Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Coyotes attacked my dog this morning

Got up this morning about 7:30 to let the dog out and make coffee. Wife and kids were still in bed. My dog is a 9 yr old 25lb. Jack Russel/Beagle mix and fiesty as hell. She has a radio collar so can not get out of the yard. Anyway, as I was making coffee, I hear what sounds like a dog fight and then her yelping. I ran out back onto the deck and see two large coyotes on either side of my dog. I yelled and the two coyotes retreated to the edge of the woods about 30 yards from me. I reached for my 38 special and realized that my holster was empty and the gun was still in my bedroom. I know I had litte chance of hitting one with my little snubby but I would have popped a few rounds in their direction anyway. My dog finally came back to the house and I ran upstairs, grabbed a 357 mag and took a walk into the woods. Of course they were long gone. I was sure that my dog was going to be torn up but the only damage I could find was a puncture wound on her right shoulder. She seems fine otherwise.

Good to hear she is ok. I live on the edge of town and we get deer and antelope in the yard. Would not be surprised to find a coyote either, as we have had black bears wander through town. I would sure keep an eye your pup now. Those coyotes figure they found a meal.

sounds like time to keep a rifle by the door

Klll 'em.

Sorry to hear that. You've probably already done it - antibiotics to the max. For puncture wounds I flush the wound with a plastic syringe filled with Bactine (or whatever is handy) with the tip inserted into the hole.

Those damn song dogs was looking for a easy meal. Keep your rifle-shotgun close.

I now have a .22 rifle sitting in the corner by the back door. We are inside city limits but there are no houses behind us for a couple miles. I stuffed the wound with bacitracin and will have a vet check her out tomorrow. My dog takes her job of patrolling the property pretty seriously. No doubt that had I not gone outside, she would have been coyote breakfast.

I have a 22mag with a scope on it right over the entrance door for that very reason- one tried that with our Jack a month ago and I laid him out in the snow right at the edge of the woods.

Yep, got a scoped single shot .223 and my '92 .357 close enough to grab if they come in the yard. Of course my model 60 is on me unless I am nekkid. Any time I pull on my britches I stick it in my belt then finish dressing, but would much rather have a long gun fer critter management.

Close one, TDC. Glad your buddy is OK; if it's a single puncture wound, trust your bacitracin remedy is fine, doc :-) Utahlefty would know best. Really empathize with ya. We live on in a wooded yup-ville overrun with small game, near ft bragg perimeter which is overrun with LOTS of coyotes (and at least one red wolf). We don't let our dogs off leash at night. Actually, prolly the excuse i need to get a concealed for daytime woods walks here too, i suppose. Frankly, hope you get to pop a couple of the bastids; suspect they'll be back.

That's a good option to have, especially at night when you aren't going to be seeing that far anyway.

I made some felt lined wooden blocks that had three half circles cut on one side of them, one tube size, one barrel size, and one mag light size. (Mine was on a Winny 9422M, you may not have a tube IDK) with a hole through the other direction for a bolt and a wing nut. Two pair of these will mount a flashlight under your barrel and can be taken on or off easily.

That was my preferred carry when I was checking traps often in the evening. If you get in a hurry, the center of the circle of light up close, within 50 yrds or so, is usually just as good as finding the cross hairs, even if it takes a few rounds. Well cross hairs are better if you have time to find them. I don't know how the light is in the back yard of the original poster, but if a mag light reaches beyond it, he could cover a lot more ground out there from his porch this way.

Or you could do it with a rail too.

I'd hang out in the back yard when my pooch needed to go for a while just the same and lock the doggy door for a while if you have one of those.

I go thru this often! Most of the time at night, coyote's, skunks,coons, the occasional feral dog..and ringworm wonders why I keep a G17 with laser grips and a flashlight on the acc rail by the door..

Tough little dog. Glad she wasn't badly hurt.

Keep a 12 gauge beside the door at all times. Even if they haven't got to a pet ot livestock,sting themg ood and they keep away from your place.Better if you can kill them.

