November 2018 - Wild Goose Chase NE

wild geese can take over parks like this one

Timing is Everything with Wild Geese Control with Border Collies

When is the best time to chase geese off a property, whether it is “yours” or you are doing the chasing for a client? The short answer is, you don’t have to chase or as I call it herd-chase every time geese show up, but you need to do it enough, or more importantly be effective enough. Border Collies are often used for goose control but they are not the only breed that can be used. Other working breeds can be used. Herding breeds may be best at goose control, but we also use a mix breed, though he is well schooled being around and has learned from experienced Border Collies. Our handlers, myself and my two sons also practice regularly and train often.

The most important thing to get geese to give up on a property through repeated chasing is to “get inside the heads of the geese.” Herding, which is what Border Collies were initially bred for is a mind game mostly. Its a mind game with well-timed runs to specific positions on a field by the Border Collies with the guidance of the handler. Learning how to handle the Border Collies well is a must. Border Collies can become distracted or too amped up to function effectively.

It is best to know the timing of when geese fly or swim onto a property. Sometimes chasing off geese when they are first arriving or newly arrived is very useful. Chasing off geese when it is at dawn or dusk can be more effective than broad daylight. Remember you don’t have to be there every time the geese show up that is a waste of time and a big headache. However, enough goose control chases, herd-chases, will be effective enough to cut the numbers way down or get all the geese to give up on a property. Make sure that your dogs or staff act like they are determined to “get after the geese”.Geese can tell if dogs or people “mean business” or not. But, make sure your dogs and staff are well trained. Our handlers and dogs, understand the proper restraint so nobody, geese, dogs or human get hurt.

Last Summer I had the team of Skye and Nash on a goose control trip to Connecticut. We were on a trip to corporate clients. Our first stop was on an office park property with big lawns and large ponds. There were 50 or so geese on the biggest lawn by one of the ponds. I got out of our vehicle and brought the dogs to the edge of the lawn. The geese became aware of us before the dogs moved. I first sent Skye, the Border Collie on a wide outrun around the geese to get their further attention. The geese started to honk and walk or trot around in alarm. Just then I sent Nash, our mix breed straight toward the geese. The geese saw with alarm one dog coming around from their backside and the other straight at them at a full run. The flock took off together and flew straight away from the property. They didn’t even think about landing in the security of any of the client’s ponds.

Visits like that one repeated over a month, in this case, kept most geese away from this property, except for a couple of persistent nesting pairs. It depends on the property and how the wild geese were managed, or not, before a series of chases or herd-chases that will dictate how effective or the number of visits it will take to “keep geese away”. Goose control calls for patience but persistence and some amount of know how.

Border Collies love their work,what they do

Downtime,Use It Well,with your Border Collies for Goose Control

Goose Control with Border Collies or other herding breeds can have its down times. We have periods of the year when our Border Collies have little work to do. We are very busy in the Spring with goose control, and Summer can be quieter for goose control visits and of course here in New York State, there is Winter. If we have rid our clients of their geese, or most of them, by repeated visits using the herd chase method our dogs can have little work to do until geese come back, if they do, or we pick up new clients.

Border Collies and other herding breeds were developed from dogs which had been around farms and villages, into specialists, breeds that do one thing well, like herding or guarding. Herding breeds had their intelligence and socialization breed to work with their handlers, the farmers, shepherds. Also, stamina was developed as well as all around athleticism so the dogs could and can work the long farm days. These dogs made it possible and still make it practical to work farm animals on grass-based farms, nonconfinement farms.

The attributes Border Collies have as a breed make them ideal goose control dogs, as long as training for handler and dog has been in place. But what to do with energetic highly motivated dogs when there is little work to be done? First, it is essential to know that what we call “working breeds” want to have a sense of purpose. Racing breeds love to run, hunting breeds love to hunt, farm breeds, herding and guarding to do their “work”. The satisfaction of “work” gives the dogs a sense of belonging and well being, as in “this is what I do to survive” that goes hand and hand with the dog’s social life. Many people love working breeds even if they don’t have “work” which their breed was made for, because the nature of these breeds allows us to help find our way in the world, maybe even clue into our “purpose” or understanding of what it takes to survive and be happy.

