Month: June 2018

Tara stopped as she came around the other side of the geese. She looked back at me, from where I had sent her to herd-chase the geese on a playing field. I called to her that the job was finished. Her expression went from her serious look to one of relaxed happiness. For working line Border Collies, a job well done is happiness, fulfillment. She then ran over to were her teammate for this mornings goose control visits, Blade was resting. They were soon playing together. After a few minutes, I called them. We walked to another field on the Massachusetts property to see if there were any more geese.

Working line Border Collies are breed to be serious about their work. Therefore, working line Border Collies can be intense and also have a lot of stamina, for long days of farm work. Tara is no exception to this serious nature in Border Collies. Oh, Border Collies can look full of joy. And they can be. Ours play and enjoy each other quite often. But as soon as there is work to do, they are back at it. Tara is serious even by Border Collie standards, and the fact that she is only a year and a half old makes her exceptional.

Tara is learning the fundamentals of how her instincts become realized as a working dog. One of the first things that Working Border Collie trainers teach their pups is something called balance. I am talking about a different kind of balance. Border Collies are breed with a concept of going around the other side of sheep from their person, to balance off so the sheep can be herded in a particular direction. Many people who have Border Collies as pets don’t understand this instinct and how to rechannel it to a good end. It is essential to understand Border Collies, their instincts and individual personalities for all to be positive and healthy. I often will make a pun and say to an audience at a herding demonstration that ” to have a balanced dog the owner must be balanced and knowledgeable.”

After Tara and Blade got back to our homestead in New York, it was time to put our sheep on pasture for the afternoon. Blade got to move the ducks to a small pasture to eat any grass or greenery they wanted or even bugs. Tara got to move, herd the sheep to what is our largest pasture, a clearing in our woods were all sorts of vegetation grows. Our sheep are ideal small farm sheep because they “browse”.Sheep or goats or cattle that browse, eat a variety of plants, not just grass. We rotate the sheep through the clearing using a movable large pen, so the sheep will not overgraze. I sent Tara on an “outrun” to “gather” the sheep from where they had been near their house. They eagerly trotted toward the gate to the clearing. Tara guided, herding them by coming to a balance point on the other side of the flock and then made sure they moved together toward where I was standing at that gate. I opened the gate as Tara paused the herding job and the sheep paused. The sheep then trotted through the gate ready to eat what yummy vegetation they could find. Without much of any issues, Tara herded the sheep into that large pen with some balancing and some directed “flank” commands from me.

After that job was done, Tara joined our other dogs with a sit down in the shade. They all seemed to enjoy some quiet time. The dogs seemed relaxed as all the sheep and poultry were good. Just then one of our ducks found an opening in the fence. Jim, our oldest but most aware Border Collie saw the duck and started an out run to balance off the duck and herd it back to the safety of the homestead away from the swamp were trouble can lurk. The next day would bring more goose control work and as always, farm work. We would be off to Connecticut to see if our corporate clients had geese back on their properties. All the dogs, Tara included slept well that night. It is our aim to have happy, well-balanced dogs for their sake and our clients’.

What brings geese to a client’s property is usually grass and water. Green grass for the geese to eat and poop on and water bodies for them to go to for protection. Eating lawns, playing fields, and golf courses are new to geese. Geese have always used water for a protective home. Geese are waterfowl, after all. Geese, Canadian Geese included, have that longneck to dabble. Dabble means, floating on the water and reaching underwater to eat water plants growing on the bottom. I guess you can say that when geese first came about, there were not all the lawns, fields and parks for easy pickings.

On a goose control visit for a corporate client in Connecticut last Spring, Skye and Jim were my team. These two Border Collies are our oldest. Jim is just 10, and Skye is 7 and half years old. You would never know they have a little age on them. Both Border Collies move around, run and play and work with enthusiasm. They, like our other Border Collies and one mix breed dog, do have the practice to put that energy to constructive and appropriate work on our homestead and for goose control trips.

We arrived at the corporate client’s property and saw that there were 12 geese on the grass near a medium sized pond. Geese if they feel very comfortable on a client’s property will graze on grass away from water. If geese are a bit worried that there is a predator around, they will feed near water so they can get swiftly to safety. As I approached the geese on foot with Jim and Skye, the geese stopped eating. I sent Jim on an outrun around to the other side of the pond and sent Skye straight toward the geese in a part stalking herding manner and a part chase mode. The geese got alarmed at the two Border Collies and started honking. Some of the geese flew away while others closest to the water jogged into the pond.

Jim stopped on the other side of the pond and got into a staking pose while Skye slipped into the water after the geese. Soon, with both Border Collies acting make believe all predator like, the geese in the pond flew off and joined those already in the air. Geese who are members of a family will wait for others to join them if they separate for some reason. It is our job to herd – chase geese in such a way that we don’t separate them.

Both dogs joined me for an inspection of the grass and parking lot. There was not too much poop, meaning, geese hadn’t been there too much since our last visit. Before we left the corporate properties, both Jim and Skye took a swim in the pond. The day was getting a little hot, and the water must have felt good to them. They came out of the pond with a bit of aquatic plant growth on them, which I cleaned off. If only geese would still eat in the ponds, there would not be such an issue between them and people. We got back into the goose mobile for the trip back home in New York.

On the way, we visited a summer camp facility were geese eat on the lawns and poop on the grass and beaches.
After we worked with what geese we found at the camp and in the nearby lake, the dogs and I had a little time on our hands. Jim and Skye enjoyed another swim in the lovely mountain lake. Jim is more of a water dog than Skye. But she too enjoyed the feel of the cool water. Soon the camp would open for the season. There will be many campers and counselors who don’t want to walk all over barefooted or shoed in lots of goose poo. Hopefully the geese there will learn to go somewhere where people don’t get bothered by them.

