Blog

Wel­come Quinn, Newest Mem­ber of Gov­er­nors Island’s K9 Team

May 18, 2017 3:03 pm

Many of you know and love Max, Gov­er­nors Island’s trusty work­ing dog. Max plays an impor­tant role in mak­ing the Island’s 90+ acres of open space enjoy­able for humans by chas­ing flocks of Cana­da Geese, and serv­ing as the offi­cial greeter for the hun­dreds of thou­sands of vis­i­tors com­ing off the fer­ry each sea­son. Now that the Island is open to the pub­lic ear­li­er this year and will soon be open year-round, Max’s job has got­ten even bigger!

While Max has been a star employ­ee, we thought he could use some extra help. With that, we are thrilled to wel­come the newest mem­ber of the Island’s K9 work­ing dog squad, Quinn! Quinn is a one year old res­cued female Bor­der Col­lie who was adopt­ed just this week by our VP for Arts and Cul­ture, Mered­ith John­son. Quinn will live with Mered­ith and her fam­i­ly, but will work close­ly with six year old Max and his own­er Jim Reed, our Direc­tor of Park and Pub­lic Space. Quinn has already begun the process of train­ing with Jim and Max, and has nat­ur­al herd­ing instincts! While she will stay on a leash for the first few months of her employ­ment, she will soon begin going on patrol like a pro.

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, Max and Quinn will 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. Like Max, Quinn was adopt­ed from our friends at Mid Atlantic Bor­der Col­lie Res­cue Pro­gram in Mary­land (http://​www​.mabcr​.org).

Bor­der Col­lies tend to be type ​“A” per­son­al­i­ties that require chal­leng­ing jobs in order to be hap­py dogs. They love train­ing, rules and order, and they are well tem­pered, won­der­ful companions.

Here on Gov­er­nors Island Max and Quinn will work togeth­er and in shifts, with Quinn learn­ing com­mands and watch­ing Max’s patrols, allow­ing you to pic­nic, play ball and enjoy our new park spaces with­out hav­ing to wor­ry about goose waste. While the Island does­n’t allow pets with the excep­tion of ser­vice ani­mals, our work­ing dogs Max and Quinn are friend­ly and are great with peo­ple. Max is always in his ​“Work­ing Dog” uni­form, and Quinn will wear her ​“In Train­ing” vest as she gets up to speed. Feel free to stop and say hi when you see them on the Island this summer!

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