# Coyote vs Dog



## Chris Michalek (Feb 13, 2008)

I was speaking with man who lives a few blocks over from my house this evening. He said on thursday he lost his golden to a coyote that jumped into his yard. I've heard of people losing their small dogs to coyotes but not a big one like a retriever. 

If a coyote got into that yard it could easily get into mine. I'm not so worried because I am home most of the time the but do you guys think a coyote would **** with a rottie? Geez, I'd hate to lose the Mal puppy to something like that.


----------



## Chad Byerly (Jun 24, 2008)

Where was your coyote, er Mali, around the time of the attack?




Seriously, I'm surprised and sorry for your neighbor. Did he see it happen?


----------



## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

I dunno for sure...but this is about the coolest sequence of photos ever (there's four of them):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/julieanna/2978704655/in/set-72157608423195030/

The Mal pup would probably think the coyotes are their long lost cousins!


----------



## Chris Michalek (Feb 13, 2008)

Chad Byerly said:


> Where was your coyote, er Mali, around the time of the attack?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


He didn't see it happen. He said he had to have his dog put down due to the injuries. The vet told him it was most likely a coyote. I know we have them in this area and I've heard of small dogs being taken. Everybody around here has 6ft block wall fences so it was some kind of animal that could jump the fence and jump back out. 

I don't really know this guy, I was out tossing a ball/training OB with the Mal when he approached me. I would have thought he was totally full of shit but for two reasons, it's odd that a complete stranger would approach me and tell me that and I've heard of such things before.


----------



## mike suttle (Feb 19, 2008)

Chris Michalek said:


> I was speaking with man who lives a few blocks over from my house this evening. He said on thursday he lost his golden to a coyote that jumped into his yard. I've heard of people losing their small dogs to coyotes but not a big one like a retriever.
> 
> If a coyote got into that yard it could easily get into mine. I'm not so worried because I am home most of the time the but do you guys think a coyote would **** with a rottie? Geez, I'd hate to lose the Mal puppy to something like that.


I have never heard of a coyote going after a dog that size, but I have shot two at my kennel in the last 4 months that were trying to get into my baby puppy pen. When I wean the puppies and seperate them from their mother at about 5 weeks they are very noisy and this sound draws in coyotes better than any predator call I know of. We are on a very large farm here and have a ton of coyotes around. My puppy pens are away from the main kennel building with the adults dogs so the coyotes are not afraid to come around those pens. I heard my puppies all barking last month (they were about 5 weeks old at that time) it was 1 am. I looked out the window and with the night light I could see a coyote circling the pen, all of the puppies were following him with their tails up and wagging and barking, happy to see their "cousin".
But the cousin was not so happy to see me!! LOL
A coyote will kill a dog for 100% sure. The largest dog I have heard of getting killed by a coyote here in our area was a 10 month old border collie.


----------



## Lee H Sternberg (Jan 27, 2008)

When I lived in the foothills of Southern California there were lots of coyotes. I lived in a new subdivision and people gradually lost their cats. The cat population ended up zero after about 6 months. A coyote jumped out of a ravine and tried to grab the neighbors small dog at the end of our cul de sac street in broad daylight. The woman walking the dog was able to run the coyote off.

I had 2 full grown GSD's at the time. My rear fence was 5 foot chain link that backed up to a vineyard. I would hear the coyotes go howling past the fence in the night occasionally. All with all the dogs in the neighborhood would bark.

I never had or heard of any issues with big fenced dogs but I don't know how large a animal a pack of coyotes would attack.


----------



## Howard Gaines III (Dec 26, 2007)

Chris Michalek said:


> I was speaking with man who lives a few blocks over from my house this evening. He said on thursday he lost his golden to a coyote that jumped into his yard. I've heard of people losing their small dogs to coyotes but not a big one like a retriever.
> 
> If a coyote got into that yard it could easily get into mine. I'm not so worried because I am home most of the time the but do you guys think a coyote would **** with a rottie? Geez, I'd hate to lose the Mal puppy to something like that.


Chris does it take a ******* to figure this one out? Tie a few cats along your property line and the Rottie or Mal will be safe! :-o :razz: Everyone knows the the Willie Coyote likes "cats." 8-[ [-X


----------



## Howard Knauf (May 10, 2008)

My wife's relatives in S. Illinois told me that there are people in their area that poach deer and leave them lie so that the coyotes will come in...then they use their dogs to hunt them. Things to do when you're bored, eh?


----------



## David Scholes (Jul 12, 2008)

Could be a mtn lion. Based on the wall and location where you live and size of dog, I think more likely a lion. I called one in with a varmint call (he's now on my wall) within site of the lights of Phoenix. I'm out of town until Thursday or I'd post a pic. It would be interesting to know more about the type of wounds. Young lions move out to find new territory and there is easy pickin in the Chandler/Gilbert area. A lion would take on a rottie if it can catch it by surprise and a backyard fence is nothing for a lion.

