Certified Goose Control is a War of Attrition

      

    Back a number of years ago when I became interested in starting a goose control company I had the pleasure of being introduced to Pete Rizzo of Hudson Valley Wild Goose Chasers out of New Jersey.   Pete was very generous with his time and spent a lot of time explaining the business side of things to me.  When it came time to discuss the goose control side of things he talked to me about work ethic and effort.

    This seemed like common sense to me. However, Pete drove this thought home with both passion and warning. The phrase that stood out the most to me was "Goose Control is a war of attrition, and I always win".   Not until I secured my first account did I actually know what he meant.  Our initial account had a large goose problem. Geese droppings surrounded this upscale retirement/assisted living complex. The property is about 10 acres with a pond, several buildings and next to a high school soccer and baseball field.  

    Putting predatory pressure on geese with a dog is relatively easy. We give our dogs a command, they run out to the geese and return when they fly off.  However, geese are not dumb. They are actually very smart. It is not easy to predict what they will do. They will test a dog to see how far he will run and how persistent he is. Sometimes geese will only fly about 25 yards away and wait to see if the dog continues the chase.  In large open areas I have seen geese do this 3 to 4 times before they finally get the message and leave the area completely.  Geese will also fly, or if close, run to the nearest body of water for safety. Depending on the size of the body of water, we can employ several different tactics.  Our options are swim dogs, RC Boats, John boats, Bird Bangers and high powered lasers.  Geese will then fly or move from one side of a lake to the other and back again.  Hence the chasing part of the business.

    It is up to the handler to properly direct the dog and use his or her other goose control methods to convince the geese they should go elsewhere.  This quite frequently takes 5 minutes or in some cases 50 minutes.  This is where the "war of attrition" comes in to play.  This is where we have set ourselves apart from other goose control companies.  

    This year we were hired to take over an account from a large goose control chain.  The reason the Park District decided to look elsewhere was because there were 20 geese this company could not get rid of even though they had addled 6 to 8 nests every year and hazed geese every day. This is a 15 acre lake with 40 homes around it.

Surveying the area for bidding purposes, we found a lot of goose droppings, ALL OVER! In yards, on the beach, on piers, on a basketball court and on paths.  It looked like they had no goose control. Yet they were paying a very reputable company good money for a service and not getting a whole lot in return. 

These geese were making themselves at home.( pictured below)

  After sharing our references with the Park District and our pricing, they took a chance on us because and I quote " Things are getting pretty stale with this other company and we are not seeing the results."   

    It took us about a week to get rid of most of the geese. Then, another week to convince the others it was time to go.  It took a lot of effort and work in those two weeks. We chased geese from bank to bank, from beach to yard and back again. We chased in the morning we chased in the afternoon and we chased them at night.  We chased these stubborn geese with RC boats, with our dogs swimming after them, with dogs running after them and staring them down.  It was a "war of attrition" we did not and would not lose. (Thanks Pete!) 

    Through the spring we were complimented on our work by many residents. We heard comments like, "Best ever", "What did you do with the Geese?", " You are doing a good job".  We would occasionally even get the Thumbs Up by passersby.

    Not long after servicing the account, I saw an ad for one of these high volume goose control companies for help. The ad requested people who had good driving records and loved working with animals.  Really?  Both are necessary but how about employees who have a good work ethic, are self driven, know how to work a dog, have a desire to reduce human and wildlife conflicts,  and do not like to lose.  I think this is where we shine. We work and work hard with our dogs.  Higher volume goose control companies set up people that have good driving records with a dog and instruct them to visit a lot of accounts every day. This is why we won this account and will continue to win more. It is a war of attrition, we will not lose! We take the time to service accounts properly because we are not on a time schedule and take it personally when geese show up on one of our accounts. Our hard work, CERTIFIED Goose Management training at the National Wildlife Control Operators Association and our love of what we do with our Australian Shepherds sets us apart.

