Walking your dog in a coyote problem area

[Jive]

I live in a suburban area, our particular subdivision backs onto the woods. Recently coyote activity in our area has increased, we had heard some neighbours saying they were even coming into peoples back yards.

My brother took my dog out for me this evening as I wasn’t home. They went out into the park behind our house and within five minutes 3 coyotes came out of the bushes and snuck up on them. And my dog wanted to go play with them. Thankfully they were able to get back without trouble. But talking to neighbour tonight I found out that recently in our area one dog has been killed, one was attacked and req’d 40 stitches. Another dog on our street was also surrounded by them today as well.

Due to where we are located it is difficult to walk your dog without having to go into that park. And now that winter is here avoiding walking after dark isn’t really possible.

Anyone have tips for walking your pooch in a high traffic coyote area. :eek: Really don’t want to be afraid to walk my dog lol.

[DressageOverFences]

make sure you have good voice control with your dog, the worst is when they lure the dog away, your dog is safer if he comes running back, even with the new distraction, as soon as you call him.

[Big_Grey_hunter]

If they aren’t scared of people, that’s a big problem. Try yelling and chasing them, but if they aren’t afraid, then a can of wasp spray works like pepper spray, but with better aim.

[jetsmom]

Bear Mace. It has a 35 foot range and forms a cloud. Or carry a stun gun. I bought one for about 35.00 at Academy Sports. Don’t know if you have those where you are, but anyplace that carries hunting stuff/guns would have them. You wouldn’t even really need to use it. Just turning it on makes my dogs all scatter.
Or maybe a boat airhorn would scare them.

[Bicoastal]

When I lived in SoCal, I walked with my 18lb dog to the barn nightly to shut in the minis so coyotes wouldn’t be tempted.

There was just one time when I got freaked. Usually my little dog charging would back them off. And usually, colleague’s Aussie dog would come running, too.

Only once was I concerned. One evening, six or so :eek: were loitering in the garden, which I had to walk past to reach the barn. Never seen than many at once before. My dog charged. Coyotes immediately saw little dog was alone. Darnit where’s the Aussie?! Coys held their ground. I yelled and stomped. They backed up maybe three feet from their original position and spread out like they were going to flank us. Scared the manure outta me -and my dog!- who promptly recalled. I turned around and found a big stick to carry :D.

If you don’t have a good recall, leash your dog at dawn and dusk. Never leave him unattended outside. Act big

With some regularity, purse dogs of the LA fashionistas would disappear: hawks or coyotes.

[ponies123]

Coyotes are scary, they’ve been really bad in our area lately too. We live on 20 acres and back up to woods on three sides and I can hear them howling from dusk to about 8am. I agree with good recall, if a dog runs off to play with them or whatnot it can become a very bad situation - coyotes will also use a play tactic, one will come and lure the dog out into the woods “to play” and then a group of them will attack the dog. We’ve had several dogs in our area die. Around here (I don’t know if it’s area specific or US wide) coyotes are always open season - we can trap up to 3 and kill any number. I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot one if they got close enough as we have the dogs, the horses and a goat out here and just don’t need one sneaking up on the farm. But not every one is comfortable owning/using a gun and I don’t have a good enough shot to use it if my dogs are mingling with them. I would leash, and the wasp spray as pepper spray sounds like a good idea to me…

[LauraKY]

Leash your dog. Mine are only allowed out after dusk in a small fenced backyard area right behind the house and only for a very limited time. Plenty of coyotes around here too.

Or, get a Great Pyr.

[2tempe]

[QUOTE=DressageOverFences;5996457]
make sure you have good voice control with your dog, the worst is when they lure the dog away, your dog is safer if he comes running back, even with the new distraction, as soon as you call him.[/QUOTE]

WALK THE DOG ON A LEASH!!. Not worth the risk…

If you are walking in the dark, I’d for sure carry a good flashlight, and I like the idea of the wasp spray! Long spray path…

Back in my Ohio days, they were all over our area though not as bold as the ones OP described. I would hear them yipping back and forth every night and saw them from time to time. Little dogs were big risk, a couple had been attacked.

