Third-graders launch dog-walking business in Riverdale with Puppy Pie

Lulu Tunic, left, and Maddie Dorsey said they chose the name Puppy Pie because it sounded like “Cutie Pie.”

Michelle Mullen

A schoolyard brainstorming session grew into a budding business for two 9 year olds with a shared love of dogs. 

Ethical Culture Fieldston School third-graders Lulu Tunic and Maddie Dorsey recently launched Puppy Pie, a local dog-walking service. Both girls came with some experience under their belts. Tunic walked her 3-year-old Labrador, Cupcake, “like 50 times,” and Dorsey helped care for her aunt’s golden retriever in Texas.

So far, their customer base consists of neighbors, but the aspiring businesswomen are eager to diversify their clientele.

The best friends are no strangers to entrepreneurship. Past ventures include summer lemonade stands, with the occasional fresh-squeezed watermelon juice on the menu. 

In the winter, you’ll find the girls selling hot apple cider and hot chocolate from a stand complete with a marshmallow and whipped cream bar. Sometimes, Tunic’s 6-year-old brother, Forrest, joins in with drawings for sale.

“They do this all off the steps of the gate in front of our house,” Andrea Schelly, Dorsey’s mom, said. “Usually I text all the neighbors, and people come over and buy their stuff. They also get a lot of traffic from Wave Hill.”

There has even been some friendly competition. As second-graders, the girls briefly ran separate Rainbow Loom bracelet shops — Bloom and Ultra Looms — although both were short-lived. 

“We were just at recess one day and we were playing together and drawing,” Tunic said, recalling how their newest venture came about. “We came up with the idea of making some kind of business. And then we worked our way up to the name and what it was.”

After school, they went straight to work on building Puppy Pie. When Schelly came home, she found the girls deep in design mode while drawing flyers at the kitchen table. 

“My first reaction was ‘why are you putting your real email on these?’” Schelly recalled with a laugh. “But they already put some up around the neighborhood. So, we had to make some modifications, but it was very interesting, [because] they were talking about their business model.”

With some parental guidance, the girls refined their strategy — starting with their ambitious $30 fee. They adjusted their price to $10 and agreed to be chaperoned by an adult while on the job. Tunic started brainstorming a company catchphrase with her dad, noting “You can trust us with your dog, we don’t bite” was a top contender. She also attempted to build a website, but it proved unsuccessful on her “glitchy iPad from 2010.”

The two best friends plastered their flyers on lamp posts, at dog runs and by bus stops throughout greater Riverdale. They also handed them out in Van Cortlandt Park.

Puppy Pie also offers overnight pet-sitting, and not just for fido. Dorsey may not have a pup of her own, but she’s gained plenty of experience caring for her cats Tiramisu and Marshmallow, and a rabbit named Bread. 

“We don’t do pets, like birds and bugs,” Tunic specified, with her co-founder echoing the sentiment beside her. 

The duo has a small team of friends lined up to assist, like Riley, a backup pet sitter. The same goes for dog walking, with multiple classmates offering to help.

When asked what clients should know about them, Maddie didn’t hesitate.

“We love dogs,” she said.