1/4/06: Goose chasing begins

Luckily it wasn't all a dream and this is still a reality. Unfortunately so is waking up at 5:40 am. Thankfully I am still natrually high just from being here and adrenaline helps me to wake up with a lot energy. Ginger too, which is no surprise. I am surely going to be terrible at the part of this work that requires me to be up and coherent before the sun rises.

The first day entails a lot of training, listening, note taking and getting to know Jackie. She is a great person and a patient, experienced trainer. I can tell she really loves her job and especially her dog, Glynn. Ginger gets to see him do a lot of good work, but she wants to play with him more than pay attention to the work, which is okay for now. Glynn looks a lot like Merlin but is wild about chasing geese. Just like she is with Merl, Ginger is wild about chasing Glynn. At this early stage, I don't think she even sees the geese. We will work on a "look" command and practice that this week.

So we started at Belmont racetrack where they cleared 100 Brant from a pond. What's a Brant? I had no idea either. (I even thought the geese were called Canadian Geese for a while, ha, there is so much to learn.) Brant Gesse are a smaller, more pesky and difficult to work, version of a Canada Geese.

After working Belmont, which includes a hefty workout for us traversing the track and managing the dogs, we head up to the client sites in Westchester County, the area which I will be managing. The rest of the day is pretty low key with the exception of having 8 geese in the pond at Moragn Stanley whom were very stubborn. Glynn, Ginger, Jackie and I work hard to get them out to no avail. After a half hour of Glynn flanking the pond and the rest of us standing on opposite corners pressuring the birds we are about to give up. One last attempt includes loud noise making and us flanking the ponds gets them out. We cheer with excitement and feel very accomplished. Even though there weren't many birds to marvel at it was fulfilling to have our hard work pay off. And hilarious to be out there acting loud and obnoxious (good thing I have a lot of practice with this!) I used the lululullllllluuulllluuuu and lots of clapping. Jackie uses clapping, whistling and her vocals to roll her Rs which sounds like Bbbbrrrrrr bbrrbbrr brrrr. It was a powerful and rewarding experience.

Aftewards, we don't see many geese at the 2 schools on our route but have a lot of time to talk about birds, dogs, clients, city life and all the things in between. We decide to make a stop at Trader Joe's and Jackie graciously shows me the ropes. I realize she is a fast, smart shopper and Trader Joe's is a great store for affordable, organic staples.

What a day! We did a lot of driving which I think I am going to enjoy. It is very fast and aggressive! Seeing these dogs in action is an amazing sight. They are so focused and strong and they want nothing more than to work. I can tell there will be many many great experiences to come.

I'm tired, but join my neighors (Joe, Jackie, Dan and their hounds) for another delicious dinner: cocktails, vegetarian chili, wine and salad. We engage a lot of small talk, exchange dog plans and goose stories and talk about what's to come on day 2 of work. It is great fun and there is a lot to retain. My body is tired and my brain feels like a sieve.