Retraining Type-A Dogs to Collar Careers in a Post-Agrarian Society

Retraining Type-A Dogs to Collar Careers in a Post-Agrarian Society
By: Jane Costello
Staff Writer

Thursday, June 10, 1999
Section: Marketplace

Nicholas Carter is teaching an old breed some new tricks. As the director of Border Collie Rescue, an animal shelter in Melrose, Fla., he has made it his business to find creative ways for abandoned border collies to earn their keep

The dogs - black and white, and 30 to 60 pounds - are a different breed from Lassie. "Border collies are obsessive-compulsive workaholics, " says Dr. Carter. "They really need equally intensive owners. Someone who wants to spend hours playing competitive-level Frisbee with his dog and has a few sheep hanging around the backyard would be ideal."

Dr. Carter's solution? A training course called Birdstrike that enables him to place his most obsessive dogs in jobs where their herding skills will pay off for owners of businesses beset by birds.

Over the past four years, Border Collie Rescue has placed hundreds of dogs in full-time jobs rounding up fowl at golf courses, corporate office parks and airports, and Dr. Carter is training more than 20 more for the program now. Employers pay Border Collie Rescue a $150 adoption fee, plus the cost of training the dog for a specific list of job requirements.

During the past few months, Dr. Carter has also received inquiries from fish farms. Doug Hodges, who helps manage Florida Fish Farms in Center Hill , Fla., has placed an order for a dog to help stop the feeding frenzy taking place at his heavily stocked ponds. He estimates the farm loses $100,000 of inventory each year because of waterfowl run amok.

"Hopefully, the dog will harass them enough so they just stay in trees," he says. "We don't want to hurt the birds - we just want them to be looking over their shoulders."

Dr. Carter says he's also negotiating to place two dogs at Vancouver Interna-tional Airport. The airport provides the ideal work environment, he says, because there are millions of birds everywhere. "It's in the middle of a flyway, next to a bird sanctuary and next to the ocean," he says enthusiastically.

Officials at Wait Disney World recently contacted the program about getting a bor der collie to assist them with the park's "vulture problem," Dr. Carter says. "The birds just swoop down and rip open peo- ple's backpacks. That might not happen if a border collie was on patrol."

But a Disney spokesman says the park won't be needing the collie after all. It's in the process of closing the bird sanctuary that was a prime attraction for the vultures.