Last night as the dogs and I went for our late night walk I got to thinking about dogs and coyotes.
Dogs are pretty good at knowing if there are predators out there…on the edges of where you are working/traveling/going.
Some of the signals a dog will give you are pretty obvious…acting nervous, jumping, or turning around and looking in a certain direction.
The next thing you will know the dogs will be right by you, as close to you as possible—like Fuzzy trying to crawl on me as I was working on the end of the pipe. Dogs have a very good idea of who is there and what they have on their mind. (What I was afraid of was very old dog as supper!–Coyotes are very good at drawing out a dog to attack them.)
Sometimes people have witnessed coyotes and dogs playing together. Usually it is one dog and one coyote playing just like two dogs would play (or two coyotes would play). But for every story of a dog and coyote playing together there are many, many more stories of dogs being attacked and even killed. Usually dragging the dog off to other parts.
Coyotes look like dogs. They can bark like dogs. They can seem as playful as dogs. But one thing you need to remember…they are not pets.
Along towards evening, the coyotes come out and start their day. You can hear them make all sorts of sounds throughout the night. Go here and click on each sound ….the calls of the coyote!
The sound I hate the worst is the the sound of a whole group of them together…sends shivers up and down my spine. Also, makes Fuzzy and Boomer whine and slink really close to me. Or they will sit in the yard, point their noses to the heavens and howl back a very mournful sound. Long and lonely and filled with sadness.
When I hear them in the distance we ALWAYS return home…at a rather fast clip I might add.
When a coyote howls it isn’t in the full of the moon…nope. Right here, where I live, it is always in the dark of the moon. Adds to creepy because it’s harder to see out there in the night.
The coyote yips are usually in great jubilation since they have caught something and are going to have a feast.
I was just sent this clip from Jan. She saw it on the Denver News Station…
Coyote attacks man and dog on campus at Boulder, Colorado. That is on the other side of the Rocky Mountain range from us–on the Eastern Slope. So you see coyotes are everywhere. Please take care if you are in coyote land!
Well, once again I rattled on long enough about coyotes. I guess I write about them so much because…well, they live right here with us. Terry and I have both been warned to stay away from their dens and even stalked until we get into a range they consider acceptable.
One of the good things about the fire we had three years ago was it moved the coyotes out. They had denned up close to the equipment area and at the upper end of the last field making it hard to do our work.
We know they are here, but so far they are at the far reaches of our farm—that is where they need to stay. Or move on. I like the idea of move on!
Your farm friend,
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 
Some of those sound clips are quite spooky!
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i agree – the celebratory singing is hard to take, sometimes, as i wonder if it is one of my neighbors’ goats, calves or cats…
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Coyotes are scary. Thankfully they are afraid of us here. They will run away. Unless you encounter a pup, they will follow, just being curious to the horse and dogs.
I did have to chase after jakes old dog one day. We were riding and came upon a den. The howling that started, omg! Razor took off after one coyote, the other coyote took off after her! I took off after all of them hollering the whole way. Razor didn’t get hurt. But that was scary!
Cheri
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I guess I shouldn’t complain about the occasional gopher we get in our yard.
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Very spooky..we get Bee-elka here in bg. Thats not the correct spelling but it sounds right. They are nasty creatures that attack chicken coops and kill the chickens.
stay safe, especially when walking at night
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Sounds like our dingos, or the feral dogs which have become such a problem. In a pack, they’ll attack anything, but they’re only a problem further out west, they don’t venture too close to the coast.
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Well done Linda. Coyotes like dingoes are not to be trusted – they are wild animals.
Beats me why people at camping areas here don’t read signs: “Don’t feed dingoes”.
Then they wonder why they and their children get attacked!!!!
I guess some people will never learn?
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The sound of coyotes gives me the creeps too. We used to hear them everynight at Aspen Meadows — not as often here; although coyotes killed one of our neighbor’s lambs last week. What I really hate is the scream an animal (rabbit?) makes as it is being attacked — and then that jubulant yipping. Shivers, definitely.
