Month: September 2018

Tara and her teammate for that morning’s goose control visits, Jim were checking out the shoreline of the Mohawk River. There were not any geese to herd-chase for the municipal client in Saratoga Country New York. But in sniffing around, Tara came trotting from the River’s edge with something in her mouth. Our dogs will find parts of fish, leftover bate from fisherpeople. I had no idea what Tara had so I told her to drop what she had, and I scooped it up. To my horror, it was a long decaying piece of fish surrounded by three fishing hooks! Thank goodness Tara did not try to eat it.

Too often we find fishing hooks and line by rivers, ponds, and lakes. Years ago I had a hook stuck in the pad of a foot of one of our dogs. Fishing line can tangle with our Border Collies, but it can be a disaster if it wraps around a bird. We have over the years found fishing line wrapped tightly around geese legs and other body parts. This often is a death sentence for the poor goose.

As I walked with Tara and Jim away from the River we came to a road we had to cross to check out the Erie Canal for any geese. Just then a car came around a corner a bit too fast. I was happy to see that both Border Collies remembered to stay by my side near a road, but just in case I was ready to give a command to keep things safe. The Border Collies and I crossed safely and neared a small park by the Canal. As we approached the park, a man walking a dog and pushing a baby carriage appeared at the other end of the park. You never know, if we continued on the path we were on toward the man and his baby and dog all could go well. But, safety first, so we stayed clear, as we always try to do of any situation that seems it may become a potential issue. As Tara and Jim and I walked down the other side of the park, both dogs stopped and looked at the man’s dog for a short while. The man and I waved at each other, and we proceed on to see if there were any geese to chase at the other end of the park.

And, there were a few geese to chase off for the municipal client. Both Tara and Jim saw them immediately and wanted to get to work. I told them to wait with a command to see if any cars were coming into the nearby parking lot. Both dogs know about the parking lot as we train our dogs to stay away or off roads and parking lots when they are herd-chasing. I sent Tara around to the left side of the geese, Jim to the right. The geese sensing the Border Collies presence by their movement and fearing predators had suddenly arrived, took off in flight with a lot of honking. I called the dogs to a stop and since there were no cars around allowed them to relax with the command, ” that will do.” And I added ” Good dogs!” They smiled back at me and began sniffing around the park.

Timing is everything they say. And indeed, if you are going to be successful chasing or as we do, herd-chasing geese with success, timing is so important. That means you and your dogs if you have them, are where you need to be when the geese show up. That means in some cases, early mornings, or it means, being ready when the geese first show up in the Spring. Sometimes timing with goose control means you and your Border Collies need to be prepared as soon as the geese show up for the day. Timing and the type of scare can mean the difference between success and failure.

But there is another type of timing as in time and time and space. Without understanding how geese think and react and if you’re using herding breeds of dogs, like Border Collies, all the time in the world is not as important as timing. There is a debate that time and space are not real at all, the way we understand it. But if you’re on the same page, so to speak with your Border Collies and sheep on the farm and wild geese you may want to control, you need to have a relationship with your dog or dogs, understand each other and each other’s perceptions.

To keep it simple, space is the distance you need to position your dog from the sheep or geese. Time is how long the sheep or geese think they have until the Border Collie gets too close for comfort. You can say it’s time management or time and space management when working Border Collies. How fast the Border Collie is traveling calculating in the distance between the dog and sheep or geese is part of your job. How “nervous” you want to make the sheep or geese is another thing. Typically on the farm, we shepherds want our sheep low stress, so we keep things quiet and calm. We don’t let the Border Collies intrude too much into the sheep’s flight distance. Wild geese flight/flight distance is another thing.

One day last Spring I was practicing herding with our most experienced Border Collie, Skye. We were getting ready for a sheepdog trial in Massachusets. These trials are not only fun and challenging but increase our skill for the goose control. Skye is now seven years old, but she still has an issue rushing her herding with sheep and over working at goose control. Therefore I was practicing with her on her timing with the sheep that day. It was about taking her time, not rushing so much. I was trying to let her know she could do a great job without moving so fast with her herding and sending the sheep in an undesired direction, in the space we had in that field. She could do this by slowing down and leaving more space between her and the sheep.

Skye is learning to see and feel space and time a bit differently. But she still at times rushes things. Space and time are individually perceived after all in dogs and humans I guess. I make allowances for Skye’s individual perception and way of doing things as I, we, do with all our dogs. Individual sheep and different sheep breeds have individual notions of what is comfortable, what is not. You can see this in geese but not as readily. In the end, we are teammates with our dogs, and we work together on the farm and with goose control.” Good dog, Skye!”

