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By George Van Haasteren CGM
Penn State Cooperative Extension - Clinton County

Border Collies Prove to Be A Grounds Manager’s Best Friend

If you are not familiar with New Jersey, it is a pretty densely
populated state and I am not just talking about people. I have noticed over the past 20 plus years the growing number of geese that seem to make the Garden State their home, whether year round or just seasonal. Geese seem to be overrunning any place that has areas of turf. It’s not just golf courses, but parks, office complexes, residential, and athletic fields. To top it off not only are they eating the grass but they are also leaving behind a large amount of goose poop as well. I find it neither attractive nor fun to walk in.

In my particular case I work part time on athletic fields for Paramus Catholic High School in Paramus, NJ. In the area close to the school there is a community college, four golf courses, a county park with a river flowing through it and a cemetery. All great places for geese to settle and have a smorgasbord. Unfortunately, all of those places seem to have some type of goose control in place. Guess where they were coming? That’s right they were coming over to the fields I care for.

Each year it seemed the situation became worse. The baseball, football, softball, and soccer fields were becoming infested with hundreds of Canadian geese. They must have known they were federally protected and could not be harmed. I swear that even some them would stick their tail feathers up at me and laugh because they realized that I couldn’t do a thing. Coaches, players and parents kept asking what could be done to get rid of them because they were tired of falling or stepping on the green turds of slime. In fact I was told that some of the athletes developed staff infections from the goose poop. Horns, whistles, repellents all failed. Riding equipment towards them did nothing but scatter them for a time and then they would just come back. The problem was extremely frustrating.

I knew for some time that border collies were being used to chase geese from golf courses and other areas. In fact PGMS board members Mike Mongon CGM and Todd Cochran CGM had purchased border collies several years ago and were having great success in keeping the geese away from their places. So, I began to do some research by asking my two buddies a whole bunch of questions as well as using the web for further information. I soon found out why border collies were being used as the preferred choice of removing geese from areas.

Border collies are natural herders. They were originally trained to herd sheep in Scotland and Northern England well over a hundred years ago. Over time they made the way to other places such as Ireland, here in the USA and elsewhere. These dogs are very intelligent, some saying that probably they are the most intelligent out of all the dogs. They are working dogs, meaning that they prefer being outside, performing tasks and do not enjoy being idle.

Here in the U.S. border collies have been used for herding purposes for some time and in fact there are numerous herding competitions where border collies excel. It has only been recently (less than 15 years) that these animals have been used for the purpose of removing geese. The handler when having the dog go towards the geese often uses the same commands used for herding. And, they are trained not to harm the geese in any way. This is great since these birds are federally protected and it is environmentally friendly.

I had spoken to the administration at the school several times on how to best handle the increasing presence of the geese on the fields as well as the campus. Every time they would ask I would keep saying a border collie is your best bet. How much? They would keep asking. I would reply that a trained dog was not cheap to purchase ($3,500 and up) but over time it would pay for itself. I didn’t expect that the school would be willing to pay for a dog until they decided to spend money on a new rubberized track. Of course the question came back on how they would remove the goose poop from the track surface, especially after it became imbedded in between the rubber particles. Cleaning the track would be costly and how do you effectively control from having geese walk all over the track? Again I said a border collie. To which the president of the school gave me his blessing and a purchase order.

Off I went down to Virginia on the second weekend of October last year. I had called a breeder and trainer weeks earlier who I had recommendations from several people and told her of what I was looking for. She told me that she had a dog that would be ideal for my particular situation and was great with kids. Good thing since there are over 1,200 kids at the school. I figured I take the family with me and we all would spend some time together. I also thought it would be a good idea since the dog would be spending nights at our house. It would be a good way of having the dog and my family to get to know each other a little better on the way back. Of course at that time there was that little problem of the sniper shootings that was occurring down through where we were travelling. No problem, I would just gas up before we left and again in Delaware. I wouldn’t have to stop again until I reached the hotel we would staying in past where all the trouble had been taken place. We made it without any problems with the exception that the area was going through a drought similar to ours and the kids couldn’t go swimming as they had planned. We went to pick up the dog the next day.

Barbara Ligon, the owner of Seclusival Kennels came out to greet us and introduced us the dog she had picked out for us. He already had a name (Andy) who was just turning two years old. Barbara has trained border collies for many years and has been a National herding champ a few times as well brought us into her house where we sat down and watched a tape of Andy in action. The kids were already bonding with him. We went over a few things that would assist in Andy working at the school plus what to feed him and take care of him. It was back up to New Jersey and the next day Andy and I went to work on keeping geese away from the fields.

Andy made an immediate impact on keeping the geese off the fields as well as the campus. The first couple of weeks we got to know each other and I would work on the commands with him. My father-in-law who helps me out at the school also worked with him since the dog would be at the school during the day. I drop him off in the mornings and he comes home with me each night. Now I am not saying things went according to plan at the beginning. There were some problems but over time they worked themselves out. Andy recognizes the commands and has bonded not only with me but he also with my father-in-law and my wife and kids as well. The people at the school love him and treat him great. He’s turned out to be a great employee who loves his job and takes pride in his work. Sure geese still fly over the fields daily and sometimes they still try to land on them, but only for a brief second because Andy has already seen them and is in hot pursuit.

Now I know that there are some of you out there who think it might be more trouble than it is worth taking care of a border collie. After all it is a great responsibility not to mention time and commitment. Some may feel that having a company that provides a service may be a better option and I do not argue those concerns. In my case I thought it was the best solution to a problem that many of us face with our fields. As with anything you shouldn’t jump in headfirst. You should take the time and do your homework before figuring on the best course of action then decide what is the best option.

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