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.