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OMG! I listened to a few of the coyote sounds. They’re TERRIFYING! And Cupcake didn’t like them any better than I did! Yikes. Be careful!
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We hear more about them, in more places. They do sound eerie. I’d head for home, too. Hopefully, they will keep their distance.
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The night time is their time. Be careful out there…..you should be armed. They are ferocious predators. Here they take down lambs and full grown sheep. We shoot them on sight.
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There were few if any coyotes east of the Mississippi when I was a kid. Now they’re quite common. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the country, suburbs or city, there have been more than one report of coyotes along the lake shore in Milwaukee and Chicago. They just happily walked themselves across the various bridges we’ve built across the Mississippi and made themselves very much to home. A friend of mine almost lost their dog right out of their yard in one of the older neighborhoods of Chicago. They were along the canal where my business was located and we had to be very careful leaving at closing time or later. Often heard them celebrating a kill. Better to be careful them find out they’ve decided to attack you and your dog(s).
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Fortunately, “our” pack – the closest bunch – is still afraid of humans. They don’t bother me, and help keep the rat and rabbit population down… In other parts of the island people have ignored the warnings about leaving pet food outside (or have deliberately fed them) and there they have problems with bold animals that have to be removed.
My friend Karla raises Belted Galloway cattle. Since she got a llama to guard, she hasn’t lost a single newborn calf to the coyotes!
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these are beautiful observations, Linda…I can’t really imagine what it’s like to live with real wild life that close at all times. I take it from what you say that the coyotes are sometimes dangerous for humans too… a safe respect is required, clearly.
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Like you the sound I hate the most is when the whole pack is yipping and howling. I know then they have caught something or one of the pack has bought in food. Makes my skin crawl and hair stand up all over!! By the end of the month we’ll be hearing them more as they feed on baby fawns. I hate the beast and it doesn’t matter that they are feeding their young!!
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Hi Linda, my dog Franny did play with coyotes when she was younger, and she loved it, as much as the young coyote. But her beginnings were different and she had ‘street credibility’ like no other. When she turned 5-6 years years old, she stopped seeking out play with them, and like wise, she was mature now.
My other dogs have always been careful and leery of coyotes, which I like. We have been on hikes and heard them very close by, yapping and yipping and while it terrified me, my dogs took a wider path and were not bothered by it.
If I am walking and see fresh scat from another predator, we make a detour and head home. I try to be super respectful of this!
Stay safe, Nancy
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Its tough isn’t it with humans and wild animals sharing the same space
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We have coyotes here in Wisconsin too. About a year ago a neighborhood farmer and his friends were chasing one that was killing his calves….their dogs got it cornered on our property and they chased it right up in front of our garage! The dogs ended up killing it in our driveway. Not pretty! I don’t see them very often, but I know they’re around.
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Oh, don’t get me started on coyotes!! They will come right close to the house…I have electric fences around my chickens, plus buried chicken wire to keep anything from digging under the inner fence. I don’t like their yelps and howls either, but it is o.k. if they are far, far away.
Blessings!
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Every time I hear the pack of coyotes in my neck of the woods doing their, “We’re chasing something, we’ve caught it, we’ve killed it!” yips/yaps, I always wonder what it must have been like back in pioneer days. Some poor woman from the city gets talked into going west in a wagon and encounters that sound for the first time. It sounds exactly like I would expect ghosts/spirits to sound and gives me the willies. I would have jumped on the nearest horse and headed back east.
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Stay safe all of you!
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We can tell when they or Wolves are moving through…Chance wants in the house! I can hear them in the distance…I don’t like them either:(
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Coyotes sound like scary creatures. Do they attach humans?
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You and your dogs will never fight off a hungry pack and how they work here is lone hunters and when they have something the yapping begins and the rest come in to help 😦 stay safe and carry a big GUN 🙂 we have a open season here besides we are allowed to protect ourselves well so far anyway 🙂 Have a wonderful Memorial Day.
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Yes, definitely move on I’d say too! Thanks for this post Linda, I didn’t know much about them before reading this 🙂
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