Tara had just herd-chased off a large flock of geese from a school ball field in New York. She stopped running as the flock had flown out of sight. As Tara turned and looked at me and then her teammate Skye, who was in the opposite side of the field, she reached over and sniffed the dog decoy that was in the field.

This school uses our services with the Border Collies to herd-chase geese three times a week as needed, which is standard procedure for us. The school also feels that the dog decoys have some effect since we started showing up with Border Collies that persist in making the geese feel uncomfortable enough to leave with each visit. The idea is to visit enough, for an agreed and effective package of visits so the geese will “give up” or most will, and go to feed on someone else’s grass. This school also uses fencing between its fields and the large swamp behind to stop geese from walking in during the time of year they can not fly.

People with geese population problems can use flare guns, lasers and even chase geese themselves of course.These methods are not always effective by themselves. To be successful, a property owner should use a variety, an integrated approach. It is important to understand when chasing geese, that the job is done inside regulations not to hurt or touch the geese but is also alarming enough to the geese. Without triggering geese pray instincts the hopes for success are low. We have a client we have worked with for years, but now we visit a handful of visits a year, as the Spring sets in. We herd-chase the arriving geese, keep them from nesting and the client and his crew concertedly and relentlessly chase any geese that appear after that, or between our visits. In his case, the crews’ golf carts are employed emphatically but carefully enough. This works, because the Border Collies have raised the alarm, and the geese become wary.

The next day, Border Collie Blade and our mix breed Nash were on a goose control visit in Connecticut at a corporate client. I parked the vehicle and sent Blade around the large pond in one direction and Nash to run the opposite side. The geese in the pond were alarmed at the sight of the dogs. They had seen us before. After a few seconds, the geese all took flight and flew off the property. Nash stopped and since he is not a Border Collie, but has worked hard to learn goose control, started sniffing along the shore for wild animals that had been there. Blade came running back to me when called and happily stood at my side while we gave Nash some time to enjoy himself. In the case of this corporate client in Connecticut, we are the only means of geese control. Sometimes that works very well too. The trick is to convince the geese that they should not be on a property not to just casually keep chasing them off.
( I have discussed lethal means of goose control in previous blog posts)

We have rehomed several dogs and lived and worked with working line Border Collies for 25 years. Some of these Border Collies we have raised from pups, some we have gotten as young adults. These dogs are members of our family, and they are also our four-legged goose control crew. It makes a difference, whether a dog has been in one home or not. People do care and raise their Border Collies like all dogs differently. But no matter if they have been in our home all their lives or gotten to us as adults, it’s a long road together, to work and grow as a team and family.

One thing should be emphasized, it takes a lot of work and time to bring a pup, a dog to be a well-balanced family member and also a working dog. Unless an owner or handler is willing to put in the time to gain skill in training dogs, Border Collies for goose control, or on the farm, the results will be mixed at best. I have heard two sad stories this summer of people who have tried to start goose control services, bought as franchises, and the Border Collies they got just are not working out at all.

When we started bringing Border Collies into our human family, we had a rocky start. I even contemplated giving up on Border Collies altogether. But I then committed to take monthly lessons, go to Sheep Dog Trials to watch the handlers and their dogs and gave our selves plenty of time to bond and learn and work together with our dogs. Border Collies love to be with their people, and a have great desire and love of movement and work, and especially herding. I believe the Border Collies herding instincts is the basis for what the breed was developed for and this should be the backbone of how goose control dogs are handled.

One interesting fact is that working breeds such as Border Collies are not selectively bred for juvenile characteristics. Many breeds of dogs in America today are breed to be good companion animals and thus stay in a state of neoteny, never develop into mature adults. This is great for a pet dog but for working dogs growing and becoming mature dramatically enhances their ability to problem solve and deal with adverse situations they may face. I know I rely on the maturity of our Border Collies and our mix breed in the many environments we work.

Earlier this summer our older rehomed Border Collie Jim and our one and half year old pup Tara were standing in a school playing field. Jim came to us from a rehab home which in turn had gotten him off, Craigs List. He had not gotten much training, never got to experience the world in his first six years. The woman who rehabbed him, Tam Morse did a great job socializing him as it was challenging for him to be around people and other dogs and had learned nothing about herding. Now Jim was on one of his many goose control visits with us. He and Tara who came to us as a weaned pup, thoughtfully breed to be a healthy and talented working Border Collie, had both confidently and without stress to themselves or the geese, had sent off a flock into the sky. They both looked very pleased with their work, happy and content. I called Jim and Tara back to me, and they both came quickly toward me. This old Border Collie has done well in now his third home and Tara we hope will be with us for a long, long time. We love and rely on them both as we do all our dogs.