All you lazy cats out there — take heed! Today is Work Like a Dog Day, a national tribute to small-businesses owners for the grueling hours they put in being their own boss. In honor of this occasion, I thought we should go talk to a few of our Yahoo! Store merchants who decided to stop working for the man in order to pamper man’s best friend. That’s right — they sell everything from dog collars and muzzles to bone-shaped toy boxes, dog house area rugs, puppy announcements, even canine boots! I asked them just what it takes to put food in their bowls.

Jill Gizzio, owner of Dogtoys.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania, was one of Yahoo! Store’s earliest customers when the service launched in 1998. Now, semi-retired with eight employees, Jill was inspired to start her business after getting a dog for her 40th birthday. “Brownie was the craziest thing on four feet. As a puppy, everything in her sight was a toy, including — I hate to admit this — a toilet brush she ran through the whole house with.” A friend advised her to keep a full supply of toys on hand at all times, which quickly got expensive. One night, watching Brownie annihilate yet another teddy bear, Jill went online, registered the domain, and the rest is history. Dogtoys.com celebrates its 10th anniversary in November.

• Company alpha dog: Brownie, 9, a Jack Russell Terrier who’s a crazy swimmer with a great vocabulary. Jill has to spell out the words “swimming pool” whenever Brownie’s in earshot. “If she hears me, she’s out the door and into the kiddie pool.” While Brownie doesn’t have the upper paw (“She gets time-outs when she’s not behaving.”), she has to have the last say (“She always barks one last time.”).
• Hours worked a day: “In the first eight years, I worked 16 years’ worth. Eighty-hour weeks. You could be up at 11:30 on a Thursday night answering customer email, building new product into your site, etc.”
• Scariest thing about being her own boss: “The heartbreak of failure. Losing a company is like losing a lover. You give your life for it and you’re just as surprised when things don’t work out. You think, ‘But we were really happy!’”
• Best selling products: Pet blinkers, Greenies (treats), and Talking Chimp dolls.
• Most extravagant product: Walk ‘N Roll Pet Stroller

Jeannie Morris runs Morrco.com from Mansfield, Louisiana (“the boonies,” as she describes it), with her husband and daughter-in-law. Jeannie’s been a Yahoo! Store merchant since 1999 when she came across a Yahoo! ad to “build your own web site” and took the leap. She’s had about 15 dogs in her 49 years, so going the dog-supplies route was only natural. Her online-only business hit nary a speed bump during the dot.com bust. In fact, her husband had to build a warehouse behind their house to accommodate their inventory of about 8,000 products.

• Company alpha dog: Patches, 3, a “hyper” Australian Shepherd whose quirks include chasing lightning around the yard, thinking she can catch it.
• Hours worked a day: 10 now, but more like 15-18 in the early days.
• Hours she’d work to avoid working for someone else: 80 hours a week or more!
• Best selling product: Rhinestone dog collars, for small dogs. She says owners of diminutive dogs want them to look good all the time.
• Most extravagant thing she sells: Pink spiked harnesses for big dogs. Apparently a Rottweiler’s gotta look sassy when it growls.

Casey Whitcher and his wife Cynthia run GlamourDog.com from Frisco, Texas, with just two other employees. Their business targets people who spoil their pups with haute couture and accessories. Casey took the entrepreneurial plunge in 2003 after an amusing incident. You see, Casey proposed to Cynthia by giving her a toy Maltese puppy named Chanel with “Will you marry me?” engraved on her tag. But he thought Cynthia was nuts when she insisted on buying a $400 Italian leather carrier for her precious cargo. When Casey realized other dog owners actually indulged in such things, he saw a business opportunity and quit his day job as a web designer. You could say Cynthia got her way. As Casey explains, “We get the product in and everyone oohs and aahs over it. I gave up my manhood years ago.”

• Company alpha dog: Chanel, 5, a “spunky princess” who has her owners trained with commands like “Feed me,” “Let me out,” and “Play with me.” Her quirks include jumping into the closest open gym bag when she hears car keys.
• Scariest thing about being his own boss: Not having a set income and knowing that he has to live with the consequences of wrong decisions.
• Most fulfilling thing about being his own boss: Not having anyone tell him what to do.
• What would he have done differently: “We kind of winged it in the beginning. I wish I’d taken more time to learn the back end of running a business. You’re every function of a big company — CEO, accounting, HR, marketing, CFO, tech support, design, janitor — and it was hard to get up to speed on all that.”

Photo courtesy of Stewart Butterfield