KCFreePress.com

After 13 years spent working in sales — first medical, then mortgage — Dave Swickard was eager to find a different career that would allow him to spend more time outside. When a friend called after seeing geese safely removed from a Denver golf course, Swickard dispelled his initial skepticism with some Internet research and a meeting with Geese Police founder, David Marcks. After that, Swickard says, “the rest is history.” Now, Swickard spends his days visiting a variety of properties throughout the Kansas City area, safely removing geese using border collies.

KCFP: What is the Geese Police?

DS: It's a franchise out of New Jersey, started about 22 years ago. I bought a franchise from founder David Marcks and brought it here to Kansas City at the end of summer last year. My job is to show up on a certain account that has a goose problem, and I'll show up every day, seven days a week. I bring a border collie with me, and basically what we're trying to do is get the geese to lift. The border collie's natural instinct is to herd by using a stalking mechanism, and they also have a wolf-like glance, or what we call 'The Eye.' That stare, and the collie's behavior, influences the flock into flight or movement. In the goose's little mind, it perceives the border collie as a predator, or threat, so I use that predator/prey relationship to get the geese to think they're going to be eaten, when actually they will never be touched or harmed.

KFCP: How long do you typically spend at one property until the geese problem has abated?

DS: It takes me about six to eight weeks to re-pattern a goose, and what I mean by that is if they're on your property, if they've been there for a long time or have nested on the property, it takes me about that amount of time to get them to re-pattern themselves so they go elsewhere.

KCFP: Do all Geese Police franchises use border collies to re-pattern the geese?

DS: Everybody uses a border collie. The founder [David Marcks] was a former golf course superintendent and he tried just about everything, including different dogs. The intelligence and work ethic of the border collie is what made him keep coming back to that breed for this work.

The border collie gives that glance and that stalking mechanism, and those actions go back to a thousand years of predator/prey relationship. I get asked frequently where the geese go, and I'm not sure. They're lazy birds, and they'll go where they're unharmed. It could be miles away, or it could be across the street — it just depends.

KCFP: Are the border collies already trained when they arrive to you, or do you have to train them before you begin working?

DS: All of our dogs come already trained as open sheep trial dogs, and all of our dogs are specifically trained to what we do because they cannot take hold of the geese. Normally, when border collies are moving stock, there's a command you can give them that will cue them to bite the legs of an animal to get that animal to move. But because geese are federally protected, our dogs are trained not to do that. And any border collie that works with the Geese Police must be able to swim.

KCFP: What, in general, makes geese a nuisance for business or property owners?

DS: Each goose leaves a pound and a half of droppings per day. They graze about four pounds of grass a day and are specifically grazers. And once the goose begins eating, it takes seven minutes for the food to pass through a goose's system and leave as droppings. They're very efficient animals. Goose fecal material is not healthy for the public overall — it has a lot of nasty stuff in it.

KCFP: Do geese have a tendency to get aggressive if they're surrounded by a lot of people? And if so, does this pose a threat to a property's employees or residents?

DS: The reason they get aggressive is during the spring because they mate for life and the male protects the female while she lays her eggs and sits her nest. The female goose sits for 28 days without getting up, and the sunlight will tell her when it's time to leave the nest. During that time, the male guards her, so that's when they do become aggressive and when a lot of people have trouble with the geese because they nest and move closer to the buildings into areas where they're not welcome. Males will attack if they feel like someone is getting too close.

KCFP: Do people have a tendency to do anything else that proves harmful to geese?

DS: People feed them, and that's about the worst thing you can do for a goose. It causes diseases, results in toxins in lakes and a contaminated water supply, and if they eat enough of a food they're not supposed to, they won't be able to fly very well and can pass diseases on to other animals. It's so hard to enforce those regulations, but I try to discourage that behavior if I see someone feeding a goose.

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