We have a lot of coyotes in our area and they actually avoid our property because of the dogs I think.

Most run like hell when they see a person, especially if you are in a more rural area when they are not as use to seeing people.

There was a case a bit south of me, in a more populated area when a woman was walking her dog and the dog (some small breed) was killed by a coyote. This is very, very, unusual.

I actually enjoy listening to them howl and call each other.

I've grown up in the backwoods of the Olympic Mtns, (Washington State) and I've seen MANY coyotes- some that would 'hide' in the middle of my arena as I worked my horses. Coyotes in the mtns, or in a semi rural area... I've never known them to be anything other then harmless. If you want them to go away, charge them. They are easily spooked by HUMANS, but as Michael said sometimes can be hard to spook with just a noise. Smart little buggers.

I wouldn't worry about a leashed dog, but I wouldn't let a small dog out in the dark off leash.

Ingrid- I've heard of that too, but never first hand. I believe wolves and dingos use similar tactics.

All right, I will not worry then. I will just holler and scream and wake up the whole neighborhood, I really don't care. They are supposed to have lights on in the whole complex and most of the lights have been off so now I will be a little noisy at 3 am. There was another coyote attack I think last year here on the Cape at 1 pm, again, a woman walking her lab. I guess it was just one of those crazy things that happen every now and then.

It's a horrible catch 22. We humans 'need' more land (or are just greedy...) and we get that land by taking it from the wild animals. They are now out of a home, and natural food sources. We're currently having a problem with Cougars in my home town. They are coming closer and closer to populated areas, and loosing fear of us. Sigh. Poor animals.

CJ,
yes, I think that that's the story. Very sad.

Kelly, actually, this is a fairly new development (six years old) which used to be deep woods and coyote land. So no wonder they are coming back. We have had wild turkeys and every wild animal that you can think of here on the sandbar.

Coyotes are KOS here due to their impact on live stock.
I still hear them howling at least once a week though......

 Quote: Ingrid Rosenquist

The coyotes in MT are wicked smart. They would probably leave you alone if your dog is leashed but all bets are off if the dog is loose. They are known in my area to use a coyote bitch as a decoy to lure a dog into their area and then the group will jump on and kill the dog.

I used to live in Toronto, and much of it is lakefront. A lot of it curves around creating little inlets and bays. There is one very popular dog beach called Cherry Beach. Across from Cherry beach there is a wildlife reserve. In the winter, the water freezes over thick enough for a dog to easily walk on. On several occasions, I heard of the coyotes sending out a smaller member of the pack, to lure out a small sized dog, and the group would ambush at a point on the ice where it was to thin for a person to run out. Pretty clever really.

Here, we generally get small dogs brought into the vet who have been attacked by coyotes, because they were tied out in the yard - unattended. We also had a large dog brought in recently for a bear attack, who had been tied out in the carport, with the garbage! The owners chased the bear away, left the dog there, and of course the bear came back. I work at a vet in a small town of only 10,000 people in the Kootenay mountains... there are bears everywhere! You can't just leave your dog basically tied to a bunch of food and expect nothing to happen!

/rant

 Quote: Will Rambeau

Coyotes are KOS here due to their impact on live stock.

Yes, there is no bag limit on them here either. Unfortunate in many cases. They are often on the receiving end of a teenager’s new pellet gun or hunting rifle out of sheer fact that “they can”. We have an old generational family on our 70 acres. We don’t run livestock (yet) so they haven’t caused any problems. They respect us and we give them their little corner.

What is really eerie though, we often have a fire and sit around after dark – on the odd occasion there may be an ambulance off in the distance and we hear howls, actually very close, coming from strategic points completely surrounding us. Yup, this is eerie and we don’t venture to far but again, they have never bothered us.

 Quote: Ingrid Rosenquist

The coyotes in MT are wicked smart. They would probably leave you alone if your dog is leashed but all bets are off if the dog is loose. They are known in my area to use a coyote bitch as a decoy to lure a dog into their area and then the group will jump on and kill the dog.

While this article discusses a wolf kill, the advice in it is what I would give for coyotes as well:

http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_974927c2-f9c4-11de-9546-001cc4c03286.html

Same thing in Idaho. When we lived San Diego they were very bold because they were used to living so close to humans. Hear, we rarely see them, but hear them plenty. I know they go down and drink with my horses, but they stay away from the house because we have had big dogs for so long and a chainlink fence. Still, I never let my fox terrier out in the yard at night w/o a big dog with her. And even then, I usually watch her with a flashlight while she does her business. As long as they don't bother me and mine, I leave them alone.