NORTH LITTLE ROCK, AR -- At Burns Park, you were more likely to see Canada geese than a bucket of golf balls. That's until Heck and Bud sent them on their wings.
"They tried to get in the pond. They thought that was safety but the pond's not big enough. The dogs put too much pressure on them they had to leave," said Gary Westbrook, owner of Lose-a-Goose.
Heck and Bud are Border Collies who will save the park from littered waste and aggressive geese who are protecting their nests. The dogs don't bark or bite, but their presence intimidates the geese and they'll remember Burns Park is not the place for them.
Westbrook said the dogs apply pressure to the birds by just running toward them.
Using the dogs is a stark alternative to what city leaders originally planned. They had called for a hunt to kill the geese, but people like Scott White voiced opposition to it and demanded a more humane way to scare the geese away.
"A hunt would have been faster and cheaper but the right thing to do might not always be the cheap and easy thing to do," said White, a member of Coalition to Save the Geese."
It'll take some time for the birds to get the message, but Westbrook said Heck and Bud are good at what they do.
"When they fly over this golf course or any of these parks, they see a big black X that says we can't go there," said Westbrook.
