Quote: phaedra rieff

 Quote: Mara Jessup

Raccoons are an entirely different story....

Raccoons (at least in Toronto), are basically home invaders. If your door is open, a mom will lead her whole family right on in. Has happened a couple times to my dad, who doesn't like air conditioning...

Here the Racoons are 10 times worse than the foxes and coyotes. We have all three even though we live in what is considered the middle of a city. We are only a mile from a large river with an urban wilderness and some plain ole wilderness not far on the other side of that.

At the lake there are houses, but most of them only occupied on the weekends and lots of woods and natural food sources the racoons can be a real problem. We have a fox family living on the property but other than scaring the crap out of Loki with their alien sounds are not problem at all.

I have been cornered by racoons, Nico was inside so mad I thought she was going to come through the glass and all I had was a broom so I wacked the you know what out of it, it didn't run even then just backed off enough that I could get in the door.
I have been charged by BIG males hissing and snarling when I was doing nothing more than walking my dog.

In contrast I see coyotes regularly trotting down the road, or just sitting off in the trees watching, but they have never bothered us beyond curiousity and a little bit of following.

I have been able to scare them off using a little bit of yelling and clapping and a few steps worth of a bluff charge.
If they were desparate or sick I am sure it would be different, but for the most part I am just careful and watchful of them.

I am sure if I kept livestock or chicken I would feel differently, and I would never let a small dog off leash in an area where they are known to be. Overall I sort of enjoy them.... at a distance!

I don't have time to read though the entire thread. The first few posts suggest that Coyotes wont attack a human or on leash dog walking with a human.

I live in NY (Long Island to be specific) and just this morning there are reports that a Coyote attacked a human this past weekend and in fact when it was killed it had the head of one of its pups in its mouth!!! It ripped the pups head off in its frenzy.

This happened in a suburb here about 50 miles away. There have been many Coyote sightings right in NYC.

Obviously I would avoid them at all costs. Here is my questions. Coyotes are about 35-40lbs. Would the average GSD or 80 lb Pit be able to hold its own with one of these?

Or is it because the Coyotes are wild animals its a different ball game?

We have coyotes in the town I live in, probably because although the area has a population of 30,000+ we are surrounded by lots of uninhabited (by humans) land. And parts of this land are nature preserves. When I first moved here I had no idea there were coyotes in town and lost half a litter of Malinois pups who were outside in the yard in the evening while their mom had some "alone time" in the house. The yotes jumped the fence and killed 4 pups, then something must have scared them off because they left taking only 1 body with them. The other 4 pups were able to hide. Now pups are never outside without being supervised, and with at least 2 adult dogs. I've still seen yotes waltzing up the street I live on, and on more then one occasion standing at the end of my driveway (it's a normal town driveway, ie short) listening to the sounds of puppies coming from the window.

Keeping small dogs on a leash helps, but only if it's a 6 foot leash. If it's a flexi-lead it allows the dog to get to far from the human, and a coyote will snatch and run, it's happened in this area.

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Here is my questions. Coyotes are about 35-40lbs. Would the average GSD or 80 lb Pit be able to hold its own with one of these?

I think the size depends on where you are, I'd have to do some googling but I would not be surprised to find the Coyotes in my area are bigger. Many that I see are the size of my Malinois. My sister and I used to run into them when we were out trail riding, there was one that hung out near the stables and would follow us on our rides, and actually play with my sister's dog, and they were very close in size.

In a 1 on 1 I think a large dog would be OK, in part because a Coyote is probably just going to be trying to get away, but if the dog was lured off it was probably by a pack, and 1 dog against a pack of Coyotes is dead, even if it's a big dog.

My husband used to hunt coyotes with his Fox Hounds. A single Fox Hound that knew what it was doing could kill a coyote in less than a minute. If there wasn't a wise dog in a pack that bayed the coyote they would keep it corraled until the hunter got there and shot it.
Fox Hounds aren't much bigger than coyotes.

A coyote encounter with Beagles hunting rabbits didn't go so well for the Beagles.

Deer overpopulation is a huge problem in many parts of the US, especially Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the D.C. area. I'm not suprised that coyotes are taking advantage of this food source, as they easily adapt to human activity, and thrive in human-influenced environments. White-tail deer are destroying the forests by over-browsing, and kill far, far more people (and pets) than coyotes or wolves directly through vehicular collisions and more indirectly though Lyme disease.
A reasonable discussion on coyotes and wolves in the US is so difficult because of (absoultely resonable) ramped up emotions on both sides. However, I think coyotes are here to stay no matter what we do. And I'd be much more worried about my dogs being killed by snares, poison, or accidental shooting if coyote control measures were introduced in this area- than I am about a coyote attack. I think some hunting pressure is important to keep coyotes wild, and retain their fear of humans. Hounds, and trained sharp shooters (at least in developed areas) might be a good way to go about this.
Anyway, I ramble. And, yes, we have had a cat killed by a coyote. We now keep our cats inside.

Our hired man hunts coyotes on his land. He used to use coonhounds, but after his good bitch was ripped to shreds he gave that up.
The present method is to nail a dead calf or road kill to a tree within rifle shot of a hiding place - when the coyote stands up to take the bait, it is shot.

I don't permit that here. Seems kind of cheap to me.

Open season on them here.
If they're a problem or issue....they disappear.
Otherwise they're free to live their life as it is.

Debbie, my grandfather used to do the same thing with his foxhounds! He began by accident, with green dogs that grabbed the wrong scent, ended up running a coyote rather then a fox or coon. Silly pups. This was easily 50 years ago though, in the backwoods of Tennessee. I never saw it happen, but he said his dogs would easily take out a coyote. Never had any injuries. He had more trouble with big pissy coons they the coyotes. He had some amazing dogs though, and THE BEST stories of hunts!!

I am not suggesting we should kill anything. Of course to protect my dogs I would do whatever it takes. I was wondering if Jeter happened to get attacked by a Coyote while on a walk should I get in the middle of it or let him take the thing out himself?

Jeter is dog aggressive and I figured he would chase a coyote off with his posture if they were stupid enough to attack him.