[Kafue]

Up here in Southern Ontario we have had reports for a while of coyotes picking off small dogs and cats from literally right under the owner’s nose. Some have actually been taken right out of folk’s back yards. I am not talking either of some rural part of Ontario this is in a fairly major suburban centre. I have seen a lone coyote roming along the sidewalk in the downtown area when we were on our way back home from a night out in the city. Strangely enough although we live on a farm we rarely see coyotes. I think they tend to live a much more wild life out here in farm country, hunting wild animals and avoiding farmers, who may carry a gun.

[cowboymom]

My Great Pyrenees just came in for his morning nap on the couch to warm up from his night of chasing coyotes. :yes:

I don’t leave my other dogs out at night-the coyotes try to bait them out all night. They can’t come in anymore since I have the GP but they used to be here.

Don’t leave your dog loose-they will tempt him out, it’s very very difficult for a dog to resist them. They use every trick in the book and it takes a crafty dog to see the ambush coming.

I would look into more specific sprays than bear pepper spray-it’s meant to hit a wide spread with a huge predator as a last ditch effort. It’s too much for what you want-you want something with more control; the last thing you need is to get backdraft pepper spray in your eyes and your dog’s eyes as you’re trying to exit the scene. There are better forms of defense that will keep you moving and safe. A charging grizzly is a different attack than a coyote coming in-that coyote is going to split at the first indication that you have a weapon she didn’t anticipate. A bear keeps on coming no matter what and the sprays are overkill, meant to make an impression on a blindly enraged/annoyed huge animal. If you just blip that coyote with a quick shot of pepper spray she’ll be gone. I’ve scared them away by just acting like I was holding a pistol-they have a lot more self-preservation than a bear!

Keeping that dog close is the best thing you can do. For $15 get a spray and keep your guard up and you should be fine. http://www.tbotech.com/animal-repellents.htm

[Jive]

Thanks for some of the suggestions.

Dog is always on a leash (part hound, easily distracted by smells). And he’s a fairly big boy (80-90lbs) but is a big wimp.

Animal control in our area was actually handing out leaflets door to door cautioning people about the increase in activity in our city.

[Cluck]

Get a bigger dog

I have 25 acres, most of which is wooded and surrounded by woods on three sides.

Since my Anatolian Shepherd pup got to about 3 months old I haven’t worried at all about the coyotes.

I hear the packs howling and singing most nights and I used to see them within yards of my horse barn. But not anymore. They would not be stupid enough to try and take on this dog.

Seriously though, carry some kind of weapon with you and keep your small dogs very close.

[CosMonster]

I’d say stay out of the woods around dawn and dusk as those are prime hunting times. Really, anything but broad daylight is riskier. It’s good you always keep your dog leashed, but I’d also not let him out in your yard unattended if you do that.

Carry a noisemaker when you go for a walk. That’s probably more important than a weapon, though having some wasp spray or something similar to back it up isn’t a bad idea.

Act assertively. Stick to a walk and do not run if you are threatened by coyotes. They’re faster than you are, and probably faster than your dog is.

Otherwise, I wouldn’t necessarily assume that they were a significant threat to your brother and your dog in that situation. It’s likely they were scoping out the dog to see if they could get him away, but wouldn’t have attacked him while leashed to your brother. However, coyotes that aren’t afraid of people can be dangerous and it is good to not underestimate them.

Anyway, hope things calm down soon. Around here we mostly live-and-let-live with coyotes (though they will prey on house pets or small/weak livestock if they can), but if they start getting too bold we kill a few and that scares them off for a bit. In most of the US they’re considered a pest so you can kill them whenever they become an issue, but I don’t know about Canada. We do see them pretty often and they’ll watch us and maybe follow us at a distance for a little while but won’t attack when people are around.

