For decades, Canada Goose were known primarily as migratory birds—seasonal visitors that arrived in the Fall and departed in the Spring. But across the Central and Mid-Atlantic regions, that pattern has changed dramatically…
For decades, Canada Goose were known primarily as migratory birds—seasonal visitors that arrived in the Fall and departed in the Spring. But across the Central and Mid-Atlantic regions, that pattern has changed dramatically…
No pun intended, well maybe just a little. No truer words ever spoken. Hard to believe that this business idea was started 25 years ago this upcoming Fall, and out of thin air. Everyone, and I mean everyone, thought I was nuts, literally. My parents told me later on in life that they both thought that I was going to be institutionalized walking away from a six-figure career in medicine after seeing how much I sacrificed and how hard I worked along the way.
So here we are, 2024. Geese Chasers was an idea that came upon me, and Boomer, of course (the true Founder of the company), organically while clearing Ramblewood Country Club in Mount Laurel, New Jersey one beautiful Fall Day in 1999. Boomer was just a pup back then, but what a truly special dog he was. He was heaven sent for sure. Boomer was a grandson of a pure-bred working Border Collie out of the Scottish Highlands. I purchased Boomer at the ripe old age of 4 weeks from a dairy farmer in Blue Bell, PA on December 23rd, 1998. He was one of eight pups in the litter. I first met him in the rafters of a barn with many cows beneath. He and his seven siblings were surrounded by multiple hay bales that kept them safe and confined.
It was love at first sight for him and me of course. The rest is now history as they say, but what a history!
The idea of chasing Canada Geese from properties using a Border Collie was initially presented to me while throwing a softball to Boomer at a local church field by a Mr. John Goodwin, President of Ramblewood Country Club in Mount Laurel New Jersey. John was driving by with his wife and son, and just happened to see me with my son Kyle having some necessary fun with our soon to be founder of the company, Boomer. John stopped the car, got out, and approached me, introducing himself and his family. He immediately began questioning me about Boomer. He began asking me if he was a purebred Border Collie. I, of course replied in the affirmative. He went on to tell me all the issues and problems he was experiencing at his once beautiful golf course regarding the Canada geese and their droppings. Initially, I was a bit perplexed by this conversation, not knowing where he was going. He also explained that he had just read about the use of purebred Border Collies to successfully control Canada geese in one of his recent golf trade journals. John started asking me if I thought Boomer would chase the geese off his golf course, and if I was willing to bring him out to give it a try. I thought about it for a few seconds and thought, “Why not?” Boomer would be able to run the entire twenty-seven-hole course and possibly solve a major problem that was plaguing this gentleman and his customers for a long time. I instructed Mr. Goodwin to leave a golf cart out for me with a key in it, and I would meet him there tomorrow after I finished up at work. I worked in healthcare and my day normally ended around 5pm.
The time arrived, so I scampered home to be greeted at the front door by an extremely eager Border Collie named Boomer. It was like he knew what was going on. To this day, I truly believe that Boomer knew exactly what was in front of him, and he couldn’t contain himself. He truly was one of a kind, and definitely heaven sent. Boomer eagerly loaded up in my hockey transport mobile called a Toyota Land Cruiser, and we were off.
Ramblewood Country Club was only a mile and a half from our home. We arrived a few minutes later, and Mr. Goodwin was waiting patiently for Boomer and me by the clubhouse. He was seated in his own golf cart with a ten-foot pole next to him draped over the front of the cart with, wait for it, a stuff animal to look like a Border Collie dangling from the end of it. I was confused by this, and chuckling while the words came out of my mouth asking what this contraption was. John replied, “I head straight for the geese with the stuffed animal leading the way.” I had visions of medieval times when two knights would square off in a jousting match. He was embarrassed to admit that it didn’t work and the geese just moved aside to let him pass. He went on to say that every gimmick and idea he came up over the last year, to rid his course of the geese, failed miserably time and time again. He explained that he tried the dog cut-outs, fishing line strung across the ponds, ground sprays, flashing lights, noise makers, mylar balloons, etc. etc. etc. Nothing ever worked he went on to explain. I was just standing there shaking my head in amazement as I never knew that geese posed such a problem on his course. It was their droppings that polluted his greens, bunkers, fairways, ponds, lakes, and parking lots. The geese would also attack the golfers during the Spring nesting season. It was obviously affecting the play on the course and the bottom line. Boomer and I loaded up on our golf cart and we were off. John led the way while Boomer’s heart must have been flying out of his chest with excitement. I could just sense it.
