COYOTE QUESTION

Briarhoppers · Post by **Briarhoppers** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 2:24 pm

Trying to get answers regarding a dog that went missing b/c I am baffled as to what happened.

Here is the story. I'm running 3 dogs and they are on a rabbit - saw the rabbit jump and on the first circle past me, but couldn't get a shot. The dogs take the rabbit around again and the dogs are approx. 300 yards from me - and its thick as all get out. All of the sudden the dogs go silent.

I wait up to 5 min. expecting them to work it out and bring the rabbit on....nothing. I start walking towards them and calling. One of my dogs come flying past me and ignores my calling. I turn and go after him and leash him up. He is obviously shaking and frightened acting. I go on then to where I last heard them and called and called - nothing. After about 20 min. of calling a looking the second dog comes to me - - also shaking and scared. I leash her up and look and call for the 3rd dog until dark...nothing.

I go back 5 days straight to look and call for the dog - tell surrounding houses, etc. and nothing. The only thing I can figure is a coyote(s) got him at that moment when they went silent. But what I can't understand is how didn't hear anything - no fighting, no barking, no crying - nothing. Also, I haven't found any signs of a killed dog, but again it is very thick.

Has anyone had a verifiable loss of a dog to coyotes and never heard the coyotes attack? Is that possible?

ANTHONY KERR · Post by **ANTHONY KERR** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 2:55 pm

We don't have many of them here but we had at least one come in on a pack one day and ran behind yipping. I guess trying to call some back. I had one male disappear for the day. He showed up at a neighboring dog pen a few days later. He had been bitten in the rear end and around the neck. I don't know for sure but the puncture marks looked canine. I also had a female that was the best young dog I have owned to date just disappear off the face of the earth. Shock collar and all. She could solo a rabbit she jumped at eight months old. I never heard a whimper or squeal. All other dogs came back after a run except Honeybun. Still wonder what happened it was close enough to home that she would have showed up within a day. I would listen to other dogs running later that year to see if I could hear her yodeling bawl, but I never heard or saw her again.
Anthony

danny vansickle · Post by **danny vansickle** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:49 pm

i have witnessed a coyote attack,you would have known if one got him,the dog i was running with survived but was tore up,i will never forget the noise they made fighting,the only thing that saved the dog was that i shocked the dog while they where fighting and the coyote quit attacking and the dog came back,check the area for an old well,he may have fell in or something,i just think you would have heard them fighting.

four seasons · Post by **four seasons** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 5:18 pm

Had almost the same thing happen to me a few years back. Three dogs jumped ran about 100 yards in the brush. Heard one squeal one time. The other dogs came back 15 minutes later like nothing ever happened. Looked every where for the dog and came back every day for a while to look. Never seen it again. ??????????

D.Gross · Post by **D.Gross** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 6:37 pm

I think it is very possible your dogs had a coyote come in on them. The two you got back being all shook up would make me think a coyote spooked them. As for the the one missing, all things being equal she could have been grabbed just so that she was unable to yelp or cry. Know a young guy that was running two dogs with his father in August. Dogs were running a rabbit about 200 yds., away when they saw 4 coyotes enter the field. In no time flat they killed those two beagles and CARRIED them out of the field. He said there was very little sound.
Another sanerio is your missing dog might have run away from you before coyote caught up to it.
I feel for you. I hate the dang things and worry when running all the time. Especially at this time of the year when yotes are mating and get very territorial .

Joe P. · Post by **Joe P.** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:34 pm

Every time I have had coyotes come in on the dogs you could hear it.The only time I lost a dog that did not make a sound it was a mountain lion, and I was only about 50 yards from the dog.

EARLYBIRD · Post by **EARLYBIRD** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:50 pm

I will agree with Joe P a mountain lion can crush a dogs head and no sound I have them coming in all round me now, darn coyotes are bad enough but mountain lions too. I blame it all on the deer and Texas got the deer, since we got deer we got coyotes and now lions.

CHRIS WHITT · Post by **CHRIS WHITT** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:59 pm

I live in eastern ky and coyotes are just starting to populate heavy in this area.I lost 4 dogs to coyotes in one day,they attacked my dogs while they were chained up.And it has become very common to have coyotes show up to investigate when they hear a pack of hounds running.I did not see it in person but one of my friends seen coyotes cut off a pack of dogs on track and chase them off into the timber and only 2 of the 5 dogs were found and to this day if they hear ,see , or smell coyotes them run straight to the owner and refuse to hunt for the rest of the day.

MoBear · Post by **MoBear** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:30 pm

Lost my old male and old gyp last July. 11 month pup was in vet clinic for 3 days with punctured lung. Saw the coyotes. Mexican standoff - dogs were barking at 2 of them standing 25 yards away. They took off when I got close.
Pup used to whine and start shaking when coyotes were around.
She outgrew it.
I killed 3 young coyotes in the area but the 2 I saw was full-grown so I didn't get them.. Hunted several days looking for a piece of the old pair so I could bury them. Never found a thing. Tore me up.
What I don't understand is why Missouri closes coyote season during the whelping time. One coyote bitch shot could get rid of several.
This is one season closure I am not going to heed. I will just have to be written up.. It got personal..

MoBear · Post by **MoBear** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:37 pm

p.s. The old male never made a sound. The old gyp made a yip like she got hit by a thorn. The pup wasonly 50 yards from me and squalled. I hollered for her and that probably saved her. She had left the males and was headed back for the house. It was a different coyote than the ones I saw that hit her. I sometime wonder if the ones I saw was decoying my males while others were coming in behind them. When we pulled out of there, the whole creek lit up with 'yote howling.