I know the subject has been here before but my big Rodesian recently died . I use to sic her on them (she loved it) and they would leave but last night the howling was next to the house and woke me from a sound sleep.
silly me, put on a bathrobe grabbed a lunge whip and went after them. They hated me cracking the whip which was good fun but maybe not so safe?
Anyway the pack seems to know my dog is gone, although only 90 pounds she had a deep serious bark and growl.The deer leave their fawns in the field next to the bhouse so that’s probably what they are after.
Question will they attack mature horses or my 30 yr. old horse?
Don’t tell me to shoot them as I don’t know how to shoot nor is that my style .
I am concerned about getting a new dog and him being safe ,
I can’t do donkeys .
I have (more than once) watched a coyote trot thru my pasture and the horses do not even lift their heads to care that the coyote is there. Which to me says the coyotes are not a risk to my horses.
I doubt the coyotes know or care that your dog is gone.
Wouldn’t worry about coyotes as much as wild dogs. We have never had a horse of any age bothered by coyotes.
My father did have a stout Doberman lured out and killed by a pack. Something too think about when you get a new dog.
No coyotes will not attack horses. You have nothing to worry about. Enjoy their singing!
Coyotes are very opportunistic.
The coyotes will only bother your horse if he is sick or down.
They do lay around a cow giving birth and jump on her when she is tired out and can’t get back up in a hurry, so they would handle a horse acting slow in a similar way.
As per our game wardens, with any wildlife around human dwellings, is safest for all to run wildlife off and keep them away, so they don’t harm what humans have and humans don’t have to harm intrusive wildlife to protect their animals.
I live in an area where coyotes are flourishing. I see them trot through my pastures regularly, and the horses just glance at them and continue grazing. The same coyotes, though, are a significant risk to barn cats and smaller dogs. Twelve barn cats total at nearby locations in one night was the record kill. The local coyote trappers bait their traps with cats, which I hate to hear about.
I have asked around of other local fox hunters, and no one has ever heard of coyotes attacking pastured horses. They concentrate on smaller prey, like rabbits and cats. The coyotes have basically eliminated red and gray foxes in my area, and the fox hunts are now really just coyote hunts.
Well I wish that was true ( about not hurting horses) but neighbor lost sheep and a mini horse last year , mini was hamstrung by coyotes. Night camera showed they were not dogs.
Recently women was killed by coyotes on a Mt trail. This was also hard for me to believe, but true.
Also I can’t sleep they are howling outside my window at 3am.
All the local shelters are out of healthy younger dogs . see article in Wash Post.
Apparently rescues in NE are going to NC.SC and taking dogs north for re homing or who knows what they do with them.
well I bougth a gun today,hope I don’t hurt myself …
Coyotoes are very smart and they know there’s no dog here anymore.
One thing to add is 1000 of acres of farms were recently sold near me and turned into developments which means the coyotes lost their food source. All the trees are gone so few deer, no small mammals left. I see that in NYC rats have attacked people because they are hungry with the restaurants being closed.Unreal!
This is our future or sadly the future is now!
My mare is 30, she’s easy game. Its legal to kill coyotoes here but I hate to kill anything. This used to be rural but no longer .Game wardens told me to shoot them, i didn’t even have a gun.
I need a good dog.
Maybe I was wrong, but I assumed the OP was talking about a larger sized horse, not a mini.
Yes a 14 hand very very old horse. I am going to hire someone to shoot them, no choice.
I personally would not consider 14h a size that needs to be worried about.
(That is the size of one of my horses.)
We have coyotes here, as well as our dogs, cats, horses and cattle. When the coyotes get to close to livestock or the house, they are fair game and we shoot. They will back off for awhile, but eventually they come back. We have neighbors who will hang the carcasses from trees when they shot them, and they claim that scares them off even more.
Another affective deterrent is a livestock guardian dog. Ours passed a couple years ago, but she would give them a warning (barking), and if they did not heed her warning, she would take off after them. For a big dog, she moved incredibly fast! But guardian dogs are a commitment that require both guidance and care.
They 100% know your dog is gone.
They may go after minis that seem tiny and/or weak, but larger ponies and horses? No.