It didn’t take long for us to locate the first gigantic flock of Canada geese that were tearing up the course. It was on Red Course Hole Number Three to be exact. I’ll never forget the sight of what had to be three hundred geese spread out all over the fairway. You could barely see any grass at all. Boomer leapt out of the cart before I could even say a word. He was this fifty-pound hairy wrecking ball headed right towards the middle of the flock. As soon as he came over the crest on the hill, the geese spotted him as he sped towards them. Like dominoes, every goose, one after the other, took off for the sky above them. It was like a well-orchestrated symphony. I couldn’t hear myself think because of all the honking and flapping of hundreds of wings. It was truly a sight to be seen. Within seconds, John’s course was starting to be given back to him. John could not believe his eyes, and was overwhelmed with his own excitement. He could barely speak as Boomer headed off towards the horizon, or in other words, Red Course Hole Number Five where he must’ve known there were more geese. Boomer couldn’t have been more right. John and I were now following Boomer’s lead. We lost Boomer behind some trees surrounding the large lake on Hole Five. We finally caught up to him as he did a full-on SUPERMAN, or should I say SUPERDOG, into the lake, making a splashdown reminiscent of Apollo 13.
Clearing this sizable lake took time, but Boomer did not stop swimming until everything with a feather attached to it took to the friendly skies. We had to be there at least twenty minutes if my memory serves me right. Boomer finally exited the lake, glanced over at John and I, aggressively shook his thick coat, and took the lead again. Now the roles were completely reversed. Boomer was leading the pack, and John was pulling up the rear. John and I just shrugged our shoulders and smiled at each other, and tried to keep up with this SUPERDOG!
Red Hole Number Six had a hundred geese from the tee box to the green. Boomer cleared that hole like he was sweeping a ballroom floor. End to end, side to side and everywhere in between. He was finding geese where even we couldn’t see them. Our jaws literally dropped as we watched history being made in this newly created Canada goose control world as far as we were concerned.
Boomer finished up in around two minutes, turned and looked at me and John briefly, and took off like a cruise missile. Where he was headed was anyone’s guess. Ramblewood County Club is a large professional course with three nine-hole courses linked together on hundreds of acres. This was no easy task for a pack of dogs let alone one dog named Boomer.
Needless to say, John and I were left speechless. We finally finished this initial clearing, or should I say Boomer finally completed this monumental job within 30 minutes, while receiving a standing ovation from all the golfers, members, and staff who witnessed this amazing dog and what he had just accomplished. There wasn’t a feather within miles of this course this beautiful sunny fall day. Moving forward, Boomer and I would continue to visit the course everyday around the same time, and early on the weekends. He so looked forward to it, waiting impatiently by the front door as the time neared each and every day.
Members would greet Boomer and me almost every day after each clearing with large cups of water, hamburgers, chicken, and anything else they thought Boomer would like. He liked it all and was becoming a celebrity real fast. Boomer did not discriminate when it came to food. He was a real foodie. I recall, early on, I had a conversation with one of the long-standing members who said that they needed to construct a statue of Boomer on Red Hole Number Five. Looking back, I think the gentleman was serious. Everyone was so grateful to now have their course back free of geese and their droppings.
One day, Boomer and I were sitting behind the tee box on White Hole Number 18 trying to be as quiet as possible as a foursome of gentlemen were teeing off. One of the gentlemen, after hitting his ball, approached Boomer and me. I was thinking to myself, oh boy, here we go. I thought Boomer and I were going to field our first complaint due to Boomer’s heavy breathing from just clearing twenty-seven holes. I was fortunately mistaken. The gentleman approached us and introduced himself as Mike Tiagwad. Mike explained that the other two courses where he was a member and his private residence in Mount Laurel were inundated with geese and they had no solution. He also stated that he was personally spending over ten thousand dollars annually just to repair his landscape. I just nodded my head like a kindergartener listening to a story. I didn’t know where he was going with this. He eventually asked me for my business card. This is where Geese Chasers was truly born.
