Pup Talk: Meet Gina Betters and Charley, Creators of the Denver Dog Guide

Is Denver going to the dogs? This city has more pet pooches than it does kids, and that raises a number of issues, as we're exploring in a week-long series. Here's the next installment:

When Gina Betters and husband Taylor walk their dog, Charley, around town, they often get recognized. Or, rather, Charley does.

The fluffy brown dog with white markings on his chest and paws is an Instagram celebrity in the Denver dog community owing to Betters’s account @denverdogguide, which has amassed 130,000 followers in the four years since the Betters family moved to Denver from Wisconsin.

“It's just really surprised me how responsive and appreciative the community has been,” Betters says. “I didn't intend to be an influencer, so I think it's just really sweet. I feel very grateful to be appreciated in this community and that people trust us.”

A speech language pathologist who works in schools, Betters has the summer months off; while her husband is stuck at the office, she and Charley are free to hang out. “I started looking up dog-friendly things to do in Denver and Colorado, just as a way to explore and get my bearings and get comfortable living here,” she recalls. “I realized that there's not a good resource for dog-friendly things...or it’s not always accurate or there's nobody on the ground here that's really updating it.”

She felt like she could help fill the gap for that valuable information, so she started sharing places she'd found that were both fun and dog-friendly on Instagram, cataloging her adventures with Charley.

“I did not expect it to take off in the way it did, but there were a lot of people also looking for that information,” Betters says. “It has been crazy, like, truly, truly insane. I initially thought it was just going to be like a little diary that I could look back on of things that Charley and I did.”

While Betters still works in schools, she considers Denver Dog Guide her dream hobby. She tries to be hyperlocal, showcasing classic “Denver” things on her Instagram, including a recurring snow report where she judges how big a snowstorm is by measuring the level of snow against Charley's legs.The positivity of the dog community in Colorado keeps her motivated, and she tries to showcase places that don’t just accept dogs but truly welcome them.

“We joke in the dog creatorsphere that there's a difference between dog-friendly and dog-loving,” Betters says, so she highlights spots that have treats or accommodations specifically for dogs and focuses on sharing places where both she and Charley, a golden retriever-basset hound mix, had a great time.

Betters comes up with the majority of her content; an estimated 25 percent or less comes from partnerships with businesses. Betters often doesn’t make money off the partnership, but helps get publicity for events or specials at local businesses that sound fun.

“I know that they don't have a budget, but I'm just happy to bridge that gap of them wanting to promote that they're dog- friendly and me wanting people to experience those things for their dog,” Betters says. “The ones that I end up posting are usually the most genuine to me as someone who started this page, as just a regular person looking for this.”

For young Millennials and Gen Z people, calling businesses on the phone is tough. Though Betters is in that age group, she braves the phone for the sake of everyone else. “I would never want someone to show up and they're not dog- friendly,” she says. “I make sure to check with local businesses. I'll message them on Instagram, call them, just to make sure that both sides are protected and I'm not sending people somewhere that's not dog-friendly or getting a business in a tough position.”

She has a giant Google Doc of places she has researched, confirming their dog regulations. She's now working on turning the product into a public-facing map that people could pay a small fee to purchase. “I started making pins on a Google map and so I have this map ready,” Betters says. “I'm just trying to figure out the most efficient way to relate it to people. It really is a map of everything that I know in Denver to be dog-friendly.”

She is also hoping to partner with more rescue organizations to help get more dogs adopted and create visibility for local places that help dogs.

She sees Denver as an extremely dog-loving city and believes people gravitate to her page because they don’t want to simply ditch their dogs at home. “I really just want to help bridge that gap of I want to leave my house and I want to take my dog, but where can I go?” she says. “We, as dog owners, also hold a special place in our hearts for local establishments that honor those relationships and want us to bring our dogs.”
One of her most frequent requests comes from people wondering where dogs are allowed inside in the winter. “If they can bring their dog, Denver will show up in the masses,” Betters notes. “I tell businesses when I post, ‘Are you prepared for people to come?’”

Still, Betters knows that not everyone in Denver is all in on dogs, so she tries to stave off contentious situations by making it obvious where dogs are welcome. She encourages people to recognize not just where their dog would be comfortable, but where others would be comfortable with the dog. “Obviously, them being in grocery stores and places they aren't supposed to be is a huge problem,” she says.

“In Palisade at a winery, they had a sign that was like, ‘If your dog is friendly, we are dog-friendly,’ and I think that's a really great rule to have,” Betters adds.

Right now, Betters is looking forward to another summer of adventures with ten-year-old Charley, particularly at yappy hours such as those coming to FIRE Restaurant & Lounge at the Art Hotel. But there's one place she knows they'll return to again and again.

“An evening walk around Sloan’s Lake and then go catch a happy hour at the Patio, listen to live music, give my dog a dog bowl, that's my dream,” Betters says. “That's my favorite thing.”

Read other stories in the series:

"Has Denver Gone to the Dogs?"

"Denver Dog Owners Are Sending Their Pets to the Pound in Record Numbers"