Dog Solutions Pest Control

03/27/2026

The dogs and I were recently hired at a new facility that had had major issues with geese at a past location.

They were wise to hire us to make sure the geese didn't get into the habit of nesting on their new property. This pair of geese weren't quite sure what to make of the dogs choosing to launch a sea based attack on them and wisely chose to leave.

In less than two weeks the amount of geese visiting was reduced from over 60 geese making a mess all over the property, to averaging less than 2 a day. And when 2 land they choose to stay near the ponds and out of the way of customers and employees until the dogs and I return to remind them this location is off limits. We'll continue services throughout the nesting season until we go a week straight without seeing any geese (for most properties that seems to be the magic amount of time to be sure the geese have truly moved on for the season).

With these geese now trained, it just takes the fun out of it for the dogs. They're looking for their next challenge. If your business is having issues with geese, the dogs would love to solve your problem too.

Many people are convinced they have to live with Canadian Geese attacking people and making messes of their properties. I promise, you don't.

03/24/2026

When I got Tenacity, she was never intended for goose control.

She decided she was pretty good at it and now she joins me every day. I've had customers make fun of my little 13 lb dog on the job site. That's okay. A different 13 lb dog years ago was who gave me the confidence to start Dog Solutions Pest Control before I had the "right" dog.

Terriers are the reason for the phrase "it's the size of the fight in the dog, not the size of the dog in the fight." And as Tenacity proves with this pair of geese, she's got more confidence than they do.

Now if only I could get her to swim reliably. Right now Tenacity decides when she's going to swim after geese, and I can never predict when that will be.

03/13/2026

What a fun two weeks it has been! Talking about bed bugs, non stop. If you didn't get enough of it and want to read it again, or missed a post, feel free to check out the blog post where it is all compiled into one easy to share list!

https://dogsolutionspestcontrol.com/blog/the-whens-and-whys-you-should-hire-a-bed-bug-detection-dog-as-a-private-residence

03/12/2026

And finally!

Scenario 6: A friend/family member told me they had bed bugs and now I'm freaking out.

Bed bugs can seem like the flu and just knowing someone else has them can cause you to panic. Have you spent time in their home sitting around to give the bed bugs a chance to be brought home with you? Has your loved one come over to your house in the past few months and left belongings sitting around (like purses, jackets, shoes) while they visited? Do they live on the other side of the country and you haven't seen them in person in six months?

If the answer to the first 2 questions is yes, you might consider getting a bed bug inspection done. If the answer to the third one is yes, I would say chances are incredibly low they spread bed bugs to your home. You know your situation better than we do. We are happy to come in and confirm whether you have bed bugs, but someone you know having them does not mean you automatically will get them too.

03/11/2026

Scenario 5: I visited somewhere that had bed bugs. I'm not sure if any came home with me!

This is a highly recommended case to have a canine inspection done. Particularly if you do not know you are allergic to bites (which a decent minority of people are not). In this case a bed bug infestation could take weeks/months to become large enough you realize it is there. Catch the problem early and make treating it much easier.

03/10/2026

Scenario 4: I had some exterminators come in and treat my home. I want to confirm they are gone.

If they used heat treatments or fumigated, we can come in as soon as we can fit you in our schedule. If they used insecticides exclusively, or in addition to other treatments, we recommend waiting two weeks for us to come in. As with home treatment, this two week period is to give the insecticides plenty of time to kill off the bed bugs (after all, you care that they're dead, not dying), and also to make it less potent to our dogs inhaling it since they will be putting their noses directly where the insecticides were typically applied.

03/09/2026

New week, same topic! That's right, we're still talking when and if you should hire a bed bug dog.

Scenario 3: I had bed bugs and did some home extermination. I want to be sure the bed bugs are gone.

Home extermination is possible, but I caution against it depending on the method. If you used steam/heat and vacuuming. We can come in immediately.

If you used diatomaceous earth (DE), I recommend two weeks from when it was first put down and will require it be vacuumed and cleaned up well before allowing my dogs to search. I recommend two weeks to give the DE time to work and actually kill the bed bugs. It needs to be cleaned up because inhaling those particles can harm their lungs and mess with their sense of smell. The risk to people and pets isn't high, but since bed bug dogs will be purposefully inhaling where you put it (you put it down to stop bed bugs, and they put their noses in the most likely bed bug havens) and this is what they do for a living, they have a higher exposure risk. It needs to be cleaned up well before we work our dogs.