    One other thing, our goose control methods were so effective we did not have to addle any eggs or destroy any nests. The geese found out that our handlers and dogs would not quit until they left for good. For 6 to 8 pairs of geese to nest there year after year previously, they had to feel pretty comfortable that the lake they chose was  a nice safe place to  raise their young. Not any more. This community will be enjoying a goose free summer thanks to the efforts of Rescue Me Goose Chasing, Canine Goose Control. We Get Rid of Geese .  .  .  FAST!

DIY Dog Leashes

Do It Yourself Dog Leash 

    We do make our own dog leashes.  There are a number of reasons.  We can choose the color of the leash we want. We can make the length of the leash any size to fit our many training and working situations. We can customize the handle and type of hasp we use to connect to our dogs collars.

    Making a leash does not take any particular skill.   On a scale of 1-10 in terms of difficulty I would give it a 2. 


Time to complete: 30 Minutes

Materials needed:

1/2" polypropylene rope in your desired color ( Menards/Home Depot etc.)
Swivel hasp to attach to the dogs collar 
Electrical tape
Heat shrink tubing 1-1/8" (electrical aisle) 6" long
Kitchen stove top burner / heat gun
Scissors
Tape Measure

1.) Cut the rope to your desired length. 

2.) Remove the shrink tubing and cut it in half

2.a.) Your rope ends will look like this.

3.) Slide one piece of the tube over the end of the rope.

4.) Turn on your exhaust fan above your stove.
Take each end of the rope and hold it over your oven burner
until it starts to melt and catches a small flame.

5.) The melted ends should look like this. It will stop your
rope from fraying at the ends. Let them cool for a couple minutes.
If you touch them you will get melted polypropylene on your hand
and it will not come off until it cools. OUCH!

6.) We use these swivel hasps. They are cheap and durable.

7.) Slip your hasp onto the rope and leave about
4 inches exposed to secure it in place.

8.) Using electrical tape, tightly wind it around both
strands of rope to secure the hasp in place.

9.) Wrap the tape around tightly about 3 times
It should be just short of the length of shrink
tubing that is on your rope.

10) Slide the Shrink tube up the rope to cover the
electrical tape up. 

11.)  Hold the shrink tubing above your burner about 6-8 inches.
If your fingers are too hot you are too close. The tubing needs
just a little heat to shrink. Rotate it every 15 seconds until
it is very tightly shrunk to the rope.
This should take only 1- 1.5 minutes 

12.) The finished heat shrunk end should look like this.
The tube, tape and rope will shrink together and should
ooze some clear glue like material. Just don't touch it!
It is hot stuff!



Now let's do the handle end

13.) Slide your other half of the shrink tube over the unfinished end.

14.) Make a loop that you feel comfortable with using.
It could be any size. Use the electrical tape to temporarily
test different handle sizes.

15.) Tape your handle up the same way as we did the
hasp end. Make sure it is a bit smaller than the piece of
shrink tubing you are using.

16.)  Slide the Shrink tubing up to the handle and cover the
electrical tape.  Then proceed to the burner as we did above
and shrink the tubing using the heat from the burner.
Again, let it cool and do not touch the shrink tube!

17.)  You now have a completed, customized dog leash!



Now you can take your dog for a walk and when someone asks "Hey where did you get that nice leash ?"
You can brag and say I did it myself!


COSMO AND SPARKY SAY "ENJOY YOUR LEASH BY
TAKING YOUR DOG FOR A WALK!"

Balaenoptera Musculus RC Boat Review - 0 stars

Balaenoptera Musculus RC Boat Review 

    One of the more challenging aspects of getting geese to leave an area is when they go to water. Canada Geese will run or fly to nearby water, immediately, when they feel threatened by our dogs.  As goose control professionals we cannot leave the geese there because they will return to the land they left and feel safe.  We have several methods of getting the geese out of the water depending on location, time of day and the size of the body of water.

    One of our techniques is to use Remote Control Boats.  Geese are afraid of them.  One boat we have tried is the Balaenoptera Musculus RC Boat.  It is relatively inexpensive, $36 - $70 depending on who is selling it on ebay or elsewhere.

    This boat is relatively fast, runs a bit loud and has a tail of water that streams from it's dual propellers.  We originally had thought these were going to work out well.  However, you get what you pay for.

