Month: October 2018

We work for various clients from Winter’s end to the next Winter’s beginning. Different clients will have different needs and use our service at different times of the year. Spring is the busiest time of the year for us. We control nesting pairs and migratory flocks and flocks of local population geese. Many clients don’t want geese to nest on their properties and or we will addle eggs in nests with the necessary permit. Summer brings other clients on board who are on lakefronts. These clients will want relief from the large collective groups of families of geese which will go to grassy lawns to feed growing young.

Fall again brings the migratory flocks to our client’s properties. They move in to were we have kept the local populations at bay or to low numbers. Where we had seen just small numbers of geese now large flocks or collective flocks can appear. The flocks are often multiple families of geese. You can tell the young by their higher pitch calls. They no longer have distinguishably smaller bodies or different coloration. It is hard to tell when looking at these large collected flocks of geese whether they are just migratory or a mix of migratory and local flocks. Whatever they are, they are a lot of geese at times on clients properties, as there are on nearby farmers fields.

Earlier in the week my team of Border Collies, Tara and Nash and I were patrolling a school’s playing field in New York on a goose control trip. These are large fields backed by large wetlands. Tara trotted toward one end of the football field and stoped as a large flock of geese took off from the wetlands. The geese overnight in the wetlands. She stopped, looked up and with a word from me ran an out run under the geese letting them know she and Nash were there. The geese in their fight saw the forms of the dogs running under them and started to honk a warning and changed their flight to away from the school. Visits like this have cut down on the number of geese which, if they do, visit the school’s fields to graze.

The Native peoples and farmers on the very land that school is on most probably lived and had to make a living by farming and hunting. One way to keep wildlife from ruining crops and the food supply was, is, with lethal means. The other was, is, by chasing off dear, rabbit and yes, even geese with dogs. People have always had dogs to guard themselves, farm animals and property, fields. There is nothing new about living with wildlife, what is new is our modern lifestyle and what we bring with it. It’s how we employ the culture we bring with us and its knowledge, that matters.

Goose Control dogs, usually, Border Collies need to be good at moving about their environment. The dogs can be lead to a field were geese are but when sent to herd-chase the geese, the dog’s brain needs to make decisions on how to best move around or at the geese to do an effective and safe job. It is not always or completely up to the handler to command the Border Collie and is best if the dog can make at least some decisions on its own.

How is it able for a dog to “learn” how to make good decisions in any environment? I think the basis of a wise dog is early learning as a pup. Any working dog or dog that is out and about needs to be able to to get outside at a young age and under supervision allowed to sniff and run about. Without this early exploring, I do not think a pup will have an easy time in developing its Brain GPS. Recent research into the human brain has shown a link between the Brains GPS and memory.

Ask your vet or a dog professional if you don’t know, how much exposure your pup should have outside at a young age. But you can imagine a toddler not being allowed to move about or a youngster not getting outside and not learning to use his or her legs and mind, to start to learn about and interact with the world. Well, maybe you can, we do live in today’s sedentary world. Young dogs that explore become confident in the outside world, whether it is on the street or the field. They become much happier and fulfilled dogs for it.

We all have heard about dogs who are afraid of certain types of floors and can’t negotiate stairs. It has been shown that dogs and pups who have been kenneled and not let out are susceptible to these problems. Just like people who are afraid of things through lack of experience, dogs are the same.

Every day, on our Homestead, we let our poultry free range in our fields and woods. We do the same with our sheep. But the poultry can find themselves in bushes and in thick woods. It is our Border Collies job to herd the poultry, chickens, and ducks back to the poultry yards when asked. There are predators that might want to snatch a plumb hen or even a lamb. Last week our young hens called pullets did get into a thick woods but also found themselves climbing on some fallen trees getting up as high as 10 feet. I sent Blade on an outrun to herd the pullets back home. Not only did he have to run wide and behind all the pullets but he had to look through trees on a dead run to do so. It was not easy, the pullets then, played hide and seak with Blade a bit, and I had to direct him to look up at those in the fallen trees. When Blade did see all of them he carefully herded all the pullets back to the poultry runs, going through trees and even through the edge of a swamp.” Good job, Blade!”

This herding on a farm will make a sound goose control dog. All our dogs work on our homestead at herding. This helps goose control herd-chasing when we have obstacles like sports teams at schools, golfers and roads to negotiate when actively working for clients. Of course, there are trees too, as well as walls and water to make on the fly decisions with when the dogs are on a full run. Having your dogs Brain GPS developed and tuned up makes for a happy and fulfilled dog as well as for productive work.