Category: Connections to Dogs

The new herding whistle hung around my neck on the old lanyard. It and two others like it had just arrived from the UK. I was told that these herding whistles work better than most. They are easier to use than some which can take a long time to learn how to make notes on. Herding whistles have been used by shepherds probably for hundreds of years if not longer to communicate with their dogs when working sheep. Herding dogs can work other livestock, farm animals as well, with the use of herding whistles or voice commands. Cows and poultry would be the most, “other” categories worked by herding dogs. Farmers working with dogs herding livestock is the original way grass-based agriculture, farming was and is practiced. A good team of human handler and herding dog can easily move sheep, cattle, and poultry from one pasture to the other with time-saving and stress saving skill.

Herding Whistles replace the voice commands for each move a Border Collie makes for farm work and goose control work. These commands make sense to the Border Collies and other herding breeds and have been in use for a long, long time. The commands for recall, stop, go left go right as examples have been bred into the collies over time, you can say. Most Americans think of Border Collies as hyper dogs that will herd anything that moves. But this is because most Border Collie owners don’t take the time to understand their dogs’ instincts and history. With a little background work and planning nonworking Border Collies can be made comfortable in their lives.

Soon after the new herding whistles arrived, I just had to try one out. I took Blade our talented three and half-year-old male and Skye our most experienced Border Collie outside to move our sheep to pasture. As Blade started to herd the sheep toward the pasture gate, Skye watched. I stated with a verbal command “walk in.” It is customary when the Border Collies are close to the handler to use a verbal command. When the dogs are further away from the handler, whistle commands are often used. I then blew on the whistle a, go to your left command to Blade, and he looked back at me a bit as if to say, that sounds different. But soon he and I were moving the sheep with my commands nicely with no issues at all; I like these new whistles. And it seems Blade and our other dogs do too; the tone is nice and clear. Herding whistle commands also have the benefit of not containing emotions the handler may be feeling.

The next day my dog team of Nash and Tara were on goose control trips in New York. One of our stops was at a large pond. The dogs and I got out of our goose mobile and saw several geese swimming. We could easily get the geese to fly away if I positioned the dogs in the right places around the pond. I verbally sent Tara running on what is called an out run to my left around the pond and I sent Nash to go directly to the ponds shore in front of me. When Tara got to a narrow part of the pond I blew the stop command. She did so and looked at the geese with what is called the Border Collie eye. Nash, though a mix breed eyed the geese from his position. Soon with a few moves from the dogs, the geese felt uncomfortable just enough that after some honking and Tara jumping into the water for a little swim, the geese flew off. I blew the recall command for Tara and yelled a verbal recall to Nash and both dogs soon made their way back to me.

Soon I was driving with both dogs to goose control visits in Massachusets. Both Nash and Tara rested comfortably in the goose mobile as we made our way down early morning roads and highways. Of course, there is a lot more to communicate with these dogs than verbal and whistle commands. There is understanding what you are doing with herding farm animals and herd-chasing geese. You need to understand the animals, birds, and dogs as well as “your self.”The relationship you have with your dog or dogs is essential. Good relationships gets work done stress-free. It’s a joy to be involved in these three species relationships.

Jim came running around the geese on a ball field were kids regularly play. When we first started with this particular client, we would find many geese on our geese control visits. This day, Jim and his teammate for the day, Tara only had a few geese to herd-chase off. Jim does a great job with goose control work. And for a ten-year-old dog, he is in great shape. His arthritis is the only thing that seems to slow him down, and that is under control with a supplement. Our veterinarian says that exercise is great for arthritis. And like most working line Border Collies, Jim loves to work.

Jim wasn’t always free to work or run around, I am told. The first six years of his life he rarely got out of his kennel and seemingly wasn’t taught much. He was antisocial and hyper not just active. As the son of an English herding Champion, that is startling but sad for any dog. Jim’s second home was a rehab home. He learned to be social with people and other dogs and learned how to play. And he was taught the fundamentals of herding with sheep. Jim came a long way in that year from a middle age dog that had been languishing to a happy guy who was eager to play and work.