Tara moved quietly across the small pasture toward the ducks. I had asked her to bring in the farm ducks as it was nearing dark and fox and other predators await at that time of day. As Tara, our 15 month Border Collie picked her way through grazing sheep, she found herself behind the furthest ducks in that pasture and started to herd them all to me and then out the pasture toward their house. It’s not too easy to herd around sheep as its natural for sheep to move away from even their own farm dogs. But at a young age, Tara can work around one species of animal or bird to be able to do a job. It’s to the credit of the ducks and sheep on any farm, that they learn and can live together without too many issues. It’s only right and to the advantage of the farm if everyone gets on well.

I read a post some years ago by one of the top sheepdog people in England, John Atkinson, and that post was punctuated by the line,”The number one rule of herding is be kind to sheep”. Without sheep or other animals or poultry, many of the farms we have would not be and Border Collies and other herding breeds would not be. Border Collies and other herding breeds can herd cattle, pigs, turkey and more when needed. These relationships, people, dogs and farm animals go back at least to Roman times.

The next morning Tara and her teammate for the day’s goose control visits, Jim, and I arrived at a school in New York. There were probably 75 geese eating grass on about 15 acres of land. That seems like a lot of space but the geese as they do have dropped a lot of goose poop on the sports fields and the elementary playground. There are nearby farm fields and wildlands that the geese can go to. But how to get the geese to go away and not think about coming back so readily? The answer is, repeated geese control visits with the Border Collies. I set Tara on an outrun to the left of the geese and Jim on an outrun to the right. Two herding dogs make a more significant impression than one. We keep in mind with every goose control visit not to overwhelm the geese but just to awaken their pray instinct.

As Tara reached the opposite side of the geese form me, the geese had already begun to fly off. Jim had done his job on his side of the flock of geese. Tara and Jim looked pleased. After a break to let the dogs sniff around, we walked to the corners of the school property to make sure all the geese had flown. Clients hire us because they don’t want the geese harmed but really want them some were else. With Border Collies like Tara and Jim, we can do that by effectively cutting down on the numbers of geese that return to our client’s properties.

That evening after the dogs’ supper, Tara curled up in what we call the dog chare in our kitchen. The chare is on old comfortable wing back which the dogs love. Jim found a comfortable place to doze off the front hall; the other dogs also settled in for a nap before evening chores. The sheep finished grazing before nightfall. I could see them through the kitchen window and just then a flock of geese winged their way through the sunset across the hills of our rural town on their way to some farm pasture and pond for the night. This age-old relationship between sheep and farm poultry and dogs and humans is what creates solid work with our goose control operation. Actually, the relationship between dogs and humans is even older than farming or agricultural itself. Dogs and Humans have been living, helping each other since we were hunter-gatherers. What a great feeling to carry on with the heritage of a beautiful inter-species relationship.

Blade romped through the two-foot water, from the shore to the small island thirty yards into the partly drained reservoir. Well, it once was a reservoir, but now it’s used as a lake for multiple summer camps and homes. Geese love the lake and its grassy shoreline. There are several geese families on the lake every summer which leave piles of goose droppings on beaches and lawns. It’s our job to keep them away from one camp as much as possible. We do that by utilizing the instincts of our Border Collies and the training we have with our Border Collies. The Border Collies’ herding instincts go into herd-chase mode when we actively work with Canadian Geese. Geeting rid of them requires a series of visits to effectively and humanely impact any nuisance population of geese.

Blade dashed or actually bounded through the water and reached the island quickly. He actually bounds almost like a rabbit when going through tall grass or water. He really seems to enjoy his work, as if it were a game. When Blade reached the island, I blew on my herding whistle. I blew the notes combination for stop. He did that and looked at me expectantly for the next command. I could see in the lake not far from the island four pairs of geese at serval points. I then blew the go to your right command and off Blade went happily running that way on the islands shore. The geese pairs all stopped swimming and looked at Blade. I then blew the stop command.Blade came to a quick and agile halt. After a moment I blew the go to your left command, and off Blade went merrily running the other way on the island shore. The geese started to honk and seemingly wanted to swim off. They were thinking Blade may be a predator but they were not going to leave so easily.

This procedure went on for a few minutes; I was trying to show the geese that this area of the reservoir was not safe for them. All the while Blade’s teammate, Nash was moving around near me on the shore letting the geese know he was there too. I then blew the recall command, and Blade quickly came back through the water to me. The geese seemed somewhat impressed but not quite enough. It was time to get the kayak into action. I carried it from our goose chase mobile to the water. Nash and I got in and off we paddled to chase the geese far away from our client’s property, basically like drawing a line in the sand. In this case, drawing a line in the water. Blade waited for us, it didn’t take long, the geese had become wary of the dogs. It’s all a convincing show from the Borer Collies to get the geese to leave. Herd-Chasing is a technique to make the geese think that predators are about without doing harm.

That evening at home I decided to use Blade to put our sheep safely into their house for the night. Sheep are susceptible to attack from coyotes, stray dogs and increasingly, bears. It is our practice to put our sheep and poultry in their houses before dark. The sheep were standing near their home so Blade made a short outrun, wide enough not to startle the sheep but get their attention. I blew the stop command on my herding whistle. I waited a moment and then blew the walk-in command and Blade moved toward the sheep, quietly herding them into the sheep house. As I was standing by the sheep house door when the sheep and Blade approached, I used the verbal voice command for Blade to stop,”lie down.” The sheep walked quietly into their house. I closed the sheep in, shutting the door, and Blade and I walked through cool early June evening air back to our human and dog shared house. There, Blade joined the other Border Collies and mix breed Nash for the restful evening.