Supply - The fish buffet is hopefully now closed.

The aquaculture ponds at Brunswick Community College have long been a bird's delight– shallow and often teeming with catfish and other species, they make easy pickings to the dismay of students and staff who can only watch their crops disappear.

In a bad year, large cormorants and other birds can eat all but 5,000 of the 40,000 catfish grown by students, said Doug Holland, the facility's director.

Now the school has a new weapon – very much of the non-lethal variety – in the battle to keep cormorants, herring, egrets and other birds from feasting away on their labors.

Chad Gray, the aquaculture facility's operations manager, spent the weekend with Lilly, a 3-year-old border collie and the fish farm's greatest and cutest hope to keep its stock. The pair attended a seminar at the college that attracted people across the country to learn about how to use dogs to keep birds away.

The problem is hardly unique to the specialized world of fish farmers. Golf courses, airports and corporate campuses everywhere are also in constant struggles with birds and their mess, said Rebecca Ryan, who organized the seminar.

Ms. Ryan also runs Flyaway Farm and Kennels, a Brunswick County company that specializes in training and contracting border collies for the work.

Border collies are a natural and humane choice for the job, she said. They love to work and their low stalking posture looks wolf-like to the alarmed birds, who never lose their fear of the dogs like they do of loud noises. And unlike retrievers, border collies don't want to catch the birds, she said.

But even naturals still need training, said Ms. Ryan, who organized the seminar as a way to build standards in the growing industry. Somebody who doesn't do a good job only sours it for those that do, she said.

The weekend was time and money well spent for Joe Jamison, the superintendent of Crow Creek golf course in Calabash, which like many courses suffers from an abundance of Canada geese, defecating on the course, gorging on the grass and occasionally trying to attack golfers.

Several months ago, Mr. Jamison bought a border collie puppy that was an instant success chasing the birds. But then the problems began, he said. It wouldn't come back or would do circles around golf carts or chase a mower.

"I just had to accept it was a bad idea," said Mr. Jamison who sent the puppy to be trained and also bought a 3-year-old already schooled.

A dog trained for golf courses costs between $3,500 and $5,000, Ms. Ryan said. Airport dogs, which need a high to want to chase even the smallest birds, cost between $6,500 and $10,000. She donated Lilly to Brunswick Community College.

At the weekend seminar, Mr. Jamison learned one of his early mistakes was having his puppy follow him around the course as he used his golf cart, inadvertently training the dog for bad habits.

Other common mistakes stem from ignorance of bird biology, said Ms. Ryan, whose contracts with the federal government to patrol military airports in Delaware and South Carolina run well over $100,000 a year each, she said.

People don't realize geese molt after their eggs hatch and can't fly away even if 100 dogs run at them. Wildlife managers need to use technique like shaking eggs to prevent hatching, she said.

Problems with birds are increasing as people continue to build ideal feeding habitats like golf courses that have good grass and open areas to keep an eye on predators, said Maggie Brasted, of the Humane Society of the United States who came from Washington to attend the gathering.

The birds aren't just a nuisance, they can be a real danger said Rebecca Haggie, who patrols Southwest Florida International Airport with Radar, a collie trained by Ms. Ryan.

A single bird, especially one of the large types common in Florida, can take out a jet engine, she said. It is serious business, but Ms. Haggie loves her job, so does Radar.

"I'm the second most enthusiastic employee to arrive at the airport," she said. "Radar is the first."