If you used bed bug bombs or some other poison, I recommend waiting two weeks. Many bed bugs are resistant to the main insecticide found in bed bug bombs so they often just make the problem harder to deal with. Bed bug bombs often just cause the bed bugs to hide deeper which makes them harder for the dogs to find. By waiting, we allow the bed bugs to come back out and increase the odds of our dogs finding them. If you used other poisons, sometimes they need time to work before they kill bed bugs. The answer you want is "are all the bed bugs dead?" to answer that, we need to give the poison time to kill them first. If we come in too early, the bed bugs might be in the process of dying, but our dogs will tell you they are still present triggering fear and possibly making you want to treat again. Give the insecticide time to work and get the most bang for your buck.

If you have covers over your mattresses, this is a great step to do but just know that if live bed bugs are trapped in there you might get an alert from our dogs. As long as the encasements are meant to trap in bed bugs, that's okay. The bed bugs will starve to death and won't be able to bite you.

03/06/2026

This week is devoted to the if's and when's of hiring a bed bug detection dog.

Scenario 2: I've found a bed bug in my house!

Feel free to send me a photo, and I'll confirm its really a bed bug at no charge. If it is, nope. I don't recommend a bed bug dog. YET. You may choose to bring us in anyway. Some people want to know the extent of the problem or cross their fingers and hope they got lucky and had just one. But my recommendation in this case is always to save the money, and go straight to an exterminator.

After you've had an exterminator come in and treat your home, THAT is when I recommend having us come in. And this is up to the individual. Do you have to have a bed bug dog come in after extermination? Absolutely not. But some people struggle to relax and believe it is truly over. For those people, a bed bug inspection with a trained canine can put their anxiety to rest. Since our dogs only find live bed bugs, we can confirm that the infestation is truly gone. Depending on the treatment method, I may recommend waiting a few weeks to ensure that the treatment had time to work and kill the bed bugs.

03/05/2026

While I would love to tell people that if they are worried about bed bugs in any context, they should hire a bed bug dog to come do an inspection, that just isn't true. Sometimes you don't need a bed bug dog. So the next two weeks is devoted to if and when you should consider hiring a bed bug detection dog.

Scenario 1: I'm getting bites, but can't find any bed bugs.

Bites are hard to diagnose, and if anyone tells you they can tell you that a bed bug for sure caused them, I would caution believing them. But this is a great scenario to bring in a bed bug dog if you are suspecting bed bugs as a possible culprit.

Be just as prepared to receive the news that you don't have them as you are to confirm your suspicions. It is surprisingly common for a bed bug dog to be called in and find nothing. I've often gotten updates that what were thought to be bed bug bites later turned out to be a newly developed allergy or some other insect. Because a bed bug dog only finds bed bugs, in these scenarios we can only help cross one item off the list. For many people, that peace of mind allows them to move on and find the real source of the problem.

03/03/2026

It's fairly common for people to reach out asking for advice. I thought I'd make it a little easier, and compile all my advice in one location.

Have a different question? Feel free to reach out and ask.

Occasionally I get emails asking for advice. I love to give it! But I figured if I was going to write the same thing over and over, I might as well make my life easier and get some free content for the blog at the same time. I'm not adding photos. Just enjoy the wall of text. Maybe your eyes will go...

02/20/2026

We spent the week going over why Canadian geese are aggressive, and what you can do about it. But if you'd like to see video examples, check out the link!

02/18/2026

So this week we've learned WHY Canadian geese attack. But is there anything you can do about it?

Yes. Have confidence. And if you can't have confidence, listen to your high school English teacher (or maybe that was just mine...) and "fake it until you make it."

When a goose goes to threaten any living thing they are looking for a very specific thing: a flinch.

If you flinch, you lose. They saw it. They know you're afraid, and they'll come after you. If you can just not flinch and continue on your path without slowing down, you'll find the geese will move out of your way and leave you alone. Because geese aren't stupid. They are well aware that you, a human, are much bigger than them.

They are also wild animals. Getting injured can be a death sentence thanks to infection. They don't want to get injured if they can help it. So they are not actually going to pick a fight with a creature that outweighs them 10 times and isn't afraid of them. Next time you are watching videos of geese attacking animals many times their size, watch for the flinch. You'll see it almost every time. From a goose attacking a tiger in a zoo to random men walking down a path. The goose bluffs a charge, the being they are threatening flinches, the goose graduates to actually attacking.

The exception to this rule is if you are actively raiding their nest or going after their babies (not just walking nearby). Then like any other animal with maternal and paternal instincts, some geese will risk their life to save their babies regardless of the odds. Because that's love.