I need to get my sheep on more pasture, just when they really want to graze I lock them up into a shed because we have a huge coyote problem. Tryiing shooting, not a good shot I guess. Can't trap because their are cattle out their and horses. I want to try that poutry idea from Joel Sanatinos book. Coyotes will eat them the first night. Want to get a dog, havent the foggiest idea on how to train, and if I buy as a puppy my horses will kick it for sure. Don't want a dockey because it will have to be with the horses not the sheep (my set up) not iinterested in llamas. What is involved with the dog. anyone know what I need to do. The coyotes play cards on my front porch at night! Thanks, Debbie

-- Debbie Wolcott (bwolcott@cwis.net), September 16, 2000

Answers

Wish I could help you but we are having tremendous problems with coyotes ourselves!They've attacked my husband,my dogs and wiped out a good part of our neighborhood dog population.It's funny though,they don't attack any of the livestock around here,not because of deterring factors but because they just don't.We have plenty of wild game in the woods and pastures but they have gotten quite aggressive here lately for some reason.A dog is not always the answer,the coyotes travel in packs around here lately,used to we'd see only lone ones and they can kill ANY dog easily.Luckily,when our dog was attacked my husband had his rifle handy,unfortunately his back was killing him and he couldn't straighten up to get a good shot,but after firing at them 6X'S they let our dog go.They hadn't killed him,they had gotten him down and had him by the back and the back of the neck and were trying to drag him into the woods!I know that they would have killed and eaten him!

-- nobrabbit (conlane@prodigy.net), September 16, 2000.

Nobrabbit, where do you live? Sounds like a good place to stay away from! Debbie, Livestock Guardian dogs don't need to be trained for their work, it's instinctive. Some puppies will need to be trained out of certain behaviors (usually playing with the sheep too roughly), but there is a lot of information out there now on how to deal with them. You will need good fencing, as they can be escape artists -- usually just because their idea of the amount of territory they ought to be patrolling doesn't coincide with your property boundaries! You might want to see if you could start with an adult. There are a lot of these dogs in rescue now, as people have bought them for pets, and then the dog gets too big for the apartment, or the neighbors object to the nocturnal barking, or whatever. Your first pick might not work out as a gurdian dog, but many of them do work even if they've never seen livestock before. Nobrabbit, if you get two or three adult livestock guardian dogs, I think you will find that the coyotes have met their match. The dogs will work together to defeat even a pack. If the coyotes have started attacking people, I would get the dogs no matter the cost.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), September 16, 2000.

Kathleen took the words right out of my mouth! LOL...we recently became introduced to the KUVASZ, a wonderful Livestock Guardian Dog...I cannot imagine anything going up against these dogs and still living....Right now, there are four of them up for adoption from the Kuvasz Rescue folks..I think three are in California and one in ?Michigan or Minnesota..these dogs do not need to be taught to guard your property or livestock or anything except how to be an inside family pet..they are NOT good at that..They are lovable to the folks they live with and suspicious of everything else and would be happy to eat coyotes for three meals a day....Type in "Kuvasz" on a search engine and have a great time "meeting" these dogs. If you cant find the Kuvasz Rescue page online, e-mail me and I'll be happy tp put you in touch with them.We just got a 2 year old spade female..92 pounds of love, 92 pounds of guarding..nice combo....good luck and God bless!

-- Lesley (martchas@gateway.net), September 16, 2000.

just checked the Kuvasz rescue site.There are 2 adults available in Minnesota and 4 adults available in california, and a puppy in New jersey....Do not be put off by their location, ours came from Orlando to Jacksonville, Alabama.. a 11 hour one way trip..the rescue folks are WONDERFUL at helping to get the dogs to you...Hey, you could adopt them all and have an instant anti-coyote pack!!!!!

-- Lesley (martchas@gateway.net), September 16, 2000.

IF you can get one killed you can supposedly hang it on your fence and let it rot, it will keep the others out of the area. Have never tried it, we live across the street from a llama ranch and the coyotes are gone. Come to think of it, in the last place we lived, the landlords left a coyote pelt by the hay shed where I raised rabbits. I let all the rabbits go (I felt sorry for them) and they hung around the area to be fed. We had coyotes everywhere, they killed all of our cats, but they never went near the hay shed. I never lost a single rabbit, so apparently it worked.

-- Julie (julieamc@excite.com), September 16, 2000.

Not just any donkey can be used to guard. If they aren't trained for the job, they can maim/kill the stock.

A donkey who is raised for guarding is weaned from his mom at about 6 months. He is then put with a flock/herd where he can't see/smell other donkeys. He is raised with cattle, sheep, goats, poultry, etc.

If you purchase a guard donkey, he is with the herd/flock 24/7. He is not used for riding, etc. He does his job well. Do NOT use an entire male. Much safer to use one who has been castrated.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), September 16, 2000.

