Coyote's

[David Unnerstall]

While reading Wrench and Harris debate the issue of dangerous animals in the thread about the character who shot that bear I thought about dogs and coyote's.  You see I now have a floofy-dog -- a 22-lb fur-ball who has no idea.  It is my wife's dog.  On occasion when we are camping in Mark Twain NF she will bolt out at night and bark at something more than 100 feet from camp.  I never had a dog that I had to worry about.  If she were to meet up with coyote's will she have a chance?

[Quillback]

People across the street have 3 very annoying small dogs.  There are coyotes around here, I hear them howling and every once in a while see one.  I would not shed a tear if they ate all three of those dogs.  But so far, it hasn't happened.

[jdmidwest]

Probably will get invited to a sit down dinner as the main course.  Neighbors dog tangled with a coyote a few years back and lost most of an ear.  It was a lab/boxer mix and very able to stand its ground.

We used to lose calves at the farm to coyote packs and they had a herd of cattle to tromp them.

Your campground spooks are probably just coons looking for food you left out.  They can tear a dog up pretty good too if cornered.  And they like to carry rabies and distemper.

[Greasy B]

Hands down the most terrifying creature lurking anywhere is a skunk. 

[Devan S.]

I spend most of my time when hunting specifically targeting coyotes. Most guys that use decoy dogs with coyotes are using a pair of larger dogs like a cur and some of them get pretty tore up. I'm like jdmidwest that 22 lb fur ball wont stand a chance if it tangos with a couple of territorial yotes. Your most likely issues will be with coons and possums and they can get pretty nasty too. 

 

 

[David Unnerstall]

23 hours ago, Quillback said:

People across the street have 3 very annoying small dogs.  There are coyotes around here, I hear them howling and every once in a while see one.  I would not shed a tear if they ate all three of those dogs.  But so far, it hasn't happened.

Quill, I guess I am mellowing with age.  I don't want anything to happen to this dog.  Just look at this dog:

[Quillback]

17 minutes ago, David Unnerstall said:

Quill, I guess I am mellowing with age.  I don't want anything to happen to this dog.  Just look at this dog:

That's a cute dog.  I have one myself.  I don't hate all dogs, just the ones that bark all night, or get in the trash.  And it's not the dogs fault, it's the humans.

[dan hufferd]

We live in an area that is mostly open. A family that we know well, owned a young small breed dog, several mornings in a row they witnessed a coyote, playing just out side their yard fence ( barbed wire ) in the field. The coyote would play, role, and jump around while the small dog watched from the yard, and the family watched from the window, this went on for three days or so. 

One day the small dog decided to join in on the fun, and leave the yard. Suddenly two other coyotes came out of nowhere, needless to say the dog became a meal for three coyotes as the family watched from the window.

I also read that urban coyotes feed heavily on house cats and strays, I will keep my opinion about coyotes to myself, I will say this they are smart, work in numbers, and are opportunistic, they are here for a reason, and I have shot many of them.

In my neck of the woods there are several chicken growers, and dairy farms, their dead pits and compost areas keep an abundance of coyotes in my hunting area.

While this may be an isolated incident, I would not trust my fluffy puppy with a coyote.       

[MOPanfisher]

Coyotes are very happy to find small dogs, and cats in farm country.  Most cats and small dogs learn quickly that to tangle with coyotes is a death sentence.  Quick stories, have had two dogs that had run ins with coyotes, one was a big full blood German Shepard, he could hold his own against one in a fight, though he would get cut up some, they finally quit testing him, ended up with a coyote girlfriend, for a couple years after his death there was a beautiful light tan (same color as him) coyote around, I tried my best to get a shot at it but it was pretty spooky.  Second story is about a black lab mix mutt that lived in our yard, big muscle bound idiot.  My father looked out one day and there was a single coyote (likely a female), sitting in the open in full view.  Dad figured out pretty quick that it was a trap for the dog, but waited to see what he would do.  Big dumb dog, slid through the fence and went out to see this exotic young piece of hotness.  About 20 yards short of her, two other coyotes closed in behind him.  By this time dad had a .30-06 and was leaning against the porch post, ready to cover the yard dogs retreat, but it happened too fast for him to do anything.   The big mutt recognized what was about to happen to him, swapped ends and literally ran over/through the other two like they were kittens and possibly set a new land speed record on the way back to the yard.  Dad say he was laughing too hard to shoot by then anyway.  a little bit later, the female was back, but yard dog wasn't falling for it again and they gave up.  Suspect they have used that trick before successfully.

[Al Agnew]

When we kept chickens and let them free range, about every other month the coyotes would drop by and pick one a day off the smorgasbord.  We'd then have to lock up the chickens for a couple weeks.  I don't know why the coyotes would take so long to come back and start eating them after we'd let them back out during the day. You'd think they would keep patroling the area to see if the grocery store was open again.  We would never see more than one coyote when they were eating chickens, and never more than one chicken a day, even though we knew there was a pack of them around because we'd hear them howling at night.

The funniest part about this was one time when we locked up the chickens after losing three in three days.  The next morning after locking them in for the first day, we went outside, and there, in a perfect circle in the middle of our driveway next to the house, was a ring of 6 piles of coyote scat.  It's as if they were telling us what they thought about taking away the chickens.