I looked at Mike a bit perplexed and asked him if he knew me. He replied, with a confused look on his face and said, “No.” I, of course obliged, and gave him my business card. I was working in healthcare as a Surgical PA locally at the time. He looked at the card, and with the same confused look on his face, asked the question that changed me and my family forever…. “Don’t you chase geese for a living?” I smiled, looked at my boy Boomer and replied, “Well, maybe I do now.”
In the following days, Boomer and I visited Mike’s other two country clubs and his residence. All three sites hired us immediately, with smiles on their faces. We still service Mike’s development twenty-five years later never missing a beat, or a Canada goose. To this day, when people see our trucks or dogs working, they all have ear to ear grins on their faces. People absolutely love our business, and love even more talking about it.
In the first five years of business, our gross revenue had doubled, tripled, and even quadrupled one year without fail. Today, we have offices in fifteen territories located in eleven states throughout the U.S. This crazy idea which was conceived out of thin air is now a true force in America. The future has never been brighter for Geese Chasers as we continue to grow at a rate of ten to fifteen percent annually which mirrors the annual estimated growth of the Canada goose population in North America. We have been featured in the NY Times, London Times, every major network, Discovery, Animal Planet, and more.
Geese Chasers continues to raise the bar in the Canada Goose Control industry.
Geese Chasers truly is “The ONLY Name in Canada Goose Control.”
from The Times
After Bob Young acquired a puppy named Boomer, he arrived home each evening to find that the dog had spent the day tearing up his house.
Boomer was a border collie. “His grandfather was from the Scottish Highlands,” said Young. He had been born on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania. But now he lived in the suburbs of New Jersey, far from the madding cow, or the disordered sheep. Then Young heard of a new line of work that was opening up for under-employed border collies like Boomer. They were needed to chase Canada geese.
Young is now the proprietor of Geese Chasers, a company based in New Jersey with franchised offices all over the United States, sending out border collies to drive geese from golf courses, lawns and parks.
A company called Geese Chasers sends out the dogs to drive the birds from golf courses, lawns and parks
In Connecticut, a rival company deploys 12 border collies, all raised in the kennels of a sheepdog trainer in North Carolina. “All our dogs are trained with traditional sheep-herding commands,” said Chris Santopietro, 57, the proprietor. “Basically you are substituting the sheep with geese. They’re not touching or harming the geese. We are introducing what [the geese] think is a predator.”
Geese chasing is a growth industry, thanks to a bird that has turned, in the space of about half a century, from an apparently threatened creature into an all-conquering invader of lawns and parklands across the country. An act protecting migratory birds ensured its safety and from 1970 to 2010 its numbers are estimated to have increased from a quarter of a million, to 3.5 million, even as new acres of geese-friendly territory are laid in America’s suburbs.
“Every time they build a corporate park, they have a pond for run-off,” Santopietro said. “They are nicely landscaped, with plenty of green grass for the geese to eat.”
Cemeteries, municipal parks, football fields and golf courses are also perfect goose habitats, but the birds do not treat them kindly. They tear the grass up, they drive off other birds and they leave large droppings that carry bacteria including E. coli.
“Each goose averages two pounds of droppings a day,” Santopietro said.
In The Anthropocene Reviewed, the writer John Green devotes a chapter to Canada geese as a creature of the suburbs, a native of man-made landscapes. “The world contains between four and five million Canada geese, although from where I’m sitting in Indianapolis, that estimate seems low, as there appear to be four or five million just in my backyard,” he writes. He said they lived in urban areas at roughly the same ratio (3:1) as American humans. Whatever else you did, “you, as an individual, can’t do much about the Canada goose,” he wrote.
He had clearly not heard of the goose-dog. Santopietro said that border collies appeared to the birds like arctic foxes or coyotes and when the birds fled for the safety of a pond, the dogs would follow them into the water, ensuring that they left the area entirely.
Young, of Geese Chasers, said he was throwing a ball for Boomer, his border collie pup, trying in vain to tire the dog out, when a passer-by, the proprietor of a local golf course, stopped and said: “Is that a border collie? He said: ‘You don’t see many around any more,’ ” Young said. “I said: ‘Yes there is a good reason for it. They will drive you nuts. They are working dogs. I don’t have anything for this dog to do.’ He said: ‘Well, my course is overrun with Canada geese.’ ”
He suggested that Young bring his dog to the course and let him chase geese. Young, who worked in orthopaedic surgery as a physician’s assistant, began doing that after work. Sitting with Boomer by the 18th hole one day, a former American footballer asked to hire the pair of them to clear geese from his garden that was set around a lake. They “were costing him about $20,000 a year in damage to his property,” Young said.
