Dog-gone geese! Hazing can help

longmont» Katie, a 5year-old golden retriever, strained against her leash Friday evening, eager to chase away some Canada geese from Longmont’s valuable golf course grass.

Emma Massey, 11, let Katie off her leash and the dog straightened out into a blond arrow aiming straight for a smattering of the geese on Twin Peaks Golf Course.

The geese fled to sullenly float on the one of the golf course’s ponds and Katie trotted back to Emma, panting and with her special Longmont geese-hazing program vest askew.

Larry Mills, Longmont golf operations manager, said the program started in 2002 when the City Council approved an ordinance that allows dogs to be off-leash in certain areas of the city to chase off geese.

The geese are problematic for the golf courses and parks with water features because they eat the grass and annoy golfers or parkgoers, Mills said.

“The number is astronomical. They hang out on parks and golf courses,” Mills said. “They eat the grass all the way down to the soil and dig holes on the putting greens.

“We get a number of complaints from golfers who don’t want to wade through feces when they play golf.”

The city is allowed to haze geese Aug. 1 through March 31, avoiding the geese nesting and molting season.

Mills said there are about 30 dogs enrolled in the program. Each dog gets a dogsized orange vest.

Handlers get an orange vest and ID card so if animal control is called for an offleash dog they know the dog is doing its civic duty annoying geese.

Emma’s mother, Kris, said the program has been beneficial. “I’m so excited Longmont has this and is so dogfriendly.”

Mills said he could use some more participants in the geese-hazing program.

“It’s only effective if there’s constant hazing. In other words, if a dog chases them once in a while, the geese get aware of it,” Mills said. “It’s somewhat effective, but we’re not getting the constant geese hazing we’re after.”