But I guess I’m like anyone who rehomes a dog, we think we have done something special, as in “rescue” the dog. But from what people tell me who knew Jim from when he arrived in his rehab home to now, he has vastly changed to a dog that seems comfortable and happy in the world around him. Jim will probably never full fill what his breeding would have been able to have him do. I am not positive, but I think that’s a result of him never getting much experience with anything until he turned six. His herding work is adequate, but if he was taught the proper techniques as a young dog, Jim would probably be a spectacular working Border Collie. As a result, he needs a lot of direction when he works as he gets mixed up which way to move sheep on our homestead. That said, Caleb, who is Jim’s primary handler has done a great job with him. Jim and Caleb placed third a couple of times at their level in sheepdog trials last year.

Jim and Tara and I walked from the field we had just chased geese off in New York. We needed to check all the fields at this school and then head off to Massachusetts. The Border Collies moved ahead of me, and when I caught up to them, I could see they were looking at geese on that next field. I called Jim and Tara to me as it works much better to start every job with your Border Collies next to you as you give a command, thus orienting the dogs to where they should go when herding or herd-chasing. I sent Jim to the left around the geese eating on the field and Tara to the right. Jim did a wonderful outrun and ended up on the far side of the geese. Then he with Tara’s help moved in on the geese., herd-chase mode. The geese got alarmed thinking something was hunting them and took off in flight. As the geese flew across the field, Jim tracked the geese, running almost under them as if they were sheep he was to move to another place.

Jim has great vision, and as a goose control dog, he excels. I guess goose control work makes sense to him. He is slowly getting better at farm work, and he did do well in sheepdog trials last year. But he sure seems satisfied with his goose control work. We all need something to make the world make sense to us.

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.

It was a beautiful May day, and I had just visited clients’ properties in Connecticut. Blade and Nash were my team, and they had done a great job. We had gotten two pairs of geese to fly off on a corporate complex and a flock from another corporate complex. Neither set of geese wanted to leave, but both dogs were resilient and used all their herding skills and were convincing enough to get those hard to move geese to fly away. Our clients have had issues with geese confronting people, and it is our job to humanely and effectively dial back the goose populations on properties, so those issues become minimalized. It’s called goose control, not goose elimination.

On the way home, I pulled into a convenience store, gas station in Westfield Massachusetts, filled up and ducked inside for a coffee. As I was walking down an aisle, a fellow customer walked in and looked at me. I guessed right away he knew I was the goose control guy, signs on the vehicle and the company name on my cap and jacket. ” You get to kill all the geese?!” he asked loudly. “No that’s someone else,”I said and turned to the cashier and got back to Blade and Nash. I gave both dogs a treat and dove off for home, in New York.

My family and I have run this service since 2002. Over that time we have had many encounters with the public over opinions on what should and should not be done with the geese on properties. The views run from one end of the spectrum to the other. Views are from “just kill the geese”, to, “leave them alone”. I frame what we do, goose control with trained and experienced Border Collies and trained and experienced handlers, as a middle way. The Border Collies and one mix breed dog, Nash all live at home. And the handlers are myself and my sons, Sam and Caleb. We know each other inside and out.

It is interesting to know that chasing off wildlife from fields and properties, with dogs is nothing new. It probably has gone on for thousands of years, since dogs and humans joined forces and humans set up permanent settlements. Some people we encounter on goose control trips get that. Other people think what we do is hugely funny; some don’t trust that we will not hurt the geese, others like our clients, put great faith in that we will bring relief to a sticky situation with nuisance geese. It’s as much a human issue as a goose problem. As long as we develop wildlife habitat, we will need to come up with solutions for wildlife. State Governments and organizations like the Humane Society seem to give goose control with Border Collies top billing when it comes to solutions in places where people live, work, play or go to school.

After I pulled into our driveway, Blade and Nash and I were greeted by our other three Border Collies, Skye, Tara, and Jim. They were excited to see us as always. Skye and Tara had been on goose control trips that morning with Caleb. They had visited two golf courses and two municipalities. After we all had lunch, it was time for afternoon chores. Skye and I herded the sheep and poultry to pasture. Skye did her job as she should, quietly and gently moving the sheep and chickens and ducks to the new growth of spring for a good feed. Border Collies know the difference between geese and sheep and then again the farm chickens and ducks. All take a different style to work with. Border Collies like Skye are not only smart but love to work and have great stamina.

As Skye and I walked back from the pasture the pup Tara ran up to us. She had been chewing on a bone. Skye and Tara sniffed each other and then ran off together enjoying the beautiful May day after they chased a rabbit away from near the garden to the woods.