Border Collies are the most common breed of dog used for goose control, despite the availability of other breeds and mix breeds. The reason to use Border Collies is that they are one of the few breeds available that still retain strong working instincts, herding instincts. We are living at a point in time that most people are looking for companion dogs, of course. Very few Americans want to live and work with dogs day in and out even in the country. Fortunately, there are still people who do value the ancient relationship between human and dog to protect, hunt, farm. Some of these breeds became specialists, one being the herding breeds such as the Border Collies.
Initially, dogs were descendants of wolves. These dogs would do a variety of activities in human settlements. When people started, farming dogs were selected to guard and herd the farm animals. The Rottweiler and German Shepard can be included in these dogs that eventually over time became multipurpose breeds of farm dogs. The Rough Coated Collie also can be considered in its ancestry to have been a multi-purpose guarding and herding dog.
There were many forms of collies types isolated in various places, The English Collie, and collies from Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Border Collies were imported into Austraila in the 1800s and the Kelpie breed was developed to adapt to the hot temperatures, nature of the terrain and large amounts of sheep. The Aussie breed and Australian Cattle dog, also known as the Blue Healer was also developed for certain types of farm work and so their personality and instincts talents were formed. This is all very important when considering a dog breed. Blue Healers can be bolder than say, Border Collies and The Old English Sheep Dog, listed often as a herding breed, has its organs as a droving dog. Droving is moving farm animals in a line, say down a road, to a marketplace or directly into a barn. The Corgie was developed to drive cattle. Herding is the ability to move farm animals in different directions and fetch the animals and bring them to the handler. This is just a very quick look at herding breeds from the UK and The Republic of Ireland and does not touch on the many herding breeds from Continental Europe and around the World.
You want a dog that listens well to its handler when doing geese removal as it can be called, a dog that the geese think or feel will want to do something with them, not just play. Having a dog that does not get distracted when on a job, such as a Border Collie or Kelpie is essential for many reasons. We use Border Collies because there are still gene pools in the breed that have strong working instincts, as does the Kellie. The Aussie has working lines as well, but there are many companion lines as well. So herd-chasing geese with herding dogs or mixing in a mix breed that can adapt its instincts to the work in a constructive way dramatically helps with goose control no matter where you live, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut or anywhere else.