{"id":951,"date":"2023-04-11T16:33:13","date_gmt":"2023-04-11T16:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geesechasers.com\/?p=951"},"modified":"2026-03-24T09:10:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T09:10:59","slug":"new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geesechasers.com\/staging\/new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"His Business? Hiring and Managing Dogs to Chase Geese."},"content":{"rendered":"

His Business? Hiring and Managing Dogs to Chase Geese.<\/span><\/h2>\n

Robert Young explains how the birds can be a menace and why Border Collies are his star employees.<\/h3>\n

from The New York Times<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n
By <\/em>Tammy La Gorce<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n
\u00a0–<\/em>

And hence, his new business\u00a0Geese Chasers<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 one of many goose-chasing businesses across the country \u2014 was born.<\/p>\n

The company, which Mr. Young runs with his wife, Deborah Young, now has a presence in 10 states and hundreds of towns and cities, including New York City, where a dog can sometimes be spotted clearing Central Park. The following interview is an edited and condensed version of a conversation with Mr. Young.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0<\/strong>Birdlife International<\/a><\/strong>, the number of geese has increased by 1,500 percent in North America over the last 40 years. Why?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Geese migrate south from the Arctic Circle and Canada in the winter. Their primary food source is grass, and it gets covered up by snow. They have to go south to find areas of barren land that don\u2019t have snow. Winters have not been harsh in much of the United States, so they\u2019ve kind of dug in and call it home now, and they\u2019re really moving around from feeding spot to feeding spot locally. It\u2019s estimated by the federal government that the Canada goose population in this country increases annually by 15 to 20 percent.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Tink gets into the car after his gig. (Photo: Michael Gustafson for The New York Times)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/h4>\n

What kind of flight pattern do they follow?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Where we sit is called the Atlantic Flyway. But you also have the Mississippi Flyway, and I think they call the one in the Northwest the Rocky Mountain Flyway, which is probably less traveled, I\u2019d say. But we get calls from Scottsdale, San Francisco, Palm Springs, places you would never think would have a goose problem. They\u2019re everywhere. They acclimate really well. If they have a good food source, plenty of fresh cut grass and plenty of bodies of water, which a lot of these homeowners associations and commercial properties build \u2014 you know, the ponds and everything for runoff and also for aesthetics \u2014 they\u2019ve got the perfect habitat.<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

Is it just the excrement left behind by the geese that your clients dislike?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Well, they tear up landscapes. When they eat grass, they pull it up by the roots, and what they leave behind in their feces is very acidic, and that changes the pH of the soil. So only hardened weeds grow on the spot. They do a lot of damage quickly.<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

Describe the perfect goose habitat. What are the components?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

A wide-open field with fresh-cut grass that gives them really good sight lines, so they can see a predator coming. There\u2019s usually one or two lookouts that stick their necks out and look around for predators while the others are feeding. They\u2019re really smart animals. They\u2019re also looking for a nice body of water that they can either fly into or swim into or bring their babies into.<\/p>\n

\"\"

\u201cBorder collies need stimulation every day. They\u2019re working dogs,\u201d Mr. Young said. (Photo: Michael Gustafson for The New York Times)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/h4>\n

So that means parks and gated communities. What else?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Oh, jeez \u2014 you name it. In New York and Jersey City, we have a lot of properties right along the Hudson, where the Sully plane went down. Bird strikes in general occur many times annually and globally to commercial and private aircraft. It is not only geese but anything with feathers that flies.<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

But the geese must come right back.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

We did a study many years ago where we tracked them over 12 weeks. We found that after two chases they stay away for two weeks. If you chase them four times, they stay away for four weeks.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/h4>\n

Why are dogs \u2014 Border collies in particular \u2014 best for the job?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Grounds for Sculpture<\/a>\u00a0had us in over the summer. They were excited to bring us in because of our humane methods. Sometimes the federal government will come in and gas the geese. You can hire the\u00a0U.S.D.A.<\/a>\u00a0You just fill out an application and get a proposal for an estimate, and they\u2019ll come one day and round them up and put them in gas chambers and suck the oxygen out of their lungs. It\u2019s disturbing. If you go on PETA, you\u2019ll see\u00a0they endorse our methods<\/a>. Highly trained Border collies are the best option.<\/p>\n

As for the kind of dog, I did a lot of trial and error in the beginning. I tried Australian shepherds, Labs. The geese weren\u2019t afraid of them. Border collies mimic arctic foxes, which are their only natural predators. An Arctic fox looks exactly like a Border collie.<\/p>\n

\"\"

(Photo by Michael Gustafson for The New York Times)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

(Photo by Michael Gustafson for The New York Times)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

(Photo by Michael Gustafson for The New York Times)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/h4>\n

That\u2019s something you found out by accident.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

I learned the hard way. I\u2019m really allergic to dogs, but the minute my son opened his eyes, let me tell you something, he wanted one. Border collies need stimulation every day. They\u2019re working dogs. We had a lake behind our house, and Boomer was chasing everything with a feather out of it, ducks, cormorants, anything that moved. When he finally chased the last duck out, he\u2019d come out almost passed out and he\u2019d be ready to do it all over again. I would say, \u201cYou\u2019re nuts, dog.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

That\u2019s when you started bringing him to the golf course?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

One day the owner of the country club told me he\u2019d been reading about a golf course in the Midwest that had used Border collies to get rid of geese effectively. He said there were 500 birds on his course and so much poop that they couldn\u2019t play golf. Then he asked, \u201cDo you think that dog will chase them?\u201d On the first day, Boomer took off like a shot. He knew exactly where to go. Next thing you know, the entire sky is filled with geese. Then he jumped into a gigantic pond like Superdog.<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

And that\u2019s where you got your first paying gig, with the golfer who asked for your business card?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Mike. To this day, he\u2019s a client. I told him I would never raise the price on him. We still keep his property clear for 99 bucks a week. Now it would run him three or four times that.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The dogs are smart and love activity, Mr. Young said. \u201cPeople get really happy when they see the dogs and understand we\u2019re giving them a great life, where they can run every day.\u201d (Photo: Michael Gustafson for The New York Times)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/h4>\n

It must get expensive to clear a place like Central Park. Do you need a pack of Border collies to remove geese from such a huge area?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

No, no. It\u2019s only one or two dogs. These are independent working dogs. I tell my franchisers, when you get two really good working dogs together, they\u2019re so stinking smart that one dog might say to himself, \u2018Why should I go out there when he can do the job without me?\u2019 For Central Park, they\u2019ll get there maybe at 7 a.m., and I think they stay only a couple of hours and they\u2019re out by 9 or 9:30.<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

How do people respond when you tell them you chase geese for a living?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

My parents thought I was going to be put in a mental institution. But people get really happy when they see the dogs and understand we\u2019re giving them a great life, where they can run every day. People have seen me sitting in the car with the dog and they\u2019ll go, \u201cYou\u2019ve got the best job in the world! You get to work with your best friend every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

His Business? Hiring and Managing Dogs to Chase Geese. Robert Young explains how the birds can be a menace and why Border Collies are his star employees. from The New York Times By Tammy La Gorce \u00a0–April 11, 2023 In 1998, Robert Young and his dog, Boomer, were visiting a golf course in New Jersey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nHis Business? 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