Our farm is now a habitat for coyotes. There are 18 acres of green space behind us, and our neighbor has several acres of woods. We always knew coyotes were there, we just haven’t seen them on our farm and didn’t worry about them. In the last couple months, they’ve been in our arena several times (which is right behind one of our barns), in the creek, and in three of our four pastures (Our farm is less than 6 acres). Now I know they have a black dog running with them. My daughter saw the black dog about 20’-30’ from the barn one night about 1:30 am while doing night checks.
We put up motion detector lights in both barns and they’re working. I really don’t want them in the arena as it’s too close to the barn and our backyard. We have 3 dogs (2 are either really small or old with diabetes) and 2 horses that are in their 30s. Any ideas that really work?? Thoughts about what to do are certainly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
There are black coyotes, I have a couple on my place.
Not much you can really do about them, they live not only in rural but also urban areas.
Interesting enough - they’re coming out in the day. I don’t want to hurt them, just scare them away; one of my dogs is 8 lbs.
Be careful with your little dog, someone in my small town reported a coyote coming up and grabbing a chicken right in front of him! They’re getting braver, it seems.
I’ve been told air horns work…no idea if it’s true.
The black coyotes are oftentimes hybrids, we have them here is SWPA. I digress.
We have a small outdoor strobe light i turn on when I put my ducks away for the night. I also hand tennis balls soaked in ammonia from the trees on our property line.
Don’t let your dogs out, outside of dog-fencing, off-leash, in the evening or at night. Not only may the coyotes go after the dogs, but the dogs may try to go after the coyotes. Some dogs are triggered and show no sense about them.
In your situation I would fence off a yard for your dogs around your house. If the dogs are regularly out in the evening. There should be coyote-discouraging fencing available, I’d look into the latest types. They will hop right over the standard 3 1/2’ to 4’ yard fence.
I hate to say that without protection one or both of your dogs will have coyote encounters, but it may be inevitable. The little one may not survive. May even just disappear. It can happen very, very fast, you may even see or hear it and be unable to stop it.
It’s not fun to admit that the coyotes have claimed some property rights on your peaceful place. But with pets, being realistic about them is key. Coyotes can be deadly to pets other than large dogs.
Maybe an Anatolian or similar large guard breed … ? If one would fit your lifestyle, and you can/will put in whatever effort is required so that it understands that it is protecting the other dogs.
Coyotes are everywhere and not much you can do to stop them.
What you can do is put up fencing that makes it difficult to get to/ at your horses and dogs.
Our beef cows have barb wire fencing but they can take care of coyotes and we keep them in the pastures up by the house when calves are small.
Our goats and horses pastures are fenced with field fence and up by the house as well and so far we have never seen one( heard plenty) but we have several big dogs which help.
I have heard if you get rid of the ones you see others just take their place. Best to protect what you are worried about and let them be.
I was thinking the same thing, here in our area we have an increasing amount of wolves that are coming closer to houses and barns. They are not dangerous for big horses but they are for ponies and donkeys and for dogs of course. Many people are taking big gard dogs and they seem to work well, Caucasian sheperds, the local Maremmano, Great Pyrenees dogs are the ones who go for the most. If you can manage a couple of such dogs in patrol on your propriety should be a very good deterrent. Otherwise a fenced yard for your dogs at least when it gets dark would be a great help.
neighbor had raise their fencing to eight feet as the coyotes Easily cleared the five foot fence to get to their small dog,
We got a Great Pyrenees who keeps the coyotes away. (please be advised these are the barkingness dogs I think that have been placed on this earth, anything that ventures onto Their Area of protection will be BARKED at, and they can decide they need to protect the world)
There are coyote rollers for the top of fencing.
Also to be considered would be the electrified netting fence used for sheep, goats, chickens. It cuts predator losses to the flocks. Comes in different heights, lengths, to make up what you need. Might be worth investing in a quantity to do pasture for old horses or around the yard for little dogs.
Old horses don’t move quickly, can get ganged up on by several coyotes, be pulled down. Report of that a couple years ago, nothing proven. Old horse paddocked alone, icy ground that day/night. Sounded really bad.
