From the news

[Dennis S]

As the owner of two border collies, I found this picture hysterical. The dogs have been hired to keep geese off the grass. The picture brings back memories of James Thurber, from long ago. This picture is from this morning's New York Times. The caption, obviously, is mine. The caption for the original picture states the dog (Coal) is practicing his "border collie stare". If you know border collies, you know he doesn't need to "practice".

 

[Phyllis]

Could we borrow your border collies, Dennis? We have had a horrible problem with geese on the beach over the last few years. Mainly do to an idiot of a neighbor that was feeding them. Have tried everything- coyote decoy, chasing them, spraying them with the hose, etc. Our grandaughter did a school report on geese one year and took some pictures of baby geese on Grandma's beach. Soon after the problem got really bad and when she came back for another visit, we had to explain to her that they are "poop-a-dinks" and she had to chase them away rather than admire them. Surprisingly, she and her sister gladly cooperated and the beach was goose free while they were there. LOL

 

[Dennis S]

Our two dogs would LOVE the job. They are (literally) looking for work all the time. Border Collies are very energetic, in addition to being very smart. My wife was given a small bag of nice chocolates by one of her students. Then it was missing. I protested my innocence. I know this will be hard to believe, but Barb then noticed a plant in our planter that didn't seem quite right. it turned out our border collie ate some of the chocolate, then nosed the plant loose, hid the bag and nosed the plant back. She did such a good job that the plant was fine.

Our house in Minnesota was near the farm campus of the university of Minnesota. We used to walk the dogs in their fields. About the time the corn had been harvested, thousands of geese would arrive and feast on the corn missed by the harvestors. As you mentioned, this sounds a lot nicer for those who read about it, as opposed to being innundated in goose poop. People loved it when they saw us coming with our dogs. The dogs wanted to herd all of the geese into the middle of this huge field. The geese are particularly concerned about border collies, as they have been bred to appear very "authoritative" to sheep, cows, etc. Our two border collies worked together like a crack drill team, and kept 15 acres geese free as long as we were there. (Instead of a "no fly" zone, they enforced a "no landing" zone.

 

[Phyllis]

Maybe I should get a border collie decoy- next best to the real thing???? They totally ignored our coyote decoys. Here's a picture of my son last summer with the coyote decoy.

 

[Mary]

Our daughter and son-in-law have three dogs that they rescued from the Humane Shelter (along with two cats). All of the dogs are mixed breeds, but Jack has a great deal of border collie in him, and Gracie has some too. They are fine dogs, but I particularly love and empathize with Jack. His instinct is to herd and protect, but most of the time he is confined to barking at the squirrels that he sees outside their picture windows. Of course, he also serves another purpose; no one can get in their house without everyone knowing of it.

 

[Karlynn]

Our best friends recently had to put their senior citizen Border Collie down. His name was Nipper and he was named such because when they got him and the kids were small, he would herd them by nipping at their heels.

Phyllis, I guess I fool more easily than the geese because the decoy looks pretty real to me!!!

 

[Dennis S]

There may be several reasons why the coyote decoy didn't work, but for sure he has the wrong posture. This is an example of the "stare" brder collies are famous for. I got this by just using a tennis ball.

 

[Bina]

I live on a hobby farm in the middle of agriculture land....lots of leftover corn; and boy are the geese ever busy the last couple of weeks!
We love watching them on our river, and when the sun comes out they bask on the banks of my hay fields. A sure sign of spring
My neighbour has lots of nice lawn areas, and yes, he has a border collie to keep the "riff raff" off of it.

 

[tobagotwo]

Sure, Dennis...hide the evidence in the plant and blame the dog...we've seen it before...

Here in the Land of Corporate Headquarters, there are more than a dozen companies that deal entirely with providing and maintaining Geese dogs for corporate lawns (mostly border collies). We have Canada Geese in large numbers here. Between the huge, well-kept lawns and the mandatory drainage ponds, they are constantly attracted to the area.

They've even strung fishing line in criss-crosses over the drainage ponds to keep them out. It works most of the time.

Wish they tasted better...

Best wishes,