Boomer, whom Young regards as the founder of his company, died in 2008. “Still think about the ol’ boy every day,” he said. The American footballer remains a client. A dog and handler from Geese Chasers patrol his property daily, and he can summon them at any time if he sees a goose on his lawn.
IF/WHEN you OR one of our professionally trained dog handlers spot a Canada Goose nest we will file for an Egg Addling Permit from the DEC, addle the eggs, wait for the parent geese to abandon the nest (as the eggs will slowly pass on their own after being addled) and destroy the nest so the parents don’t return and attempt to lay more eggs. This is the most HUMANE way of destroying a Canada Goose nest.
For high traffic areas like a school or office building, where the parent geese are hissing and chasing people which increases the probability of someone being injured. Another method approved by the USDA includes: removing the eggs; burying the eggs; and destroying the nest. This method tends to have faster results given the parent geese no longer have any eggs to sit on.
It is important to destroy the eggs as soon as possible as the gestation period for Canada Geese eggs is only 28 days. We do our best to addle them/remove them within the first 7-10 days of being laid. That way it’s still a yolk and not a prematurely developed bird.
This process is something that we as “Geese Chasers” don’t enjoy doing but accept as part of our job. Doing this helps control local Canada Geese populations in a humane manner. We LOVE the Canada Geese, if it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t be here. We do our best to be as respectful as possible to the Canada Geese while also fulfilling our duty to our clients: to provide a clean, geese free environment.
*** IF you have a nest on site or pair(s) of Canada Geese – DON’T WAIT – CALL NOW! ***
IF YOU HAVE A NEST THAT HATCHES – You are stuck with them until they can FLY! It is ILLEGAL to HARM goslings (baby geese) or REMOVE families of Canada Geese. They will be onsite for 70-90 days until the GOSLINGS grow their first set of flight feathers and the family flies away TOGETHER on their own.
Please note – The Canada Geese who unfortunately have their nests destroyed during this season will move on to find a safer place to nest again and raise their young. Most cases it happens within the same nesting season as they can mate and lay eggs from March to the end of June!
Fun Fact – Canada Geese are monogamous, they mate for life and live upwards of 35 years. They are habitual nesters so once they reach sexual maturity, find a safe place to nest and are successful in raising their young. They will return to the exact same place EVERY year to nest again.Click image to view USDA PDF document
For more information on these methods please download this informative USDA document.
Our busiest time of year is quickly approaching, and in our industry, we call it “Nesting Season.” What exactly is Nesting Season you ask? Nesting Season is when, adult paired Canada Geese start to build their individual nests and lay their clutches. The Canada Goose will mate for life. Over the past two decades, we have noticed the Canada Goose starting to pair up and build their nests as early as late December. The severity of the winter weather plays the biggest factor on when the Canada Geese begin to pair and build their nests.
Canada Geese will begin to pair up and start building their nests in late February/Early March.
Mild winters bring the nesting season on sooner than cold and snowy ones. In a typical year, Canada Geese will begin to pair up and start building their nests in late February/Early March.
The female Canada Goose will lay between 4 – 9 eggs per clutch per year. Laying an egg or two every day once the nest is built and it is determined safe. The gestation period for a Canada Goose egg is typically 28 – 30 days on average. The mother Canada Goose will not leave the nest while the eggs are incubating.
Canada Geese will typically return to their same nesting site each year following a successful clutch. The chosen nesting sites are typically located around and near a body of water. The total number of Canada Goose nests in a certain geographic area will vary depending on how aggressive the geese are and how many other pairs they allow to nest in the same vicinity. The male goose will stand guard a short distance from the nest to protect the female and the eggs. They male can become very aggressive and will attack anyone or anything they view as a threat.
Once the eggs hatch, the parents protect them until the day they can fly which is typically late July/Early August. The parents will also lose their flight feathers in May/June which keeps them grounded to protect the goslings. This natural process is called “molting.”