I should add that guard donkeys ~ donks that people train for sale ~ are available. YOU don't have to do the raising up of the critter.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), September 16, 2000.

Well, I have a triple whammy and the coyotes skirt my property! I have a mini donkey, but this spring he tried to trample the lambs. Of course the llama then ran him off. I also have 10 American Staffordshire Terriers that keep any other wildlife away, however they have only actually killed one raccoon. Everything else seems smart enought to stay away. The coyotes passed by on the road north of me (about 300 yards) but never have tried to sample my cats, bunnies or chickens. A couple of good dogs and a llama would be my reccommendation. You can find young male llamas for about $100 at exotic auctions, thats how I got Gizmo. Good Luck

-- Dianne (yankeeterrier@hotmail.com), September 16, 2000.

I know that you said a donkey is not an option because of horses. Are these horses in the same pasture as the sheep? If not, then a donkey may work for you. I lost most of my Ramonov ewes to dogs and coyotesa few years ago. Then I got a donkey, a jenny, that has turned the tables. She was raised with goats, thus already being "trianed" In her first few weeks with the sheep, we lost 2 ewes. After that ,and now, five years later, we havent lost a thing. The neighbors have lost a few dogs and the occasional cat, but the herd is fine. It seems that when the donkey sounds off, everything RUNS for the barn with donkey in hot pursuit. When a predator is actually in the pasture, she says and fights. Without her, I would not have any sheep or goats. Give it a thought. If cost is a problem, you may want to consider adopting a young wild donkey and slowly introducing it to your sheep. They bond to whatever they are with . Good luck, Terri

-- Terri Perry (stuperry@stargate.net), September 16, 2000.

You might want to start with GOOD FENCES. I had a coyote problem years back and I bought portable poly-wire fence, it had 9 hot wires and would stop & repel any dog or coyote. I had 3-150' sections of it and kept my 55 head of sheep inside at night, (as in a fold). still have some of that fence and would give it to you (free + shipping) try it out, in the mean time you might be able to train a dog.

-- Hendo (OR)r (redgate@echoweb.net), September 17, 2000.

Debbie, go to http//Kencove.com/enet.htm and see what i am talking about.

-- Hendo (OR) (redgate@echoweb.net), September 17, 2000.

I've heard that a flock of geese make a good guard system for property - will coyote kill them or are they big enough (if numerous enough) to fight back and wil?

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), September 17, 2000.

That should be "win". SOrry.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), September 17, 2000.

The use of the mini donk proves my point ~ not just any donk will guard, will more than likely hurt, and the mini is too small against coyote, bobcat, etc. The Standard donkey should be used.

I would strongly suggest against the BLM wild burro if you value your stock. Of course, I've strongly suggested not using ANY donk that hasn't been first trained for the job. Every now and then someone gets lucky with their pet donk as a guardian, but they are few and far between.

Geese are great for warning, but are delicious to the coyote!

There are some great guardian dog breeds, but I guess I'm a bit biased, being owned by longear stock! Somehow, the donk going after a predator with teeth and front hooves (and also the hind hooves when needed) would do a more thorough job.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), September 17, 2000.

brabit, looks like you have the same problem we have with coyotes. I have heard here in Ky. they are cross-breeding with dogs and they are much more aggressive than regular coyotes and bigger. I looked out my back door recently to see 2 standing by my chicken coop. Fortunately my German Shepherd saw them too and he chased them off. They are not to be fooled with. If my husband had been here, he would have shot them but I don't use guns. We allow hunters on the back of our property to deer hunt and have told them to shoot any coyotes they see. Hopefully, they will get some this year, as well as deer!

-- bwilliams (bjconthefarm@yahoo.com), September 17, 2000.

Do you have a coyote season ? Do you know any hunters ? If not ask at a local sporting goods shop .Have them sign a release and let them at it .It won't solve all your problems but should help .

Also et all the boys in the house pee around the perimeter of your house .Spread any hair from hair cuts too .

Just to be fair the lady's can pee outside too

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), September 17, 2000.

Well, we just can't kill everything that inconveniences us. I grew up on this Texas prairie where I live now and there are more coyotes than grasshoppers it seems. We just had to learn to live with them. Those big sheep dogs are supposed to be good for keeping coyotes away but you just can't kill everything.

-- Joe Cole (jcole@apha.com), September 18, 2000.

Joe, for the most part I agree with you that we just can't go around killing everything, but when they start attacking people, there's a problem. In that situation, I would try other measures first, such as the guardian dogs, but shooting as many of the critters as possible would definitely come before letting them kill a person. I just remembered talking to someone from Connecticut a while back. She told me that in the suburb where her son and his family lived, coyotes were such a problem that people couldn't let their small children play outdoors unattended. I don't know how much of that was the unreasoning fear of city people who have had no contact with wildlife, but it still sounded like a serious problem, and time to start getting rid of some coyotes. Perhaps one solution (and I'm sure this has already been thought of and tried -- if someone knows anything about results, perhaps they could respond) would be birth control for the coyote packs. And if they are crossing with dogs, as is entirely possible, then they are no longer truly wildlife, but a human-created problem that needs to be dealt with. Packs of dogs are worse than coyotes or wolves.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), September 18, 2000.

