Here is a nice article on the growing conflicts between urban coyotes and people.
It includes advice on how to avoid coyote attacks. Don’t feed them. Keep dogs on a leash. Don’t leave pets unattended (especially if they are smaller than the coyote).
But I have one problem with the advice given: “Residents are warned…not to yell or throw rocks at coyotes so they associate humans with bad things.”
Actually, the problems with coyotes is that they are associating people with good things– yummy cats and small dogs, pet food, and good hunting grounds for voles and mice.
Wild animals are better living with us if they do associate us with horrible things. A coyote or bear that fears people above all other things is not going to attack people.
Where I grew up coyotes are common, yet they’ve never attacked anyone. They’ve killed scores of free roaming cats and small dogs, but they avoid people and large dogs at all costs. Why?
Because where I grew up, hunting coyotes with packs of hounds is a common activity. A coyote that has been run by a back of foxhounds is going to be very unwilling to come near domestic dogs of that size for any reason.
Further, people do shoot them. At first, shooting coyotes started when people believed (and some still do believe) that coyotes are a mortal danger to people or that coyotes were going to kill all the deer. They soon discovered that coyotes are nearly impossible to call in and shoot. They are easily as challenging as a game species as wild turkeys are, and in my state, there is no limit on how many can be killed or any set hunting season for coyotes.
Despite what that article says, local animal control would be better off putting the fear of humans and domestic dogs into the local coyotes. And we do have a model for doing so.
In Alberta, British Columbia, and Montana, Karelian bear dogs (one of those laika/elkhound types from Finland) are being used to “haze” bears that come too close to human habitation. This hazing teaches the bears that associating humans with food will get them shot with rubber bullets and barked at by annoying black and white dogs that bark really loud.
I don’t see why a similar model couldn’t be applied to urban coyotes.
Actually, in Vermont, there is a bill pending to allow a registered ‘farm dog’ or such to bark at coyotes & thus not be reported as a nuisance barker. So if you have livestock, it would be okay for your dog to bark at coyotes, once you pay a registration fee. It would be nice if this goes through.
Besides the dog, we shoot bottle rockets toward coyotes. I don’t really want to fire a gun off into the dark, even if it is woods (& I can see their eyes.) I really don’t want to be friends with coyotes, nor does my dog, nor do my sheep. I have electonet, decent fencing, and lighting. I’m willing to coexist with coyotes, as long as they stay in their niche.
We shoot coyotes here, and then run them down with foxhounds.
In 1976 Ray Coppinger started to bring in livestock guard dogs from Europe and set up a program making them accessible to sheep raisers through Hampshire College in Ma. While New Zealand style fencing is a great thing, having a guard dog or 2 is the best canid protection for sheep ever, especially in areas where there are not only coyotes but loose dogs.
I don’t believe shooting, trapping and poison are effective means of coyote control. I think all it does is cull a few of the bolder, less cautious ones, leaving more secretive animals to breed and create a more adaptive, less observable urban predator. I think the answer is the effective use of dogs.
Back when I farm sat for a sheep breeding friend, I would take great comfort in hearing the Pyr patrol the farm. Nothing got near the property on her watch.
It leaves you with the more devious ones– I will say that.
But people hunt coyotes for sport where I live, using dogs or calling them in like turkeys, using a call called a squealer.
I would use a Great Pyr, but I have only 10 acres, and my understanding is that they need a larger area to be happy (or whatever word you want to use). Also, if you’ve only owned bird dogs, it’s a big stretch to get your mind around relating to a livestock guardian breed — they’re just so different.
Ms ann thorpe, I believe you are right about shooting, trapping, & poison being ineffective for the reasons you have stated. As I think I said, we believe we had a stable pack (unit) of coyotes for several years & it is only this winter that we have heard (but not seen) a bunch of others.
Electronet/New Zealand style fencing is useless in the snowy winters up here, but it is great for summer rotational grazing. I have considered something of the donkey/burro/jackass sort but cannot have llamas, as for some unknown reason, they take one look at my partner & spit at him! We also utilize the ‘male humans urinate outside’ protocol. My new (formerly suburban) neighbor is objecting to my lighting. He does not seem to understand that canids could dig under my fog-panel fence — despite the fact that his brother’s dog ate chunks out of 2 of my ram lambs!
