It's a dog-eat-toy world. (online toys for dogs business)

WEST CHESTER - Most entrepreneurs point to mentors, relatives or even friends as the inspiration behind their success. In Jill Gizzio's case, it turns out to be Brownie, her Jack Russell terrier.

Several years ago, when Gizzio was searching for a new business to operate, she happened to be shopping around for her first dog. When she found Brownie, she also discovered what might prove to he her true calling running an Internet-based business that sells toys for dogs.

"I never had a dog before and didn't know how much like children they were and how much affection a human being could actually have for a dog," she recalled. "I realized that like children, they needed toys and thought this was a perfect market."

While still employed as a marketing director for American Computer Estimating - a decade-old family business …