Tecumseh training dogs to scare geese away from Lakewood Park
The Town of Tecumseh is using highly trained dogs to scare away legions of geese in hopes of returning the land to residents who are tired of slipping on more than just ice.
“Over the last number of years, the geese population has obviously
— we’re not the only ones to see — has increased dramatically,” said Paul Anthony, the town’s parks and recreation director.
“With that comes issues. We have a number of walkways in the park that are consistently covered in goose droppings. It’s manpower intensive to try to keep it clean and acceptable to the residents, who have expressed concern of the constant mess. They’re having to tiptoe around the mess.”
The town has enlisted Apollo, Archer, Aura, Brigid, Celeste and Evelyn from Leamington’s Caora Border Collies to “disrupt” the geese so they’ll move on and people can enjoy the park “free of goose droppings.”
Anthony said the steadily increasing number of geese in the park, and their poop, has become more than just a nuisance.
“You can go by there and there could be 500 geese, 600 geese at different times throughout the park,” he said.
“You can imagine what 600 geese would do to a walkway.
“The geese, if you’re in the park, become very comfortable. They don’t walk away, and we’ve got families in those parks.”
One or two dogs at a time will be in the park daily at different hours for the next three months.
The dogs are being deployed now to prevent geese from nesting in the park in the spring.
Anthony said the geese will eventually go elsewhere to avoid the dogs.
“When they start to come back to nest, before they set up their nesting it disrupts them and makes them understand that it’s not an area that they would really want a habitat in,” he said.
When the three months are up, town officials will review the results to determine if they need to continue using the dogs throughout the summer and fall.
Tecumseh considered several different options to do battle with the geese before settling on the canine conscripts. Anthony said dogs have been used successfully at golf courses and parks in other cities.
“Geese do adapt,” he said. “This option is one that has proven successful in other locations. They become comfortable with some of the other stuff — noise makers, fencing, silhouettes of dogs that blow in the wind and make movement.”
When the dogs are on the job, there will be signs in the parking lots asking people not to interfere with them or their handlers. The town also wants residents to keep their own pets on leash.
The dogs, identifiable by their reflective vests, work off leash. They use a “stalk and stare” method to mimic wild predators and scare off the birds.
But they don’t touch the geese, goslings or nests. They herd the geese out of the area then circle back to their handlers.
Anthony said he has seen a demonstration and the results were impressive.
“I can tell you within 25 minutes they had the park, both the north side and the south side, cleared,” he said. “The geese moved to the water, and the dog will actually go into the water and move the geese farther out.
“Normally what you’ll see is geese will sit in the water and wait until they see their disruption is gone and then they will move back to the same locations.”