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.