The chosen nesting sites are typically located around and near a body of water
Here at Geese Chasers, we are full-service company that not only can prevent geese from building their nests humanely, but we can also assist in egg addling and nest removal with the proper permits in place. Give us a call today at 866.98.GEESE or complete this contact form for all your Canada Goose needs.
One of the questions that we frequently get is “Do you only use Border Collies to chase the geese off of properties?” The answer is always a resounding, “YES!”
We had tried other breeds over the early years when the business was in its infancy but no other breed ever came close to the power, drive, and intelligence of the border collie.
Boomer, our first purebred border collie is considered to be the true founder of Geese Chasers. Boomer was special and helped create an industry in this country where we now have a lot of imitators. The border collie is truly the most important aspect of this unique business. Their instinct is to “herd” not attack. The geese think they are being hunted by a natural predator, when, truthfully, all the border collies want is for the geese to sit still until told otherwise. Therefore, our proven humane method is the most effective form of Canada Goose control in the world.
So, let’s look back at the true history of the breed. The border collie breed originated from sheepdogs throughout the British Isles and on the “border” of Scotland and England. Queen Victoria of England became fascinated and quite fond of the breed and most certainly contributed to its legacy as the ideal sheep-herding dog breed for its time.
The border collie is considered the most athletic, most intelligent, and most highly driven dog breed in the world. Border collies are very successful at herding sheep, agility, Fly-Ball, Frisbee, and many other high-level activities. In 1995, the breed was officially recognized by the American Kennel Club. Border collies possess many good traits such as being very affectionate, friendly, playful, great watchdogs, and the list goes on and on. One thing we do know about this special breed is that they need daily mental, emotional, and physical stimulation. In other words, they need a purpose or a job and desire to be loved and played with each and every hour of every day of their lives. They are a very high maintenance breed, but the rewards of owning a border collie are endless.
The flip side of all the positives is that this breed is not well suited to apartment living or a sedentary lifestyle and can become quite destructive when its daily needs are not met. The breed has a tendency of getting bored quite quickly, and ninety-nine out of a hundred things a border finds to fill its time in the house or apartment, most people will not like. I was once told by a long-standing border collie breeder and trainer that, “Owning a border collie as your first dog,is like buying a Ferrari when you are seventeen.” No truer words spoken.
The border collie came to the United States over one hundred years ago in the 1860s. The breed is still, to this day, the herding dog of choice for North American ranchers.
Truly an amazing and one-of-a-kind breed, the border collie is seen in most television commercials and shows due to their high level of intelligence, beauty, and ability to adjust to most situations. Geese Chasers will always advocate for this breed and border collie rescues. If you are considering adopting this breed as a pet, please do your homework and research to get the best understanding of the breed so you can make the right decision of either owning or not owning a border collie. It will better serve you, your family, and friends to better understand this extremely high-level companion.
We always get the same response when people find out exactly what we do, which isa BIG Smile😊 and a few chuckles that usually follow. Even after 23 years of being in business with consistent growth, year after year, and thriving during a global pandemic, Geese Chasers remains “The #1 Name in Goose Control.” People continue to ask the age-old question, “How did you come up with this idea?” Well, it’s a great question, so let’s start at the beginning and travel back in time to the year 1998.
As the founder of the company, along with the amazing “Boomer,” our first border collie, the idea came to me at Ramblewood Country Club located in Mt. Laurel, NJ, about twenty minutes east of Philadelphia. I was initially approached by the Club’s owner and CEO, Mr. John Goodwin in the fall of 1998 while throwing a ball to Boomer at the local church ball fields. John was passing by in his car with his wife and son when he said he had to stop to ask me about Boomer. He asked if Boomer was a purebred border collie and I answered in the affirmative yet wondered why he was asking the question. He stated that he read recently in his golf trade journals that trained purebred border collies were being used successfully in the Midwest to clear geese off golf courses. We talked for about ten minutes at which time John asked me if I would be interested in bringing Boomer to his course to clear hundreds of geese which were tearing up the greens, fairways, sand traps, and more. I thought that this would be a great opportunity for Boomer to get the exercise he deserved everyday. I had seen Boomer chase many geese in the lake behind our house, so I knew it was a no-brainer and Boomer would do a remarkable job on the course.