    

  We purchased two of these for use in ponds and lakes.  Initial use was OK and they got rid of the geese. However, they frequently stall in the water.  Thinking that it was the flimsy antenna falling in the water we supported the antennas by sliding a small straw over them.  They ran a bit longer but still stalled every now and then. They leak water inside and this may be the issue. battery, motors etc get soaked. The lid is not waterproof.   So the routine became: turn on and off the remote a couple times, bang on it with your hand or just wait and it would restart. (Patience) 

Just in case we damaged a boat, lost a battery or broke a remote control, we purchased a third as a back up. 

Stranded Musculus Boat,!

    In our line of business, we do not have time to dilly dally with poor craftsmanship. The third boat we received would only go about 10 yards in the water and stop.  Then it became take off your shoes, socks and roll up your pants, wade into the murky pond (get black feet, yuck) and retrieve the boat.  Using  one of these boats late one evening, I had to leave it in the middle of a lake overnight and retrieve it the next morning during daylight hours.  They were so unreliable we put our phone numbers on the bottom so if someone found it stranded, they could call us and return it.

     We purchased these boats though a company called http://store.hermanstreet.com/. We contacted them to return the defective non running boat and were told to contact the manufacturer. They could and would not help us. Herman Street would not even do a return refund.  We contacted  http://rcfishingworld.com/ who Herman Street purchases the boats from and got no response.  

    Needless to say our experience with these boats is poor. I would not recommend buying one based on our experience. You get what you pay for.  If you do buy one, look for a store that has good customer support because more than likely you will buy one that does not work and may need to return it. 

    Many hobbyist reviewers like this boat because of its hull but they rebuild it with better motors and controllers. We chose to buy a different boat and will review it next. 

    You can also search problems with these boats like here:    http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/speed-electric/10339548-please-help-noob-balaenoptera-musculus-print.html

Hope this review helps you out.

Rescue Me Goose Chasing Company Video

This is our first white board type video.  We used a free 7 day trial of VideoScribe to produce it. It is fairly intuitive and easy to navigate around. Importing pictures is easy. It took a couple tries to produce it in a way that it flowed nice from screen to screen but we managed.

I like the way we were able to use it to explain what we do and how it works.

Please give it a watch and tell us what you think.

Thanks,

Your RMGC Team!

Goose Control White Board

    To us, and our dogs, the goose control business seems second nature.  But it only seems that way because we put in a lot of hard work, training and education.  How it works is not always easy to explain.  It is probably the number one question we get when we first visit a client's property and meet them.

    Usually their second question is, "How do you make it look so easy?! We have been trying to get rid of them for years."

    This is where I usually launch into my hyper information overload mode and try to explain everything under the sun about goose control, herding dogs, ducks and sheep :-) .   About 30 seconds in, I can see the glazed look in the listeners eyes telling me I have gone too far.

    Well no more!

Follow the link below to our new RMGC Explainer video!

Watch and leave us your comments.

Thanks!

The RMGC Team


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW0ySi_V33I

Goose Control Product Reviews.

  Through the course of our client dealings, we have found that people try to get rid of geese on their properties on their own.  Clients say that they have tried this or that and it did not work to get rid of the geese.  Sometimes the reason what they tried did not work was a result of not using 'it' properly or using something that boasts false or unsubstantiated claims.

  So we will be reviewing some goose control products that are on the market.  We will let you know how to properly use them, what to expect and how well they work.

Stay tuned for our Product reviews.

Our first review is regarding dog cut outs, 3D fake coyotes and cardboard coyotes as pictured below.
We get calls from people who have tried these fakes to no avail.  They have mean looks, glaring stares or in some cases, just a black shadow with an id tag.

The reason they do not work is because they are stationary. Geese are smart and are not fooled by imitations of a real working dog.  Initially geese may be wary. But eventually they learn that the figure on the lawn does not move when they land or react when they fly above.



Here a gosling is not old enough to realize what a threat is. So when it walks up to an effigy and the effigy does not move, it tells the adult geese it is safe.  There's no fear plastic dog is here!
Another good example is of very protective adult geese with their goslings feeding next to these effigies. We see these driving around our route all the time.