Shirley,
My one experience with this Pyr was that she considered her territory to be the farm across the road ( no stock) and the farm just north of her ( no stock). She wasn’t bonded with her sheep as my friend’s husband would sneak her in when his wife’s back was turned. So she was rather indifferent to the sheep, but she would not tolerate an alien canid of any sort near her property.
She had over 80 acres on her side of the road, but kept within probably a 10-15 acre boundary. Also, I got very used to her “I’m on Duty” barking. It was just a “woof,woof” sort of thing. I would wake up though the second her “Get Off My Property NOW!” bark resonated into my sleeping consciousness. Wish I had an audio recording of the difference in timbre.
My friend also ran a B and B. There was the couple who ignored my friend when they asked about bringing their GR and brought him anyway. Sure enough, they let him out in the morning at which time he went through the fence up by the barn where it was wooden panels. The owners couldn’t catch him as he was having too much fun with the ewes and lambs. My friend let the Pyr in. She had the GR on his back begging for mercy without a bite mark on him, and in less time than it takes me to write about it!
For a LGD, I recommend the following breeds:
Maremma
Šarplaninac
Kangal/Akbash dog/Anatolian shepherd (they are relatives)
Kuvasz, Slovensky Cuvac, Polish Tatra sheepdog, Komondor, South Russian sheepdog,
And if you really want to keep the coyotes out and everything else out as well:
Get either a Caucasian Ovtcharka or a Central Asian Ovtcharka.
Lots of Great Pyrs are too soft for the work.
Yes, my friend was lucky with her Pyr. Since it’s not a popular breed with a large following here in the US, the emphasis has been on winning in the show ring, not for work as a guard dog. I was really trying to emphasize how valuable a good guard dog is for whatever
livestock of choice you have, more than to extol the virtues of modern Pyrs.
What kind of doofus lets their dog out loose on a strange farm?
Actually, my previous Golden chased off any stray dogs who came around. If my dogs had been home when my neighbor’s brother’s dog came over to attack my ram lambs, we likely wouldn’t have had a problem. Or if that dog had gotten
into the big rams’ pens, he would have been toast. Another friend’s Shetlands put a Pit Bull in the (veterinary) hospital.
If I had 40 or 50 acres (some day, I hope), I would definitely get a LGD. I know there are various problems with Pyrs, but I believe if you are careful & get one from working lines, you might find a good one. A friend had a Maremma I greatly admired. He was very well-socialized with humans. I tend to like the Maremma & the Kuvasz a lot, but I haven’t really met a lot of LGDs.
Since coyotes are not my idea of a tasty supper, I don’t really want to shoot them unless I have to. Plus, I don’t think there is a bounty on them. But if you use LGDs, you can always market your beef/lamb/wool as “predator-friendly.”
If you want a dog that will keep everything out of a sheep pasture, get a Caucasian ovtcharka.
It’s a big dog, much larger than the other LGD’s, but virtually all of them are from really close working lines that have been selected to defend themselves against wolves (although a wolf can still kill one).
If I had sheep, that’s what I’d get. But they are a lot more dog than virtually any other breed.
No one eats coyotes, except wolves. Their fur isn’t even that valuable.
The only experience I’ve had with coyotes close up for any long period of time is when I was given about a 2week old pup and told that it’s mother was shot by the miners, and I was told it was a dog.
Later I found out that it was a coyote that was shot and someone had regrets and sent it to me to be cared for, the vet told me it was coyote and that natural resources would just kill it and that I should just keep it if I wanted to keep it alive, he said that many coyotes mix with dogs so if there is one drop dog in her, than she is a dog, and there was no way proving different (before DNA) .
She was the best “dog” ever, and since I lived connected to the wild and we spent 1/3 of our time in the forests, she did very well to stay with me, loyal, fun, safe, protective saved mine and my kids lives a few times from animals and men, taught my kids to walk by lending her back for them to hang on, easily to train could see hear smell human and wild animals in the woods for extremely long distances and quietly signal me, she was beautiful, except her hair was a mess come spring to about July, but with a good cut during that time she almost looked like a dog, and she loved fetching things. eventually a couple of niebors went and got themselves one, because they liked her so well, It didn’t turn out so great with them, I think they got theirs too old because theirs never became as smart as mine. It tears me up to see them hunted and skinned… but I know mine was an unusual situation.