25 Highlights in 25 Weeks: Highlight #9 – Pepper The Dog

Pelican Lakes Resort & Golf turns 25 on July 12, 2024! To celebrate, we are listing the top 25 moments in Pelican Lakes’ history. These events are not ranked and highlight the biggest events, features, and happenings at the distinguished 27-hole facility in Northern Colorado.

Blog 8 out of 25: Pepper, The Goose Chasin’ Dog

Pepper is the most popular employee at Pelican Lakes Resort & Golf in Windsor, CO.

She has never swung a club, nor has she repaired a divot. When she observes your golf swing, she’s not sure if you’re keeping it on the appropriate plane, nor does she know anything about chinch bugs or manganese.

She may be the only golf course employee who is a professional in something other than the sport of golf.  

A running joke around the pro shop is that Pepper, a nearly 10-year-old dog, wins Employee of the Month, every month, mostly because she never complains, is always reliable and never takes a sick day.

“Pepper’s highly proficient in G, but not the G as in ‘golf,’” said Pelican Lakes Head Golf Professional Kevin Cohrs. “The G she’s skilled at is ‘geese’ because she’s a trained goose chaser.”

What Pepper lacks in golf ability and knowledge, she makes up for in cunning, intimidation, stealth, and speed.

In October of 2016, Pelican Lakes hired the black-and-white border collie from Utah when she was 3 years old to assist with the course’s menacing goose problem. Pepper was purchased from Tim Eubank’s Denver-based Zero Geese company. Tim’s company “provides humane and affordable geese clearing.”

Pepper was originally trained as a ranch dog, but instead thrived on running down any animal with wings and webbed feet.

Since Pepper’s employment, the number of geese droppings and other damage to the turf at Pelican Lakes has decreased significantly.

“Since we got her, the geese that spend the winters here have quickly learned there’s a predator and that they’re not welcome,” said Cohrs.

Northern Colorado is home to thousands of migratory Canadian geese, and most golf courses and parks in the area are home to these transients.

Several times a day, every day, Pepper sits shotgun in a cart with a golf course employee as they traverse the paths on our 27 holes. She only exists the cart when geese do not vacate the turf, and that’s when her hunting skills fully engage.

“Pepper operates off a bunch of commands,” said Cohrs. “She mostly doesn’t need to get out of the cart because the geese know she’s there, and don’t want to mess with her.”

Even when Pepper is not around, once the native geese see or hear a golf cart approaching, they furiously fly away for fear that she will be sprinting toward their direction.

“The geese don’t like Pepper,” said Cohrs.

The geese might not like our goose-chasin’ dog, but everyone who’s met her adores her presence.

During the summer months she spends time behind the pro shop counter, so next time you’re in our shop, please say hello.