John and I agreed to meet the next day at the course around 5:30pm to go over the course’s twenty-seven-hole layout. John met me by the cart garage and had a ten-foot pole with a stuffed border collie dangling from its end. I was a bit confused at first but then let out a chuckle while asking him what he was doing with the funny looking contraption. He replied that it was how he was trying to scare geese off his course. He went on to say that he drives a golf cart down the middle of the fairway while at the same time wielding the stuffed border collie laden pole pointed at the hundreds of geese, at the same time yelling at the geese to go away. I couldn’t stop laughing and asked him to demonstrate. Well, I think we all know how that went. LOL. I think the geese were entertained by it as much as the members and I were. At this point, John was obviously frustrated and was at his wits’ end trying anything and everything to rid his beautiful course of its unwelcome visitors who were having a field day tearing it up.
I reviewed the course and the multitude of trouble spots throughout and got started the next day. Well, Boomer did do all the work. I just went along for the ride and was happy that Boomer could run and do what he did naturally, “Chase Geese.” Within four weeks, Boomer had successfully cleared approximately five hundred geese from the course and the members were ecstatic with the results. They had their course back. No more goose poop to tiptoe around or dig out of their cleats. At the end of each clearing, Boomer and I would pass the clubhouse and were always greeted by a member or two who would bring Boomer and cup of water and a hamburger. I think Boomer liked this part of the job as much as chasing after the geese. The members could not thank Boomer and me enough and even proposed a statue be built of Boomer and placed on the course. (This was really proposed.) Boomer was very well appreciated and even to this day, some of the old timers still talk about him giving them their course back. Boomer is a legend in his own right and I miss him terribly. I’m sure he’s keeping geese off the rainbow bridge up in doggie heaven.
The moment Geese Chasers the Business was born was on the eighteenth hole about a month into the job at Ramblewood. Boomer and I were patiently waiting for a foursome to tee off when we were approached by one of the members. The gentleman asked if he could have my business card. I was a bit perplexed by the request and answered affirmatively and gave him my business card. At the time I was working for a medical practice in Mt. Laurel and handed him my card. He took the card, and with a puzzled look on his face asked the question that launched a multi-million-dollar company, “Don’t you chase geese for a living?” I tilted my head like Boomer would do when he would kind of understand what we were saying to him and I replied, “Maybe I do now.”
The gentleman asked if I would come and look at his property in Mt. Laurel to assess the goose problem and provide him with pricing to get rid of the geese. He was spending over ten thousand dollars a year in landscape repair due to the geese invading his lakefront property. He also requested that I visit two other private local golf courses where he was a member to do the same. Within four weeks, Boomer and I were hired by all three and we were off to the geese chasing races. The business grew at a phenomenal rate in its first five years, doubling each year. I was asked early on to sell franchises which I knew nothing about. So, Boomer and I got to work developing a marketing plan and approach and started to explore the world of franchising.
Fast forward 23 years later and we’re now preparing to open our tenth franchise location in Connecticut with a future of no end in sight. The franchises have been a real challenge but working with franchise owners and coaching them through to becoming successful is a very rewarding aspect of the business.
Boomer passed away on March 8, 2008. We commemorated his life and memory with a Custom Chopper Motorcycle named the BOOMER-1 which was built by the guys from the hit TV show, “American Chopper” on the Discovery Channel.
You can visit the website all about BOOMER and the Chopper motorcycle at GeeseChoppers.com. I think about him every day and how he changed my life, my family’s lives, and the hundreds of thousands of people that consider him the true and most famous founder of Canada Geese control in this country with the use of highly trained, purebred border collies.
Mt. Laurel, NJ
1-866-98-GEESE (43373)
1. Click the REVIEW button from our website. Instead of entering a Gmail account, click “Create Account” (don’t worry, you won’t be creating a new Gmail account, just linking your email to Google)
2. Click “For Myself” in the drop down
3. Then, after entering your first and last name, rather than entering a Gmail account, click “Use my current email address instead” and enter your email address and password
4. You’ll receive a confirmation code at your email inbox, go there, copy it and paste that back at the Google Review site
5. You’ll then be asked to enter a verification code sent to your mobile phone
6. Complete the other information it asks for
7. Then you’ll be at the review page
8. Fill in the number of stars for your review (hopefully it’s 5!) and a few words about what you liked best about our service
9. Click POST!
So go ahead and close this window and click our REVIEW button to get started.