I doubt one coyote would take on a dog that size. They do pack up to some degree this time of year and a pair would have no problem. I doubt they would jump a 6 foot fence but they could.


----------



## Melody Greba (Oct 4, 2007)

Check out this device. coyoteroller.com
This might offer you some relief if your mal puppy is in an outside kennel while you're away.


----------



## susan tuck (Mar 28, 2006)

We have chickens and have lost some to a coyote. We have seen it in our yard 3 mornings just recently. On 2 of those mornings it ended up killing 3 more of our hens. Yesterday it came at about 4:30 AM, was up at the chicken pen bold as brass. Father in law let his rottie mix out and she and the coyote just stared at each other silently not moving. (Yeah but she is real brave when it comes to those squirrels on the back fence). 

Our problem with the coyote is solved by making sure the hens are penned in the coop at night. Problem is daddy dearest likes them to "live free range 24/7". So today he is having his "man" put up an electric fence on top of our perimeter fence which is solid.


----------



## susan tuck (Mar 28, 2006)

Melody Greba said:


> Check out this device. coyoteroller.com


That looks pretty interesting, I've printed out the info from the website, I think it might be a better alternative. Does anyone have any experience with the Coyote Roll Bar?


----------



## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Will an electric fence do the job? I know my little GSD [before we de-crittered her] took a full hit from a cattle fence when she was in drive chasing a goat and kept on with the chase. She was just a 6 month old puppy then too. I imagine a coyote would be a bit harder?


----------



## susan tuck (Mar 28, 2006)

I wonder too, though I have seen on several sites that people do claim to use it successfully and are keeping the coyotes and other wild critters at bay - and these aren't people trying to sell it or recommending any particular brand.

Peter's brother used to breed Afghan Hounds, and they were impervious to the electric shock........but then the only way to get them to come to you was to scream "CHEESE CHEESE CHEESE" in a ridiculously high pitched falsetto.


----------



## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

susan tuck said:


> Our problem with the coyote is solved by making sure the hens are penned in the coop at night. Problem is daddy dearest likes them to "live free range 24/7". So today he is having his "man" put up an electric fence on top of our perimeter fence which is solid.


I've heard to put an electric line at the bottom of the fence as well.


----------



## Wayne Dodge (Mar 7, 2008)

I was stationed out in Arizona for quite some time and there was a real problem with small dogs being taken by coyotes, yet I have yet to hear of a verified coyote attack on a large dog such as a Golden. (not saying it hasn't happened) I would not worry in the least about a coyote bothering a Rot without your dog engaging them first and even then they would probably run. As a general rule I wouldn't sweat the Mal pup either unless you were leaving him out unprotected at night.

The reality of it is that they are hunting; a wild animal does not take the risk of attacking prey that has the very real possibility of inflicting serious damage upon themselves unless they are starving or diseased. Coyotes need to survive without the benefits of human care such as shelter, food, medicine, etc. and a torn foot pad or infected bite hampers life at the least if not actually ending it.

As Mike said earlier he lives out in the middle of no where and has a real issue with coyotes, yet they consider the pups prey, not adult dogs. I find it very hard to believe that a coyote would take on a grown working class dog at their own option, it would simply be foolish of them and they are still here for a reason.

Just my two cents...


----------



## Geoff Empey (Jan 8, 2008)

mike suttle said:


> I have never heard of a coyote going after a dog that size, but I have shot two at my kennel in the last 4 months that were trying to get into my baby puppy pen. When I wean the puppies and seperate them from their mother at about 5 weeks they are very noisy and this sound draws in coyotes better than any predator call I know of. We are on a very large farm here and have a ton of coyotes around. My puppy pens are away from the main kennel building with the adults dogs so the coyotes are not afraid to come around those pens. I heard my puppies all barking last month (they were about 5 weeks old at that time) it was 1 am. I looked out the window and with the night light I could see a coyote circling the pen, all of the puppies were following him with their tails up and wagging and barking, happy to see their "cousin".
> But the cousin was not so happy to see me!!


My Breeder had a problem with Fishers http://home.mcn.net/~wtu/fisher.html going after the pups. The Coyotes as well were on their property but they won't screw with the pups as the Adults were always close to the pups so the Coyotes kept their distance. But Fishers on the other hand they couldn't care less.


----------



## Carol Boche (May 13, 2007)

David Scholes said:


> I doubt one coyote would take on a dog that size. They do pack up to some degree this time of year and a pair would have no problem. I doubt they would jump a 6 foot fence but they could.