[stolen_virtue]

Leash, leash, leash !

I had the unfortunate experience of seeing two springers off leash in my barn area go after two coyotes. The springers lost, one died and the other was badly wounded. It was middle of the day and the springers flushed the coyotes out. I was riding in the ring, there were no other people at the barn that day. The owner was hand walking her scared horse with her two springers and I said as I walked away that she might want to rethink 2 unleashed dogs.

We don’t have problems with the coyotes at the barn we see them quite often but I would never walk a dog unleashed in coyote territory. Even though those two dogs flushed out the coyotes, I was watching them since I was riding a couple of feet away in the ring, it is never a safe situation to have dogs off leash in areas known for coyotes.

[Casey09]

Wow - the coyotes approached with your brother walking the dog on a leash? How close did they get?
I would probably at least report the incident to animal control - it definitely sounds like you’ve got some pretty bold coyotes. I was walking with my dog a few years ago, and saw two coyotes in the distance, but they were chasing a deer. My dog definitely wanted to chase them and probably would have gotten into serious trouble if not for the leash. I can hear them at night, and I know they are in the field just behind us.
I do know that they can definitely be a problem with dogs. I am glad to hear that your dog was on a leash because coyotes can definitely lure your dog away from you and into danger. Do be careful even with your yard. I think that there was a documented report about a coyote jumping into a fenced yard with a beagle. I also knew a lady that had big LGDs. She always said that if it was just one of her dogs, the coyotes could pack up and kill the dog. I don’t know if she was being excessively worried, or not, but in packs they can definitely be scary to dogs. I’d ask AC what to do when walking, but what about carrying a golf club and waving it at them?

[CosMonster]

[QUOTE=Casey09;6002803]
I also knew a lady that had big LGDs. She always said that if it was just one of her dogs, the coyotes could pack up and kill the dog. I don’t know if she was being excessively worried, or not, but in packs they can definitely be scary to dogs.[/QUOTE]

I have known a full-grown (I think 3-4 years old) Great Pyrenees who was killed by a pack of coyotes. It can happen when they pack up. Heck, wolf packs can chase off bears, so it’s not surprising that a pack of coyotes could kill a LGD.

In the case I know, a female in heat lured him into a large arroyo where the rest of the pack was waiting. His owner saw much of it from the window but by the time she got out there he was dead.

[PanCake]

Interesting thread. Just out of curiosity why do coyotes lure dogs away to kill them? Is it for sport or is it because they are hungry?

[dangerbunny]

Not sure but one will lure the dog so the rest of the pack can move in, I had a coyote try to do that with my dog on a trail ride when we lived in the UP, luckily Sadie has a good recall and didn’t just chase.

[jetsmom]

My house backs up to about 300 acres of desert/arroyos/mountains. We have coyotes out here. I have a rock wall that is about 2’ tall with about 4 1/2 feet of wrought iron on top. Two nights ago a few coyotes caught a small dog behind my house. I heard the yelping/howling just on the other side of the wall/fence. I ran out there and yelled at them, and heard a small dog shrieking and then they ran off before I could get my flashlight to see if they were attacking a small dog or another coyote. The next day I saw a lost Chihuauhua ad on CL from someone who lives about 2 blocks away. Poor dog.
They’ve never tried to follow me on walks though. They stay out in the desert for the most part. And I walk every night around 9:30.

[CosMonster]

[QUOTE=PanCake;6002954]
Interesting thread. Just out of curiosity why do coyotes lure dogs away to kill them? Is it for sport or is it because they are hungry?[/QUOTE]

They do it so they can essentially ambush the dog. It’s a hunting strategy–they’ll lure the dog out into an area where the rest of the pack is waiting so the dog doesn’t have any real warning. Sometimes they’ll also do it to separate the dog from his own pack (any other dogs) or to get him away from people. They’re very clever animals. It’s done for food, not just because.