Goose-dog?

Holly has embarked on a possible new career today- as a goose-chasing dog (no, the picture above is not Holly, it’s another Border Collie seeing off a goose).

A friend of mine from the church is a personal trainer who works with a family that has a house right on Long Island Sound, just south of Rye Beach. Now people who live there have a huge problem with wild geese on their lawns- a nice, manicured lawn right by the water is just what a goose is looking for- and apparently no dog is better at seeing off geese than a Border Collie. Supposedly it has something to do with the way they move and look that makes geese see them as natural predators, more than other dogs.

Anyway, this family has been paying a service who come with 2 Border Collies every day and  do a quick loop of their property and charge quite a lot of money. My friend suggested that maybe I could come over every other day or so with Holly and see if she would do the same. So today I went over to meet them and see if this could work. Unfortunately, as it’s absolutely pissing down today, there were no geese to chase, but we chatted and then I went and roamed around their large property with Holly for about half an hour, threw a tennis ball for her, she swam from their beach, and we generally had a good romp around. We agreed that I would pop over at lunchtime every other day or so and we’ll see how it goes.

It won’t be as good exercise for me as tromping round Saxon Woods, but I figure if I can do this 2 or 3 times a week at lunchtime it will be a lot more convenient once it starts getting dark earlier, and with geese and/or a tennis ball to chase and the option of swimming until it gets too cold, I think Holly will enjoy it- and if she needs a little more we can do the short loop at Saxon Woods or have a run at the park as well on those days. We didn’t discuss money- I had said we should see how it goes and if it works in a few weeks they can give me something if they want to- but access to a huge yard with a private beach less than 5 minutes away is worth it in itself!

We’ll see how it goes once there are actually geese to chase…