Profile: Amy Gentzler

…Taking the pack for a walk

By Dawne Belloise

Amy Gentzler was born and raised in Thousand Oaks, a southern California suburb where kids roamed free and nobody worried too much about where they were until dinner time. Summer nights meant bikes and games that lasted until dusk and Amy fondly remembers, “We had the typical rule that you had to come home when the street lights come on and if we weren’t home by then, mom would honk her bicycle horn and we could hear it two blocks away.”

Amy is a triplet with a twin brother and sister, plus three other much older siblings who were already out of the house by the time she was born. Her mom, who was 51 years old when Amy was born, was the oldest woman to have given birth to triplets. Amy never thought of it as unusual. “Growing up as a triplet, I thought of it as just having siblings.” In elementary school, the teachers kept the three of them in separate classes but by middle and high school, sometimes they’d end up in the same classes. Because her parents were older, there was sometimes a generational disconnect there so she often tagged along with her friends’ families on camping trips, holiday celebrations, even celebrating Jewish holidays with one close friend and to this day, Amy says, “We’re still best friends.”

The first spark that would influence her path came in second grade when she was inspired by one of the student’s moms who came to class one day to teach basic alphabet in American Sign Language (ASL). “I loved it,” Amy says. By fifth grade, she was taking basic ASL classes at the local rec center. Her high school offered ASL as a language option, so she planned her schedule around it her sophomore year. “I knew from then that I wanted to pursue that.” From high school on, she began to see it not just as an interest, but as a career.

High school was also when dance took over her life. Instead of traditional P.E., she chose dance as her option. Hip hop was her favorite, but in class she trained in everything from hip hop and modern to lyrical (which is similar to contemporary), ballet and jazz. “Being so close to Los Angeles meant the talent pool was intense. In Southern California, the dance talent was at another level,” she tells.

After graduating in 2011, she enrolled at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, which had one of the most prestigious ASL interpreting programs in the country. It was an intensive two-year program that Amy threw herself into. She also partied, went to concerts and shows constantly, and spent weekends in Los Angeles. In 2013, she earned her associate’s degree in American Sign Language. But near the end of the program, something didn’t sit right. “I realized that interpreting was not for me. I was so grateful to have learned the language and complete the program but there was something I didn’t realize about ASL as a career that just didn’t fit for me.” It came from a comment by her professor that stuck with her. “My professor said that as an interpreter you are only a facilitator of language, you’re not to be taken notice of.” In fact, he said that students you are interpreting for shouldn’t even remember your presence in a classroom and Amy felt that was wrong. “It seemed so unauthentic to me to not be visible at all. To blend in at that time was a big ask for me because I was coming into myself. Also, you have to live somewhere where there’s a high deaf population, and I didn’t want to live in Los Angeles or any big city and that deterred me as well.”

Instead of forcing a career that didn’t fit, she saved money and bought a ticket to Europe. For seven months, she backpacked through 17 countries, traveling on almost nothing. She relied heavily on Couchsurfing.com and the generosity of strangers. “The majority of the trip, I had to rely on people and it fills you with so much gratitude for that type of experience.” The challenges were constant with language barriers, missed trains, tight budgets but it was transformative for her. “That type of traveling presents a lot of unique challenges and to be able to overcome and learn from them is really special. I got to see so much good in the world.”

When she returned to Thousand Oaks, she slipped into a different rhythm, bartending at a local rock and roll pizza bar owned by Germans who were friends with the drummer of the Foo Fighters. The band even played the inaugural opening and she still laments not being there for that.

It was after she left the pizza joint that she began walking rescue dogs on an avocado ranch for a man fostering behaviorally troubled dogs. For a year, she walked them, beginning one at a time through the groves. Then she moved to dog bathing at a grooming shop for better pay. From there, she worked at a dog boarding and training facility in Los Angeles and learned how to pack walk in Santa Barbara.

She married in 2016 and by the end of 2018, that marriage brought her to Crested Butte. The first time she drove into town was Thanksgiving and it was completely overcast and she couldn’t see the mountains. The morning they left, the sky cleared to a bluebird day and she was awed. “I couldn’t believe what was surrounding me. It was incredible.” She had found a rental on the mountain when she overheard someone at the Public House bar saying it was available. They arrived back the day after Christmas and moved into a condo on the mountain.

Her first winter in Crested Butte was pure grind in 2018. She worked at Oh Be Dogful and The Secret Stash. She used the gym at the Elevation Hotel to work out. “I was broke moving out here and spent everything I had to make it work. I was really thankful for the job at the Stash because I made friends with my co-workers immediately, so I don’t remember a day of feeling lonely here. I immediately met my best friends,” she says and also tells that her marriage ended in 2023. When COVID hit in 2020, she left The Stash and started coaching at Synergy, a CrossFit gym.

In 2022, she left both Synergy and Oh Be Dogful to launch her own pack-walking business which is still her main work and love. She aptly named her business Crusty Butt Mutts. “I started small with only five dogs,” she says, and trained them to walk along with her. “They have to learn to walk with me without pulling on their leash,” she explains and says she kept them on a loose leash for that. Over time, she built up to walking 15 dogs at once, and yes, they do get tangled, “And I have to stop and untangle them three times in a two-hour walk.” But she’s never had a fight break out.

Dogs seem smarter than people in so many ways, she says. “Dogs learn faster from other dogs than they do from us,” Amy explains. “In a pack, they model behavior for each other. They can come to this experience and learn behavior through how the other dogs are walking and what is expected of them as well.” She compares it to airport security. “Like when you show up to a TSA line, you know the drill, what’s happening and what to do. It’s the same as in a pack walk. They’re trained knowing what to do and stay in line, but it doesn’t mean that’s what they want to do outside of that situation.” On leash, they share space calmly. “They’re not allowed to play with each other on leash. They have to learn how to share space with each other in a calm energy. It helps them make good choices.”

These days, Amy snowboards and she’s still a gym regular, though she no longer coaches. She dances and choreographs for Move the Butte and serves on the Oh Be Dogful Rescue and Sanctuary board. She also holds dual French citizenship. And then there’s Bear, her 10-year-old tri-colored Australian Shepherd. Bear first came into her life as a client at the boarding and training facility in Los Angeles and was just one year old at the time. “Bear was showing signs of reactivity, which is a nicer way of saying aggression. She needed patience and time with people.” Amy saw something special in her and now Bear goes everywhere with her, to work, around town and out on walks with the pack.

Amy says she’s met so many great friends here. “It’s about the community and I met what I consider platonic soulmates here,” even though she says a lot of them have had to leave or chose to move as housing costs rose, people relocated closer to family or their money stretched further somewhere else. “I can make the best of this place no matter how much it changes. This place is so beautiful. It’s somewhat transient but it’s still magical.”