I had trouble with coyotes until I put up electric fencing. I strand down near the ground with a good shock and they seem to stay away.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), September 18, 2000.

To all you animal rights people out there - I love animals as much as the next person but we can't let them just take over! If a coyote attacked your child, would you kill it or would you just say "oh well, the coyote has to live too?" Get real, animals have their place and it is not at the top of the pecking order! God created everything and he created animals and plants for humans, not the other way around, but then I suppose most of you animal rights people don't believe in my God anyway. Don't get me wrong, I don't think we should be deliberately cruel to animals, we just need to remember they are animals and not some kind of gods, or a relative returned from the dead as an animal.

-- bwilliams (bjconthefarm@yahoo.com), September 18, 2000.

Over at Egroups.com there are several goat and sheep lists where all the folks use guardian dogs. Goat and Sheep Rancher is a great one. Be very leary of the rescue dogs, they are usually someone elses problem, have never ran with stock, and a guardian pup really needs to have been raised in the barn with mom and the stock she protects. Yes this is all ingrained in the dogs, but with human intervention and the need to have all animals as pets, you can't realistically take a dog raised as a pet and then have it know what to do. We have Rhodesian Ridgebacks, and though our original two had only training from me, mostly just in the manners department, with the subsequent pups on the place, the older dogs "taught" the younger dogs what was acceptable, and what wasn't. Though we are just 10 acres away from 100's of acres of National Forest we have never had a dog or coyote get any of our stock. Our coyote problems here are aggrevated by folks not spaying their female dogs, who then run with the coyotes when they are in season. Don't let anyone talk you into breeding these dogs, you have no protection while your gals are in season, and also when they are taking care of pups, spayed and neutered dogs are really the way to go, and the change in them after you get a female spayed (just never been much of a male dog owner anyway) is truly remarkable, really throws them out of the pup mentality. Fat and lazy could never describe my girls! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), September 18, 2000.

I don't think everything needs to be killed .It seems to me the eco- system is out of wack .The coyotes don't have enough hunting ground and no real pretors except man .Fact is there are to many coyotes and not enough hunters .If let to continue in pack size disease will run rapid .

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), September 18, 2000.

Now don't y'all misunderstand me. I'm a hunter. I've hunted all my life. But I have never, ever heard of a coyote attacking a person unless it maybe had rabies. I'm not saying it hasn't ever happened, but I have never heard of it. If it has happened it's so rare so to even considering it is silly.

-- Joe Cole (jcole@apha.com), September 18, 2000.

Joe-my husband was attacked by 3 coyotes.It was probably his fault and he realizes that,there's an old thread called "KY Homesteaders,did you know?" where I posted the story.I believe it's under Misc. or Uncatagorized.

Patty-We have talked about killing them and my husband has shot at them when they attacked our dog but according to the University of Kentucky when you start thinning out the coyote population it causes the females to breed sooner and more often,so you are not really accomplishing anything in the long run.I had heard about coydogs also (domestic and coyotes mixed)but according to UK that happening is extremely rare.They have an excellent article on coyotes if anyone is interested in the web address.Also,there is some experimenting out west with birth control but they are trying to put it into food for the coyotes and are having a hard time finding any type of food that attracts them for some reason.

-- nobrabbit (conlane@prodigy.net), September 18, 2000.

I guess I am not the only one with coyote problems. I am not too sure about the fencing, on 300 acreas, have the sheep on a very small electric pasture and then at night I have them in a shed and electric paddock area about 50 feet from the house with lots of lights on. The problem is that I am buying feed because of the small pasture area I have them in and I have had terrible parasite problems because of no rotation. So the sheep can't even pay for themselves if you firgure out the cost of sheep/expenses. Anyway the horse shed is on the other side of the barn. A barn divided in the middle with a wall, sheep on one side horses on the other. I have never mixed the two up. We do have cattle on the property and I wonder if I have lost babies to the coyotes. In order for this to work I have to take them across a creek (next to the barn) and try some sort of fencing over there and then bring them back at night. Would or could a dog work into this setup. I don't think a donkey can because the horses. Would I have to buy a puppy that might get into the horse area and get kick before I can firgure out how to train. There is this lady that lives about an hour from me with great pryaneese(sp) they are not registered so I am not sure if their 100 percent. She wants 400 - 700 for a dog and then I would have to train this puppy. Couldn't I find a dog that is trained. Are they all that price? My husband will be reading this tonight I think he will like the electric fence idea, but the coyotes can climb under can't they. Also, there are trappers out there. What kind of money do they want to trap 300 acreas. I was trying to find out once. A trapper from the Tulsa, Ok emailed me but didn't quote a price and wanted me to get all my neigbors involved which will not work. There is a family who owes 15000 acreas behind me and lives in another state, so I doubt if he cares. Thanks, Debbie Thank you all I have learned alot from all of you.

