Month: June 2019

Blade came running back toward me, during a recent goose control visit. We were at a park, alongside a pond and he had helped herd-chase fourty geese to fly away. This was just before the molt, when geese lose their flight feathers was going to start. I really like to get geese to leave a clients property before the molt begins. If you do not get geese to fly at that time, you are stuck with them for a month.

Blade and his teammates for this trip, Skye and Tara had to work hard to get the job just right. We make every effort to be effective to get the geese to leave a property every trip if we can. At times it is too disruptive to the setting we are in to get the geese to leave. Some visits we fall back to Plan B which is just getting into the geese heads a bit more, so they will consider being at a property less or eventually, not at all. The factors we consider with each visit can happen in a split second and have to be reconsidered as events unfold, such as, if a car shows up where it may cause a danger to dogs or geese or if a dog walker enters where we are working, and so on.

As Blade came toward me, I could tell he was unsure of himself or maybe even upset. He is a talented young male Border Collie but can be emotional. He perhaps thought things on this visit went a bit wrong, even though we did get the geese to fly off safely. I raised the tone of my voice to a happy pitch and smiled at him.
Blade heard and saw this, and this brought a spring into his steps, and a big smile came to his face as well. He gave a little happy bark and sprang toward the pond to jump in and cool off. Soon Skye and Tara were in the water enjoying a Border Collie after work party, splashing and enjoying each other. I gave a command, and they all were out of the water and headed back to our vehicle as a dog walker came our way. I did not want to disturb the dog walker and his dog with our off-leash working dogs.

Upon reflection, I realized why Blade got worried. Goose control can be a serious business. Our name and logo are meant to lighten up the mood. Property owners and or managers of parks, schools and golf courses can take a lot of flack from people who want geese gone or those people who want them left alone. A misstep can put you, and your dogs in danger and the geese always need to be taken into consideration. Being on top of your game, sometimes for hours a day can make you tired or tense. And being tense can reflect on how you interact with the Border Collies. If a dog is living a tense life its life can turn unhealthy.

The important lesson here is that dogs do not do well with human angst. They don’t do well, conversely, with human hyper happy either. Dogs greatly appreciate a calmer middle ground with their interactions and can turn away from “issues” on a dime, be in the moment. I often consider that dogs get bewildered when humans chew on a stressor as we humans do. So I work really hard at not getting worked up. It makes me happier, and the Border Collies happier too. As we drove away from that visit, Blade, Skye, and Tara had on their happy faces, the not stressed, happy ones. Soon they were sound asleep, hopefully, processing useful takeaways. It is so much better when you relax into your work.

Enjoy.

It seems simple, goose control until you stop to think about all that can go wrong. There is water that handlers and dogs can drown in, cars running on roads or in parking lots, and then there are bystanders that can be distracting. Fishermen(people), kids on bikes, parents with babies, people walking dogs, all these variables need to be taken into account when you are working dogs in a public setting.

When we arrive at a property to herd-chase geese for a client, we take into account all the variables, such as traffic and people, etc. We keep our dogs away from the fishing, as fishing lines and hooks can cause issues. We don’t want to upset any dogs being walked, by our dogs running and or swimming loose doing their work. Cars and trucks on the roads are, of course, an obvious danger. Our dogs are well enough trained that they take our directions to stay out of trouble, and they are not allowed on roads by themselves.

So, it actually is safety for all, people, us, the Border Collies and indeed for the geese as well. The reason why clients use our services is that it is an option where the geese are not hurt. Other types of goose control are lethal for the geese, and sometimes they are employed by property owners. I think that hazing, which is what we do, is an option between hunting and trapping and doing nothing about a “problem” population of geese. We know some people believe that the geese should just be left alone, but they are not the property owners, the Schools or the Towns who have hundreds of geese sometimes and wall to wall poop on playing fields, playgrounds or parks.

One of the ways to curb the growing populations of geese that trouble people is to addle geese eggs in nests. State and Federal Government and the Human Society both approve. It seems a simple solution, and if more people did this, all you need is a permit, geese populations would be less and less of an issue. However getting to the nests to addle, we use vegetable oil, can be an issue. Geese will be aggressive and don’t want anyone near their nests. We have clients who can’t addle or can’t addle some nests without the Border Collies “holding off” the geese.

I want to stress that our goose control service causes no harm to the geese. Border Collies move or “hold off” the geese just as they do when herding sheep, without touching them at all. Border Collies are a type of herding dog that uses its staking instincts to bluff, sheep, cattle, other farm livestock and wild geese into thinking that if they don’t move the “predator” will get them. Even though sheep and sometimes the same geese see the same Border Collies over and over, the sheep always walk or trot in the desired direction and the geese fly away. I work with many farmers, shepherds and sheepdog trial people in the North East, and they and I spend a lot of time and effort into herding correctly. And that means causing very little stress to the sheep. This means sheep need to be moved quietly and as slow as possible by the dogs. This philosophy, which is actually practical farming, translates to how we work the geese for clients.

So if you see us working, we will look out for you and please look out for us. Staying safe is job number one. This concept is lost on the one or two people a year who come up to us when we are actively working, to yell at us, thinking we are cruel. These jarring interruptions are very distressing as a break in concentration by us handlers and for the dogs is dangerous. These people think they’re doing the geese favor, but it is putting all in danger. Please do not interrupt us while we are working. We will be happy to give you our perspective when the job is done, and the geese and dogs and we humans will all be safe.