NORTH LITTLE ROCK — Two border collies spent Thursday chasing all the geese from Burns Park, but officials say the effort will have to continue to rid the park of the waterfowl for good.
City officials have been seeking ways to thin or eliminate the population because the geese damage grass, dirty bike trails and create potential health and safety issues with their defecation.
A controlled hunt was originally slated for last month, but opponents rallied through online social media websites and convinced the city to rethink the plan.
The group agreed to help raise funds for other efforts, including hiring border collies to scare the geese off. That program began Thursday morning when Gary Westbrook, owner of a business specializing in geese-chasing, arrived with two of his dogs.
Westbrook said his border collies found the flock in a pond near the golf course, then chased them back and forth around Burns Park before they flew across the river and into Little Rock. The dogs don't actually bite or attack the geese, but chasing them effectively scares them off.
"That's what's going to happen for awhile," Westbrook said. "And then they'll decide they have to go somewhere else."
Westbrook, who is contracted for two months of work at $250 a day, said the geese would probably return by late Thursday afternoon and would certainly be back by Friday morning.
Keeping his dogs - Bud and Heck - chasing after them will eventually convince the geese not to think of Burns Park as a safe place to ever stay.
"That's what we're doing," he said. "[We're] changing the imprint of the geese to where they fly over this park they see a big black x that says 'we cant' stop here. Let's go somewhere else.'"
City Parks and Recreation Director Bob Rhoads said the city intends to buy its own border collie after the two-month period. It would chase off any geese that may try and return.
Rhoads said using the dogs will likely work, but it's only a matter of time before someone else tires of them and chases them elsewhere or perhaps even back to Burns Park.
"It's a good solution for North Little Rock," he said. "It's just where will the geese fly? Wherever they go, they're going to have the same problem."