There are many things you can do with the Border Collies’ energy if you don’t have work for them or are temporarily short of work. We have always maintained a small farm, a homestead and even though it’s not a lot of work for our Border Collies it gives them something they find deeply satisfying to do every day, herd sheep and poultry. Walks in our woods and neighbors pastures bring great pleasure and bonding experiences for us and our dogs. We have not tried agility or frisbee sports or other sports, but some find that great fun. We have tried sniffer training as some Border Collies do have more developed nose orientation than others.

Last month in Massachusetts I was on a goose control client visit with the team of Skye and Blade. There were not any geese that morning on the edge of a lake, so I kept looking for them on far shores from my clients property. Skye and Blade had helped me with that, and so they decided there were none around and started sniffing around for wildlife in the brush and tall grass. Soon Blade brought me a stick to play with, and Skye joined in. Just after we started playing, geese flew noisily into the shallow water near our client’s beech! There must have been 100 of them. Blade and Skye eminently drooped the play and ran to the lake’s edge to get a good look at the geese and then turned toward me for coordination, my guidance into what would come next. They knew their job was to send geese away and were very much looking forward to it. With their ears up, eyes entirely focused and bodies up with the pleasure of it all, we set to “work.”

Schools and Wild Goose Control with Border Collies

We have worked with some school districts over the years. Geese get onto playing fields and playgrounds and create a mess. Geese can become combative if they are nesting nearby or are raising their young. The intersection between human and goose is not a problem if geese can stay away from areas in use by humans. But school grounds can have hundreds of kids playing on them and geese can create messy areas if not what I call “wall to wall poop.” Also, enough geese feeding long enough on fields and playgrounds can harm grass growth and cause big headaches for the grounds crews and the school’s budget.

There are two or three solutions to too many geese on a property. The most common are lethal, hunting or nonlethal, hazing or what is called chasing. I have not heard yet of hunting permitted on school grounds and to effectively chase geese can be time-consuming for schools crews and not too effective. We haze geese with a method I call herd-chase. I think working a Border Collie inside its natural and instinctual herding frame of mind helps the dog work naturally and healthily and productively.

Border Collies can be trained to herd farm animals, livestock, and then take that onto the goose control work. The difference is that livestock should be handled quietly and geese a bit more energetically. You should gently convince, say, sheep to walk from one field to another, not run them. With geese, you are trying to persuade them to stay away from a property by herd-chasing. But this should be done safely and without terrorizing the geese. What in fact is happening is that you are training the geese to think predators keep showing up where they want to feed.

Tara and Nash were my team at a school for a goose-control trip last week in New York State. It’s a school with a wetland behind it, so lots of geese appear at different times of year to feed on the school grounds. There were 100 or so geese on the large fields when we arrived at the school. Some of these were on the football field surrounded by a running track; others were on the huge athletic fields nearby. I sent Tara on an outrun to the right of where we were standing. An outrun is how Border Collies go out and bring sheep to their handlers by running wide and out to the other side. The geese saw Tara and started to get alarmed that something might be after them. I then sent Nash, our mix breed directly toward the geese. He is not good at out runs but knows this job well. At the sight of Nash coming on and Tara coming around the other side of them, the geese took to flight and away from the school. This time of year the geese have lots of farmers’ harvest fields to feed in.

Haze or chase or herd-chase geese off effectively several times over and they can be convinced to show up less or not at all on a property. Of course, this is only with the geese that you are working with, not other flocks of geese that have not been “trained.” What also happens is that if the geese are worked with effectively enough other people can have better luck convincing the geese to fly off. Also, geese, if they do appear on school fields or playgrounds, they will do so in less obtrusive areas of a school’s property.