Canine cop on patrol for geese at The Broadmoor

Three years ago, Beau sat in a holding cell, nearing a death sentence.

His behavior report - bites people, destroys things, terrorizes cats - didn't offer much hope for clemency.

Though a bit skeptical, Fred Dickman, The Broadmoor's director of golf course maintenance, bailed Beau out by paying the humane society's adoption fee of $75.

Turns out all the middle-aged troublemaker needed was a job.

Beau, a ruddy-colored Australian shepherd, daily earns his freedom by patrolling 600 acres of pristine grass, making sure to keep Canada geese - and, thus, their droppings - off the greens and fairways.

Beau's workload peaks in the winter when some 500 geese halt their migration at the five-star resort, but the 9-year-old will be on high alert leading up to next month's U.S. Senior Open. Dickman hopes Beau will annoy the 100 geese lingering on the course enough that they'll keep off the greens once play begins July 31.

It's a job considered so important that some golf clubs pay upward of $7,000 for a professionally trained goose dog. Beau's predecessor, a yellow Labrador named Pancakes, viewed chasing geese as pointless exercise when Milk-Bones and Purina chow - inanimate and delicious - existed.

"They aren't runners like these dogs," said Dickman, adding that Pancakes' name suited her laid-back personality.

Even before Dickman prods - "Where are the geese, Beau? You want to get the geese? Let's get 'em!" - Beau's eyes have locked in on a set of the squawkers sunning on the idyllic shores of a water hazard. His ears are perked, his body poised for action. He breaks into a dead sprint and the geese quickly retreat to the pond. With a satisfied look on his face, he prances back to the utility cart, slithers under Dickman's legs and takes his place in the passenger seat, awaiting his next assignment.

"His job's done," Dickman explained, noting the federally protected birds can't be harmed as they are shooed from the course. "He's not stupid. He won't keep chasing them once they're off the grass. As long as they're in the water, it's fine."

Unlike Beau, the border collies reared by top trainers Kent and Gwen Kuykendall of Franklinville, N.C., also patrol water traps, as they are trained to consider it part of their territory. There's an 18-month wait for a future graduate of the Kuykendalls' training program.

"Not every dog can be a goose dog," said Gwen, who trains border collies for livestock herding and agility contests but estimates that 90 percent of her business comes from golf course superintendents.

With her voice barely above a whisper, Gwen can prompt one of her border collies into action using two-word commands that are hard-wired through months of precise training, which begins at 2 weeks old and lasts until the dog is about 2 years old.

When Beau retires, Dickman said he will consider looking at professionally trained border collies because of their reputations, but will scout the pound for talent first.

"That would be my first choice," he said. "He's got more personality. He's under a lot of pressure and he wants the course to be perfect. He was only $75. That's a great investment."

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Contact the writer: 476-4803 or kate.crandall@gazette.com. Check out our Senior Open page at gazette.com/senioropen