Monday, July 28, 2014

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.


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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.