I'd guess territorial imperatives played as much a part as predation, coyotes hate dogs prob'ly as much as they hate other intruding coyotes. On a couple of occasions I've had coyotes ghost after me in the brush, clearly focusing on my dog.

Down here the coyotes are all tuning up and singingfor the next breeding season about now

In fact I've read on these boards of guys using their dogs as a lure when coyote hunting.

Sounds like you got the perfect set up for an ambush

Birdwatcher

I have always questioned the value of those collars. They might well keep your dog inside the boundary of your yard, but they sure won't keep other dogs or critters from coming in.

Glad your pup survived this close encounter of the yodeling kind.

I've got a Jack Russell that has been attacked by a coyote too. he seems to be a coyote magnet as there are at least two other times that he has been aproached by coyotes looking for a meal.

I was in my shop at at last light preparing for a night mountain bike ride when I heard Spark yip and squeal. At first I disregarded it as he is always trapping lizards or cottontails and 'asking' for help in moving a rock to get at them. At about the ten second mark my hair stood up and I knew what was happening and raced outside the shop. A single coyote had him pinned to the ground by his throat and was waiting for the air to run out. He let go when I yelled and ran at him.





Spark had five puncture marks on his neck and throat and was very stiff the nbext day but survied fine. I was PO'd to say the least. I bought a cheap electronic call the next day and put on my camo's and sat behind the fence in the sagebrush at twilight. In my naievity I assumed I would see the coyote coming from a distance if it did (which I did not expect). So I had my 3006 and was sitting cross legged with the rifle on my lap. After 15 seconds of calling a coyote skidded to a stop 20 feet from me, dang, should have had the shotgun. I stood up as it took off and I hoped to get a shot as it came out of the wash behind the house. A second coyote skidded to a stop at the same spot as the first so all I had to do was drop the muzzle and squeeze. A 180 nosler partition will kill a coyote at 20 paces!

Big exit wound not fit for viewing on the opposite side, could have placed a softball in the hole.

I used it as and excuse to become a coyote hunter and more importantly convinced the Wife that having a new Tikka in .223 was important in defending the pets against coyotes. Now Spark and I hunt coyotes together.

Just got back from the morning walk with this guy, his favorite thing in the world to do is chase coyotes into the next county. This morning he chased one down into a swamp, around in the swamp for a few minutes, and then up the hill and over on the other side, about a half-mile. I didn't have a camera but I've caught him a few other times:









I take him to a couple of local spots, and he's good at cutting a trail, flushing 'em out, and chasing but they're fast enough that he rarely catches up except on an old one or in deep snow. They always run unless there's more than two, then they'll stand to fight. He's been in a few scrapes but I'm always close by and they don't hang around when I come running up yelling like a madman.

We have too many around here and they tend to lose their fear of humans and dogs; the way I look at it, we're just performing a public service by putting the fear back in 'em.

But can you believe it, I've had people try to lecture me about "wildlife harassment" when they see him chasing one.

Waiting for an opertunity to shoot them isn't likely to work well.

I suggest this:

http://mdc.mo.gov/landown/wild/nuisance/coyotes/snare.htm

http://www.wildlifemanagement.info/files/coyotes_8.pdf

I don't carry a gun when checking traps. I have a thumping stick. It's a 6 foot straight branch of hickory. I screwed down a 1.5 inch nut, then stacked on body washers about 3/4" thick, and put on another 1.5 inch nut. Then I wedged it like a hammer head. The reson I don't shoot animals is that I want minimal blood at the snare sight so I can reuse it. If I do get some blood I'll remove what I can by taking away the blood soaked weeds and leaves, then anything I can't take away I'll spray with 3% hydrogen peroxide.

If I do shoot it's with a 22 short CB cap. One in the eye is fatal and leaves little blood.

Often when you find them they are already dead.

Good to hear all the dogs are OK and to the people who give you a hard time about wild life harassment tell them to KISS YOUR ASS,your LOYAL LOVING DOG IS WORTH A HELL OF ALLOT MORE, than any stinking coyote.