business acumen and transferred that over to our company.
So we are not just a hobby dog walker, but an organized and professional company, with a big dose of never ending love for our fur charges (and their parents!).
Today we are incredibly grateful for so many precious memories we made and care we were able to provide during the last 10 years of our business existence. And even though O’Brian and I transitioned from life & business partners, to solely business partners during the last few years, we are all in with both of our hearts and couldn’t be more proud of what we have created.
We look forward to many more years of providing the best quality pet care for your pets.
With Gratitude,
Zue & O’Brian