East Windsor resident Marianne Temsey starts a dog-walking business.
By: Marisa Maldonado
EAST WINDSOR For the first time since she’s changed careers, Marianne Temsey has time to enjoy the changing of the seasons. At 2:30 p.m. on a recent Tuesday she’s relaxing on her deck in track pants, a sweatshirt and sunglasses and chatting about her new business while her three dogs run about the back yard.
Tapping her sneakers together, she discusses how she never could have done this while running a graphics department at American Standard. But running Watch Dawg Pet Service gives her plenty of time to enjoy the sun while providing dog-walking and pet-sitting for residents.
Ms. Temsey started the pet-watching service in October, a few months after her position at American Standard was eliminated. She has worked with about 30 clients since starting the business. She said working with dogs is much easier than dealing with the stress of the corporate world.
"I must look 10 years younger," said Ms. Temsey, who is 49.
The Hankins Road resident has had dogs for most of her adult life she now owns two cocker spaniels, Maxine and Roscoe, and an English springer spaniel named Libby but says her father took her childhood dog for a drive and did not bring it back. (No one would take care of it, he said).
"We were all crying and screaming," she said.
Fortunately, Ms. Temsey now can’t get enough of caring for animals she’s looked after all kinds of pets from a boxer to a hermit crab. Pet services can be good alternatives for pet owners who do not want to send their animals to a kennel while on vacation.
"There’s a lot of households that have 10 pets," Ms. Temsey said. "They can’t even consider a kennel."
She now walks three dogs on a daily basis and has developed a bond with each animal, she said.
"They’re all excited to see me when I get there," she said. "Each dog and I have a ritual. Dogs like to be on a constant schedule."
In fact, Ms. Temsey just started using a pet service for her three dogs recently when she was out of the house for 15 hours. She said she would have used one sooner if she had heard of the concept, but she hadn’t until she thought of running her own dog-walking service.
"You can’t do too many," she said. "Each walk is 25 minutes. Then you have to drive from place to place."
Ms. Temsey charges between $14 and $16 for dog walking and pet-sitting visits.
Although she hopes to make only about one-third of what she earned at American Standard, she said her new profession is worth the pay cut. Her husband, Mike Chernick, even hopes to join her business when he retires in a few years.
He’s already helped her with the business a few times, including one time when she asked for his help in controlling a heavy boxer puppy in Twin Rivers.
Shaking a can of pennies startled the dog enough to calm it down, she said. Individual moments such as this are what makes her new career worth it, she said.
"There’s an alternative to working in a corporate office," she said. "This is something rewarding. The choices are yours.
"A kiss from a dog is always a good reward too," she added.

