CHARLOTTE, N.C.,None — Annette Hawks has to watch her step as she walks to her office at Bollag International off Orr Road.
“It's hopscotch!” she said as she tiptoed around the little piles left behind by a flock of Canada geese that have taken up residence on the company property that includes a small pond.
"It's a problem. It's a real big problem," Hawks said. She said they've tried everything from sprays to firing air guns to scare the birds, but nothing worked. So finally, they called -- you guessed it -- Goosebusters.
"We got goose, buddy. We got goose -- you ready?" Gary Travis asked his full-blooded border collie as the black-and-white dog bounced out of his car.
Travis owns Goosebusters 2, a local company that specializes in getting rid of geese. His aunt owns Goosebusters, and together the two have worked with their dogs to keep geese on the move around Charlotte.
Travis' dog, Mist, was raised in Georgia and trained in Virginia to herd geese and within seconds, she had chased the geese off the property at Bollag.
"It's called a harassment technique. And when you use a harassment technique, you're not actually harming the geese in any way. You're making them feel uncomfortable," Travis said.
Travis also has a contract to keep geese out of a municipal park in Davidson, where the geese have eaten so much grass that soil erosion has become a problem.
"We just got to get them out of areas because it's become such a nuisance (that) it's a problem," Travis said.