Our Canine Crew

Through my entire 19-year tenure here at Aurora Country Club, I have had at least one dog patrolling the grounds in any given year. Although they are personal pets, these dogs have also been serving a very beneficial purpose for the club by chasing off geese. Although they also chase squirrels, foxes, hawks, and just about any other thing that moves, the geese are the primary reason for their presence here. We all have played a course that has a “goose problem”—the droppings can be overwhelming, and can create quite the mess. Many a locker room attendant has changed professions because of geese.

The breed of choice at Aurora Country Club is the Blue Heeler—an Australian native known for its intelligence in herding cattle and sheep by nipping at their hooves. Our first heeler was not a purebred—Dingo (R) was found on a beach in Florida and brought home in 1990, when she became the first “golf course dog” at ACC. She also began the tradition of “sprinkler biting,” and passed it along to Boomer (L), the second ACC heeler who joined us in 1995, coming from a dairy farm in Manhattan, IL.
           

Boomer (L) and Dingo (R)

Dingo enjoyed 15 great years on the grounds, taking her final tour of the course in the fall of 2005; and Boomer followed her to the doghouse in the sky in 2008, after breaking in the next generation of ACC heelers, Millie and Rooby—a pair of strays (our guess is that they were litter mates) found roaming the farm country around Mount Vernon in southern Illinois.

Millie (L) and Rooby (R)

Although they usually do their work very early, if you run across the dogs while you are enjoying a round, feel free to say hello—they are friendly and outgoing and really enjoy being around people.