Larger donkey, especially BLM adoptees (cheap) can be extremely effective against dogs and coyotes. Just a natural response, unless trained out. Keep donkey on the VERY trim side, that is their best look. Neck under mane is pointed up, no fat roll at all! Donkey needs to be fast, light on her feet, to be effective at coyote control. Jennies seem very good at this “protection gig” from what I have seen. Two kept friends sheep (600-900 head) flock from losing any for many years. For the friends, it was problems with suburban dogs let to run free. For them it was donkey, shovel and shut up. You can’t win against dog owners or even get cash recompense for lost stock. Best to stay quiet.
If you folks are actually MEETING coyotes on the farm, you need to develop SERIOUS self-protection plans, learn to carry weapons! The fun is gone, they ARE dangerous!! They are losing fear of humans, yelling, airhorn, won’t work for long. Can you just close up the arena at night, just physically bar them out?
Coyotes can and will scale fences. Neighbors have lost both dogs and cats while inside fenced yard areas.
And coyotes kill just for the hell of it. Our former neighborhood lost 12 cats and 2 small dogs in one night. Just killed and left. It was a mother teaching her pups to hunt.
They cruise across my pastures in daylight. Even have no fear of the mower and tractor and horses. That is why we have no barn cats.
Please don’t get a livestock guardian dog and just throw it out with the stock with no training. You could end up with dead stock or the LGD could just leave. And as the saying goes, if the sheep are quiet and the dog is barking, all is well. They bark to say, “Big dog here! Stay away!” So it’s more or less constant.
Things that work are coyote rollers and electrification for your fence and spiky coyote vests for your dogs. I would just keep cats in the house.
I’d haze them every time you see them. Run them down with an atv, air horn, anything to make them feel uncomfortable around humans and the barn.
Note: “dogs and coyotes”, dogs running free. Keep dogs away from the protector-donkeys. I cannot fathom why some people are blind or indifferent to their dogs harrassing their donkeys. The dog (and the people) may think it is playing, the donkey doesn’t share that opinion. I guess those people didn’t see the videos or hear the stories of the horror that ensues when a donkey goes into murder-mode.
Worth doing. But will primarily help with avoiding people when they are awake and paying attention. Hazing quickly has no effect when it isn’t present.
Animals generally are smart enough to learn when the hazing happens, and when it doesn’t happen. It’s almost like they are even more curious to find out what amazing things are being so vigorously protected. Anyway, that’s my experience.
Studies of keeping wild animals away from human habitation have found that if the reward, and/or the discouragement, are inconsistent and not 100% the same at all times, the animals develop a habit of coming back to check again. Forever. They never quit.
All these increasingly dark warnings of the danger of encroaching predators … even a species that isn’t considered to be the largest and most dangerous. (Although packs of coyotes can be lethal.)
It’s easy to see why so many horror stories have been developed around predators coming ever closer. The danger is real. In real life and in thriller fiction, the situation can be unnerving.
These types of issues show up when people(g) run the animals out of their natural habitats - either by destroying the actual habitat, removing the food sources, or removing the balancing ‘bigger’ predator. It’s not the coyotes’ fault.
That said, you’re not going to get rid of them. They’re clever scavengers, and you’ve got easy food - trash, cats, small dogs, etc. Keep cats inside (they should be anyway, cats don’t belong outside and you’d just be feeding them to the coyotes at this point), keep the dogs on a leash or put up tall, electrified yard fencing maybe with a coyote roller on top. Don’t leave food trash out where they can get to it or smell it, if possible.
Killing them won’t do anything but bring new ones in to fill the gaps. If you can remove the attractions, whatever they may be, the pack is likely to move on. A LGD is a huge commitment and not neighbor friendly (the barking is CONSTANT), but if they fit your lifestyle and you’re willing to put in the work, they can be a great solution. Same with donkeys, the braying is ANNOYING in close quarters, but if you’ve got the space, they do the job.
My fox hunt’s huntsman put coyote feeders up around hunt territory and kept them loaded with dry dog food so coyotes would stay close by and give us “good sport.”. The opposite of what OP wants. OP may find there are food sources near by that are attracting coyotes, such as disposal areas for dead cattle. Cattle farms near us just dragged the dead ones to to designated boneyards on their property perimeters and left them there as carrion.
Looks like a fox?
