Blog

A New Mem­ber of the GI Work­ing Dog Pack

May 15, 2018 2:11 pm

From front to back, Max, Quinn and Chip

Meet Chip!

Gov­er­nors Island is thrilled to wel­come the lat­est mem­ber to our team of Work­ing Dogs. Chip is a 5 month old Bor­der Col­lie, and like Quinn and Max, he comes to us from the won­der­ful folks at Mid Atlantic Bor­der Col­lie Res­cue. Max turned 8 this month (Hap­py Birth­day, Max!) and we expect Chip to be hit­ting his stride as a goose dog in three years just as Max may be more inclined to enjoy the ham­mocks and flow­ers and Adiron­dack Chairs here on Gov­er­nors Island. 

Why does Gov­er­nors Island need work­ing dogs?

While Cana­da geese can be love­ly to look at, they leave a mess (they eat up to four pounds of grass a day and leave over a pound of waste per goose!), and can be aggres­sive toward peo­ple when they are nest­ing. To ensure the enjoy­ment and safe­ty of vis­i­tors, as well as the safe­ty of the geese, our work­ing dogs work to keep the geese off our lawns. Reduc­ing the goose pop­u­la­tion helps our over­all efforts to cre­ate wildlife habi­tats and increase eco­log­i­cal diver­si­ty on the Island in the form of terns, owls, kestrels, pere­grine fal­cons, song birds etc., as well as a vari­ety of flour­ish­ing plant life. 

Bor­der Col­lies are trained to herd and dis­cour­age the geese from hang­ing out, but they will nev­er harm the ani­mals. In fact, Bor­der Col­lies are rec­om­mend­ed by the New York State Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Con­ser­va­tion and the Humane Soci­ety due to their high­ly evolved herd­ing instincts. 

Fol­low our work­ing dogs’ adven­tures on Gov­er­nors Island on Insta­gram @GIWorkingDogs, and be sure to fol­low @GovernorsIsland for the lat­est updates on what’s hap­pen­ing this season.