Airport’s new goose-chasing dog a ‘Maverick’

BENTONVILLE — The new goose-chasing dog for the Bentonville Municipal Airport has a name.

“Maverick” was selected from more than 300 entries the city received through Facebook and email last month, said Debbie Griffin, community relations and economic development director. More than 60 respondents submitted the name Maverick, Griffin said. There were 103 names suggested, she said.

The city bought Maverick from Flyaway Geese, a North Carolina company that trains border collies to disperse geese and other birds. The male border collie is being trained by Flyaway Geese, and the handler needs to use the dog’s name in training, Griffin said.

Flyaway Geese owner Rebecca Gibson said Monday the dog the city will receive is the offspring of Greg, the dog now helping train handler Robin Fields at the Bentonville airport. The dog went by the name “Baby G,” Gibson said. It can take two to four weeks for a dog to get used to its new name, she said.

“He looks and acts like his daddy,” Gibson said. “It will be an easy transition for them.”

Maverick’s anticipated May arrival has been pushed back to mid- or late June because of the coronavirus pandemic, Gibson said.

The dogs are used at airports, city parks, golf courses and military bases, Gibson said. Flyaway Geese has sold between 500 and 600 dogs over the past 23 years, she said.

The airport has had problems with geese for a number of years. The birds are a safety hazard for planes coming and going at the airport. The geese become a concern when they wander near the runway or fly near planes taking off or landing, city transportation engineer Dennis Birge has said.

About 183,296 wildlife strikes to civil aircraft were reported in the United States and for U.S.-registered aircraft in foreign countries from 1990-2016, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Airport Wildlife Hazards Program report published in June 2018.

The goal is to drive the geese away and not kill them, Birge has said. Using a border collie is the humane way to manage the geese, Gibson said.

City officials have used a variety of methods to deter the geese with varying degrees of success, including decoys and harassing them with noise, Birge said.

Falconry was examined but is cost-prohibitive, Birge said. Officials discussed applying for a state permit to kill the geese but dropped the idea.