Totally agree with this, however if the coyote were sick or injured to where it could not hunt their normal prey effectively they may go after easier prey. Not that a large dog like that would be easy prey in our minds, but it may be to a coyote having difficulties. 

We have coyotes all over, and when I take the dogs out at night, you can here them fairly close. 

They will pack up and try to lure dogs out, some females in heat will lure the dog (male) out, mate with them and then turn around and attack and usually the females have pack members lurking as well. 

I would agree it may have been a large cat as well, however, I would tend to think that the cat may have been sick or injured as well. 
The cats we have here will defend their prey and not be spooked away from it, and a golden retriever would be easy prey for even a sick cat.


----------



## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Arent the Eastern Coyotes much larger than the Western Coyotes too? I have heard 80-90lbs on the East Coast and have seen [rarely, mostly as road kill] some pretty big ones.


----------



## Michelle Reusser (Mar 29, 2008)

I think a cat would have done much more substantal damage and the vet should be able to tell the difference in the damage between a cat or a candid. Probably a coyote or 2 or more. If it was a lone coyote, I'd worry about rabies or a hurt animal that is going to strike again in the neighborhood. I have seen packs of up to 20 animals running together in the cold months. We shot one and scared the rest away that were after our Turkeys years ago in the foothills. They would run right past the house on the front lawn. The one that got shot, was nailed from our bedroom window by my husband, who was stark naked, standing on the bed. LOL He still has the tail on his wall.


----------



## Michelle Reusser (Mar 29, 2008)

Nancy Jocoy said:


> Arent the Eastern Coyotes much larger than the Western Coyotes too? I have heard 80-90lbs on the East Coast and have seen [rarely, mostly as road kill] some pretty big ones.


We have some pretty large ones out this way too. I just saw one a couple months ago, laying in the tall grass out where I run my dogs. I pulled over real quick, thought it was a husky type dog for a sec. Just saw his silhoet and yellow eyes. He laid there for a few seconds, until the dogs in the back spotted him and he took off. Good sized animal but his tail was a mess, almost no hair left on it. Probably sick. Why else would he be hangign out 25 feet from the road in broad daylight?


----------



## Carol Boche (May 13, 2007)

Going to throw this out here as I got to thinking.....it may have been a raccoon. My neighbors Aussie got torn up by a large on last week right in their yard. 

Did substantial damage, but Boots put up a good fight and the **** was later found barely alive under the combine. 

$600 damage to the dog as well as rabies testing and quarrantine....no results as of yet though. 

We also have badgers here and that is one animal that we do not mess with at all. They are nasty creatures with really bad attitudes towards invasion into their space.


----------



## Megan Bays (Oct 10, 2008)

Nancy Jocoy said:


> Arent the Eastern Coyotes much larger than the Western Coyotes too? I have heard 80-90lbs on the East Coast and have seen [rarely, mostly as road kill] some pretty big ones.


The coyotes around here are pretty big. Other than the occasional black bear, they are the largest natural predator here, and there are plenty of deer and other smaller game for them to feed on. 



> On their path to the east the coyote hybridized with timber wolves in the north and red wolves in the south and possibly wild dogs. Thus, at 20 to 45 pounds, the eastern coyote is bigger than its western cousin. The eastern expansion of the coyote was probably a result of the elimination of its ancient foe the timber wolf and the establishment of the deer herd in the east as a food base. The coyote is an adaptable animal and there may be more coyotes today than there were in colonial times.


http://www.wvdnr.gov/hunting/CoyoteResearch.shtm

Last year there was a family about 15 miles from my home lost their Golden Retreiver to coyotes as well. I think that it was attacked by 3 coyotes. Almost all of the Goldens I've been around were all mild mannered sweet hearts that wouldn't stand a chance against a couple of the coyotes around here.

Even though I have two big dogs, and a couple of my neighbors do as well, we hear them quite often and see tons of signs in the woods behind my house. We've only seem them at night. They've gotten right behind the dog kennels a couple of times, which are right behind my house. If it hadn't been for the dogs flipping out, we would have never known they were so close. We had two different packs of coyotes on opposite mountian ridges howling back and forth at each other one night. It was pretty eerie. They seem to be the most brazen around their mating seasons here.

They've become quite the menance as their population continues to rise here, and they keep getting bolder.


----------



## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

Megan McCallister said:


> They've become quite the menance as their population continues to rise here, and they keep getting bolder.


Haha - I wonder if they think the same thing about us! :lol:


----------



## Megan Bays (Oct 10, 2008)

Konnie Hein said:


> Haha - I wonder if they think the same thing about us! :lol:


I'm sure they do!


----------



## Dwyras Brown (Nov 21, 2008)

So Wiley Coyote and crew has gotten tired of road runners and started attacking golden retrievers. I guess that big sheepdog on the cartoon is going to be next. You know Wiley has unlimited acces to Acme Products.


