Tara had just herd-chased off a large flock of geese from a school ball field in New York. She stopped running as the flock had flown out of sight. As Tara turned and looked at me and then her teammate Skye, who was in the opposite side of the field, she reached over and sniffed the dog decoy that was in the field.
This school uses our services with the Border Collies to herd-chase geese three times a week as needed, which is standard procedure for us. The school also feels that the dog decoys have some effect since we started showing up with Border Collies that persist in making the geese feel uncomfortable enough to leave with each visit. The idea is to visit enough, for an agreed and effective package of visits so the geese will “give up” or most will, and go to feed on someone else’s grass. This school also uses fencing between its fields and the large swamp behind to stop geese from walking in during the time of year they can not fly.
People with geese population problems can use flare guns, lasers and even chase geese themselves of course.These methods are not always effective by themselves. To be successful, a property owner should use a variety, an integrated approach. It is important to understand when chasing geese, that the job is done inside regulations not to hurt or touch the geese but is also alarming enough to the geese. Without triggering geese pray instincts the hopes for success are low. We have a client we have worked with for years, but now we visit a handful of visits a year, as the Spring sets in. We herd-chase the arriving geese, keep them from nesting and the client and his crew concertedly and relentlessly chase any geese that appear after that, or between our visits. In his case, the crews’ golf carts are employed emphatically but carefully enough. This works, because the Border Collies have raised the alarm, and the geese become wary.
The next day, Border Collie Blade and our mix breed Nash were on a goose control visit in Connecticut at a corporate client. I parked the vehicle and sent Blade around the large pond in one direction and Nash to run the opposite side. The geese in the pond were alarmed at the sight of the dogs. They had seen us before. After a few seconds, the geese all took flight and flew off the property. Nash stopped and since he is not a Border Collie, but has worked hard to learn goose control, started sniffing along the shore for wild animals that had been there. Blade came running back to me when called and happily stood at my side while we gave Nash some time to enjoy himself. In the case of this corporate client in Connecticut, we are the only means of geese control. Sometimes that works very well too. The trick is to convince the geese that they should not be on a property not to just casually keep chasing them off.
( I have discussed lethal means of goose control in previous blog posts)