My wife is divorcing me over coyotes

[Ronbo]

I attended Elk Grove high school in the 70s. Students rode their horses to school and turned them out on the football field. There were spitoons in the classes and more girls than guys dipped. My wife was born and raised in West Sac an her best fiend still lives in Elk Grove. I am very happy that my FIL decided to sell his two rental houses so I will not hve to move back there to take care of them

Ron

 

[Tom_H]

Elk Grove's population is now over 130,000. Instead of 1 high school, there are 12. Eight of them have over 3,000 students. There are 8 middle schools and 39 elementary schools. (The school district extends beyond the city limits-all the way to Rancho Cordova.) EGHS still has an award winning Ag program, but nobody rides horses to school any more. Even the little community of Franklin has been overrun with sprawl. A few in Sheldon have horses, but Wilton is the place most folks come to for horses. You wouldn't recognize Elk Grove at all.

 

[MotorSeven]

No need to argue. We are discussing COYOTES not KIOTIS

Ohhhhh....good one Bob!

 

[JimMorrissey]

The way I understood the coy dog thing is a stray female dog in heat gets knocked up by a male coyote.She raises the pups.

I think if you read well regarded wildlife biology literature you'll find no evidence of "coydog" existence. It's hard for people to believe because they've heard the facts from their fathers, brothers, or uncles for years about coydogs running in packs killing all the deer and attacking hunters and campers. There is zero evidence of "coydogs" living in any part of this country. It's pretty easy for state biologist and university studies to determine through DNA testing. It's an ongoing argument between wildlife biologists and the hunting community. I'll put my money on the university DNA tests.

Eastern coyote is a pretty good sized animal. They can easily get as big as a medium sized german shepard. This might be part of the confusion, but obviously can't say for sure. The perception is of a scrawny little coyote scrabbling around in the brush...not a big healthy 60lb male. Very interesting topic non-the-less......for me at least

 

[EddieWalker]

I know a dog trainer in California that works guard dogs in Oakland. He does maintenance training the several of the police department canine units in the East Bay also.

He's very well known in his field and in my opinion, a dog expert.

He has, or used to have a coyote crossbreed. According to him, it was half coyote. It wasn't very large and kind of scrawny looking, but definiately looked like a coyote to me. Of course, I'm no expert and only relaying what he told me.

He used this animal as an alert for his Rots. If you put a Rotweiler in a car lot or other location for security, it's likely that it won't wake up if somebody enters the perimiter. They are conisidered "lazy" dogs. Not my words, his. They are incredibly powerful and can do some amazing damage, but they are just not very alert.

He has all sorts of little dogs that he pairs up with his Rots for this reason, including the coyote cross. That was his favorite dog for this because of how nothing ever got past it.

I don't know about DNA testing or if he was right about the dog or not. It's my only first hand knowledge of such an animal existing.

Eddie

 

[JimMorrissey]

Lots of dog and wolf DNA is being found in the coyotes.

Just out of curiosity....where did you get this information about lots of dog DNA mixed with coyotes? I'd be interested in reading that.

 

[RedRocker]

No need to argue. We are discussing COYOTES not KIOTIS

Plus, it's not neighborly to shoot someone's tractor.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

He has, or used to have a coyote crossbreed.

One thing to question is was this a human involved interbreeding? Most of the cases of CoyDogs and DogYotes that I know of involve the intentional interbreeding of the species by their human owners.

To nobody in particular, I'm pretty much in line with JimM on the whole thing about their existance in the wild. Jim and diverge where he doesn't seem to find any evidence of their existence in the wild and I am understanding that it is a very very rare occurance. In any case, I don't believe that, in the wild, you can find much supportable evidence to show regular interbreeding of the species such that a new strain of animals commonly called a coy-dog is in existance. I did search around the internet a bit and found many references to coy-dogs, but not much scientific evidence to common cross breeding. Plenty of scientific skepticism.

As to the problem at hand, with coyotes who have lost their fear of man, to those there is, unfortunately only one solution. Death. I stand by my first post in this thread.

 

[PBinWA]

Just out of curiosity....where did you get this information about lots of dog DNA mixed with coyotes? I'd be interested in reading that.

I believe it was in this book (which of course I lent to someone and never got back so I can't verify):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/02...8392/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-6693303-1820762?ie=UTF8

A review of this book is also found here:

http://www.cal.net/~pamgreen/coppinger.html

It's a good book if you want to look at dogs and canines from the perspective of a biologist.

Let me know if I'm full of s--t since its been a few years since I read the book. Basically, the message the book presented was that due to over hunting and crowding due to reduced wildlife lands along the east coast that the different canine species have appeared to inter-breed at a greater rate than those on the west coast.

PB

 

[EddieWalker]

Bob,

I have no idea how he came across the cross bread coyote, or like I said, if it really was one. I just took his word for it and thought it looked like a coyote at the time. I've never seen or met anybody who's seen a cross breed in the wild, but that really doesn't mean anything either.

If their are animals that are threatening your family, like the original post suggested, then it doesn't matter what it is. I'm gonna do what I can to keep them as safe as possible. I still think it was probable dogs gone ferel that are the problem in most cases and doubt coyotes would mess with adult humans, or a group of humans. A small child left alone is a different story. In that situation, it's proven fact that coyotes will attack.

Last night Steph and I were watching the carcase of a hog I shot. Two coyotes were working around the edges of the brush, circling around it. We were hidding in some trees trying to get a few pics when they winded us. Instantly they forgot about the free meal and took off. Both were in good shape and probably around 40 pounds.

Steph was scared from being so close to them, maybe 50 yards, but we were never in any danger since they won't mess with adults.

When I'm out hunting, I like to stay out to last light. This is true for me no matter where I'm at, or how long it takes to get back to camp. I've walked many hours in the dark by myself without any fear of them. I've heard as many as a dozen one time in Idaho that were all around me, but they would never get any closer than 30 or 40 yards. It's hard to be sure since it was dark out.

Ferel dogs are a totally different matter. When I see one out in the woods, I shoot it. I've never been attacked, but have met people who said they have been. I don't know for sure, but the few times I've seen ferel dogs, it's been 50/50 on aggressive and timid.

Eddie