Cats, small dogs, any small livestock or exotic pet.will be eaten. Pigs bigger than 100#, not lard, but muscle, will probably be safe, unless there’s a lot of coyotes trying for it.
I have LGDs. They, coyotes, quickly figured out that I had sold 2 dogs a few years ago & my 3rd was a lazy excuse. I had to buy a new pup this year & they have realized that someone is back and taking the job seriously again.
We are surrounded by deer. They stalk them and my animals.
@secuono Do you think they might go after a larger animal that was slow or had trouble getting up? OP said her pony is very old…
Edited because I meant to reply to your post, but made a general reply instead. Oops!
Rescues in my area (SC) are crawling with large guardian dogs needing homes. Before buying a gun or hiring out killing coyotes, have you explored rescues? There may be some bred or livestock guarding specific groups that would love to place a dog in a situation like this where it could have a job.
OP, it is the height of irresponsibility, potentially criminal negligence, to shoot a gun when you have no training to do so.
The coyotes do not pose a risk to your horse. You can put your horse in a stall at night if you would feel better. On the other hand, a loaded gun in the hands of an untrained and irrationally afraid (sorry, but this is the truth) shooter is a risk to everyone including your animals. Let’s say a coyote is attacking your animals-- it will be a blur of noisy, high-speed chaos. You will NOT be able to get a clean shot at anything. If yoyu’re thinking, well, I’ll just shoot up in the air to scare them off. No, that is incredibly dangerous, you can kill someone 1000s of yards away by doing that.
I say this with care and concern: In your other thread about losing your dog, and in this one, I hear a sense of real grief and possibly depression. A replacement dog (and definitely not a gun!!) is not a cure for that. I urge you to sit back, seek out counsel from friends, loved ones, and consider asking for help. Be safe. Please don’t buy a gun without taking a gun safety course.
Well, what exactly do you think they do with them? Because to my knowledge and my experience in dog rescue in the northeast, they place them in good homes. Also, please share with us the facts about a recent killing of a woman by coyotes, because I can’t find anything about this, and since I often hike alone, I would like to know the details. I’m aware of one killing back in 1981 and one in 2009, but a fatal attack every 30 years vs the millions of coyote interactions overall should not be sending anyone out to buy a gun, IMHO. You say yourself that the coyotes are probably after the fawns, not your horses. I don’t like the idea of Bambi getting eaten, but if we choose to live amongst Nature, we need to let Nature be Nature if it isn’t harming us or ours. Sorry if you can’t sleep because of their howling. Maybe you could get used to it.
Or, take your gun back to where you bought it, and try something along these lines:
I can not imagine they take down a healthy full sized deer either. A young deer, or an injured deer probably.
We have coyotes (hear them singing quite regularly), we also have way too many freaking deer.
The guardian dog option is the BEST option. Shooting one, or two or more coyotes will do nothing but change the social situation in the pack in your area. If you shoot ALL the coyotes, new coyotes will spread into your area from other areas. So, you learn to live with them. Coyotes can be helpful in the area, they will control marmots, rabbits, mice etc, reducing the chance that your horse will step in a hole in the ground and break a leg. They normally will rotate over a large area, your farm will hold their attention for a few weeks at a time, then they move on.
A guardian dog lives outside, 24/7. They are not comfortable in a house, too hot for them indoors, and they worry too much about not being “on the job” outside, guarding. You do need GOOD fencing, around your house area, several acres is best, because otherwise they will set their own boundaries, which may not be the boundaries of your own property, it’s usually several square miles that they patrol. Guardian dogs must also be “trained” to your type of livestock you keep around your house or on your farm, so that they know what it is that they need to protect, and what is “foreign” and “intruder”. Otherwise, they may well eat or kill your chickens or cats or goats or whatever small animals you keep. This may be an issue if you get one from a “rescue”, they may not be trained adequately for you and your situation- they need to be raised WITH your livestock to bond to them. Your pony is probably too large for a coyote to consider it to be prey, but in a pack, and since the pony is old and alone, it’s possible. More likely they would wait to attack until the pony is down, sick, or dead already from natural causes, if that happens at a quiet time of day or night. For horses, there is always safety in numbers. Cougar attacks are common with single horses, but not so common when they are together in a herd. A herd protects itself from intruders and predators. That’s nature for you.