----------



## Pam Tyler (Apr 2, 2008)

Dwyras Brown said:


> So Wiley Coyote and crew has gotten tired of road runners and started attacking golden retrievers. I guess that big sheepdog on the cartoon is going to be next. You know Wiley has unlimited acces to Acme Products.


That was before the credit crunch. Acme started rationing him, that's why you haven't seen any new cartoons lately. 
But seriously, coyotes in a small pack, even just two or three, are usually a match for even most big dogs. They have to fight for a living, unlike our "pampered" dogs. A friend of the family in Pahrump (more rural than Las Vegas) lost his Lab to a pack of four coyotes. He saw the attack and chased them away, but there was too much damage. Now, I think he shoots them on sight.
Also, I live on the outskirts of Vegas, and one morning, in full daylight, two coyotes were carrying on behind our fence. Whining at each other, etc., and would not leave until we actually hit one with a rock. Broad daylight and they were only about 10 feet from the fence on a side street. So they are definately bold enough to come in close.


----------



## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

They're really pretty cool animals, but it also doesn't help when people feed them :roll: or they get reinforced to be less timid by getting into trash cans and that sort of thing. But hey, good as model as any for the domestication of the dog.


----------



## Sheena Tarrant (Sep 21, 2008)

> I doubt they would jump a 6 foot fence but they could.


Coyotes here jump the 6 foot walls without a problem (palisade, anyone?). There was one in my neighbors yard last week trying to get her chickens, and when she came outside to chase it off, it went straight over her wall (which, on that side of the yard, is 7 feet tall). 

BTW, here is Phoenix.


----------



## susan tuck (Mar 28, 2006)

For the coyotes here, a 6ft wall ain't nothing atal. Going back with a large chicken in it's mouth is trickier. They generally eat the chickens in the yard, but if you can interupt them, they try to scramble over the yard with the chicken, but end up having to drop it.


----------



## Michelle Reusser (Mar 29, 2008)

Your the expert now aren't you Sue? LOL


----------



## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Coydogs are not uncommon and often are the larger "coyotes". 
A friend had a Dalmation that hated coyotes. Always taking off from the porch to run them. After he came back with his Nuts tore off and damn near had his belly ripped open he now just shakes all over in a fetal position when they call from up close. All the Dal's wounds were on the back side. We suspect he changed his mind when he caught up wiith them.
A male dog is often looked at as competition for the females by the male coyotes and they will double up on the dog.
I would think the coyotes would have to be prertty short on food to tackle a large dog that could possibly injure it.


----------



## Matthew Grubb (Nov 16, 2007)

susan tuck said:


> Our problem with the coyote is solved by making sure the hens are penned in the coop at night. .


All problems I have with coyote have been solved with .223


----------



## Howard Gaines III (Dec 26, 2007)

Matthew Grubb said:


> All problems I have with coyote have been solved with .223


Matt that's the same "supplement" we use for foxes! :twisted:


----------



## susan tuck (Mar 28, 2006)

Michelle Kehoe said:


> Your the expert now aren't you Sue? LOL


I'm pretty sure old Gene is bored and just likes watching the REAL WORLD cycle of life, better than TV.


----------



## Don Turnipseed (Oct 8, 2006)

Coyotes have a good survival instinct. You know what is said...."If your in a fair fight....you need to re-evalute your strategies!" Coyotes don't enter into fair fights. Their sole purpose is to win "without" sustaining injury. Rotties and such are simply not fast enough for a coyote. Most dogs are just way to slow to deal with a coyote. 
My pups are loose in the yard from the time they are born but no coyote is going to come after them because they will never get out of the yard. The clips Maren put up show the respect most dogs have for coyotes even when they are in a trap like the one those dogs were worrying. Even multiple dogs were not takling that coyote. The difference in dogs is, any dog I have would have gone in and killed that coyote right where he stood because that is what they do. They don't much care what it is, hog, bear, or even a little coyote.


----------



## Carol Boche (May 13, 2007)

Matthew Grubb said:


> All problems I have with coyote have been solved with .223



LOL....yep, the Kimber sits next to the bed with the coyote call waiting patiently. 

We do not have problems with them coming all the way up to the house or kennels, think the dogs going nuts discourage that. 

We do however, find that they lurk around our grain bins on the SE side of the property since the cats hunt over there. 

Best thing about winter here are the coyote calling contests....nothing better than going out at 4am all bundled up and seeing what you can call in close to nail. [-o< [-o< :smile: 

There were some really nice, big males taken this year.


----------



## Skip Morgart (Dec 19, 2008)

Matthew Grubb said:


> All problems I have with coyote have been solved with .223


 
Ahhhh...lead poisoning.


----------