Left:  This customer called and had a pair of aggressive geese chasing employees going to and from work.  Unfortunately the cardboard coyote could not chase the geese! These geese even nested on the roof above.  The male goose is shown here attacking his reflection in the window. He was more concerned about his reflection as a threat to his survival than the cardboard coyote.

Right:  Here is picture from Maverick Detection Services. This is a black cut out of a German Shepherd. It has a very scary ID tag on it.  The many geese surrounding him are wondering why he is there and why his owner has not claimed him. Hopefully he has a chip implanted so he can go back into storage.

There are countless images like this we could post from our experience and others.  Most people spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on various products that do not work prior to calling us to get the geese out.  Once our customers see our goose control dogs in action they say, "Well that was easy!"  Well it is easy because the geese fear for their safety and lives. It is a natural instinct to survive and stay where it is safe.  Once geese realize their on unsafe grounds, they will move somewhere else. We call this putting predatory pressure on the geese.

Our methods are safe, proven and quickly effective. Nothing beats the look and fear of a real predator on your property to get rid of geese.  Our methods are PeTA and HSUS approved and endorsed.  We are Certified Goose Management Professionals and members of the Wildlife Control Operators Association.  We use highly trained Australian Shepherds to put pressure on geese to leave.

CLICK here to read more about us!

The Start of RMGC

  My experience with Comet over the year I had him was educational, frustrating and sad.  I learned an enormous amount about training a fearful dog. I learned a lot about a dog's body language and the different signals a dog will give before he or she lashes out.  Over the years I think quite a bit about him and the relationship we had. He was devoted to me but only me in our home and out. He was a one person dog. The rescue felt he would do better in a single person home with no kids.   We spent an enormous amount of time together on walks, running errands in the car and at training lessons.  He loved the Walky Dog.  It is a snap on attachment to a bike with a spring loaded leash on it. Actually a neat idea. It keeps your dog a good distance from your bike and he can run along side you.  Comet would just run as fast as he could for about 3/4 of a mile.  He had such a strong prey instinct he would pull me as fast as he legs could go when cars past by trying to catch them.

    On occasional walks we would come across a flock of geese around a small pond near our home.  It is a half completed subdivision so there were times there were geese and no people.  Comet had a good recall so I could let him go and he would run out chase the geese away and return.  At the time I though nothing more of it than a way for him to expend some of his Aussie energy.  It was a game he seemed to enjoy and I got a rush watching him do it.  Upon the return of Comet to the Aussie Rescue, they felt that I had done so much for him that they would allow me to adopt another dog, should I desire, in the future at no cost.

Cosmo

   I guess it was the following January that I got the Aussie bug again. Cosmo was a cute Red tri Aussie we discovered and decided to adopt. After a year of obedience training and Comso's excellent recall, we began the game again of chasing geese off a local property for fun.  People would routinely ask us to chase geese from their yards when they saw us walking by as they had seen Cosmo do his thing for fun.

  It was by chance I had mentioned this to a friend of mine who replied that his brother in law uses dogs to  get rid of nuisance Canada geese on the east coast.  His name is Pete Rizzo and his company Hudson Valley Wild Goose Chasers  was doing quite well. After a few informative phone calls with Pete I felt Cosmo was a good fit to be a goose chasing dog.  So it was often that we would visit this neighborhood property to test and hone our goose chasing techniques.  We could not do it too often because the geese would leave and not come back.  So Cosmo and I would set up a routine where we could visit enough to practice but not enough to lose our training geese.  We took sheep herding lessons to fine tune our skills and commands. Soon the geese caught on to us and left. That is when we started looking for other areas to practice that had geese.

    It was in the fall of 2011 that I decided to make the leap and start a goose control company. We chose the name Rescue Me Goose Chasing.  It has a couple meanings. The firs is that we are using Cosmo, a rescue dog, to start with. Second, we are rescuing people and places from the nuisance geese that are ruining their grass, curb appeal and outdoor experience.