-- Debbie Wolcott (bwolcott@cwis.net), September 18, 2000.

Find some local hunters and trappers .It should not cost you a darn thing , after all they will be selling the hides .

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), September 18, 2000.

Debbie: I can sympathize with your problem, but it is extremely rare for a coyote to be agressive enough to come up to people and bite, unless as Joe says, they are rabid. Be extremely careful, and watch your dog. Here in Colorado, there are hunters who advertise and will hunt coyotes on your property, but the hides are only good in the winter, when they have filled out. Now, with the heat, the hides are about worthless to them. I would put up a few notices in your local feed store, vet, freebie paper if you have one, etc. and ask if anyone has the dogs for sale, preferably trained, etc. Good luck, Jan

-- Jan in Colorado (Janice12@aol.com), September 18, 2000.

I like coyotes[of course there not eating my animals]talk about a survivor,at the horse ranch I work at the owner and I watched one stalking ground squirels for about 10 minutes, It was only about 50 feet from us and it was young so the squirels had a great time with it.At the ranch they have three dogs and that keeps the coyotes away, any mix of large mutts would work. the owners of the ranch have two large and one small dog and the big dogs keep the small one from becoming fast food but the small one makes the most noise.

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), September 19, 2000.

Jan , I thought it was winter everywhere already ! I guess I just have the bad luck of having to lite this #$%^@# stove already .

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), September 19, 2000.

Debbie, why can't you put some jennys in with the sheep? Why do they HAVE to go with the horses? Seems like the only way on such a very large farm. Or guardian dogs that stayed with the sheep all the time. We got a Jack this year, and my Border was bringing me the chickens, a friend wanted a couple small hens, and that jack went after my dog! Scared me bad, I called him quick and he ran fast and was allright but now I will not let him in the field with the jack. Even though the jack knows the dogs, see's em every day, he went after General. And that jack is the calmest thing on the farm, won't hurt the baby goats, we can ride him, but no dogs. And General is used to our pony just nuzzling him, so it really shook him up. Just some thoughts. We can hear coyotes in the woods sometimes but they won't come up here for all the dogs.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), September 19, 2000.

I think I would have problems with jennies or donkies because of the horse/lamb feed. I feed the horses oats (which isn't a problem with sheep) but have a mineral/salt lick with cooper in it. The sheep get mostly corn except when we have lambs which has a medication for coccidious in it which is toxic to other animals and their salt/mineral anything can't have any copper in it. Sometimes when the sheep get loose they eat the cat food and I worry sick about the copper in the cat food. So., I wondering how do you all feed your dogs and sheep at the same time. What do they guard dogs cost, is there information that gives step by step instructions on training these dogs? Thanks, Debbie

-- Debbie Wolcott (bwolcott@cwis.net), September 19, 2000.

Haven't got any answers, fortunately for me the coyotes aren't this far-yet. But I've got foxes which are bad enough. Geese won't help much. They might sound the alarm, but they sound the alarm at everything and nothing so you learn to ignore them. I can't recall them even making noise when a strange vehicle comes on the place. And the foxes carry them off. Sometimes a badly injured goose will get away, I think the fox looses it's grip trying to get it through the woven wire fence. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.cim), September 19, 2000.

Debbie, if the pasture were safe, do the sheep stay out there for days or do they come in at night? 300 acres is so large. If they have to come in every nite, you could separate the sheep from the jennys in the barn and feed the supplements in their own pens. And then during the day, just grass and water out there. They could get their salt at night. That must be so hard having so many coyotes getting your animals.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), September 20, 2000.

Not a very nice solution, but my brother in law had coyotes eliminate his chicken flock, and once the chickens were gone, they started attacking his bulldogs...they got so brave as to sleep out in the open. Shooting wasn't always an available option, so he put out weenies soaked in antifreeze in his chicken pens (all chickens are gone and dogs are chained up). His coyote problem disappeared within a week.

Personally, I've had little problems with coyotes. My dogs bay bark them when they come close to my place. My uncle next door has guard dogs that live with his two hundred goats. Rarely have any problems with any critters besides stray dogs. The guard dogs will attack the strays as well as the coyotes.

-- phil briggs (phillipbriggs@thenett.com), September 20, 2000.

I've heard of a woman who has 100 or so sheep to protect using hot dogs hanging from the electrified strand of her fence. She hasn't had a problem in a long time!

-- evelyn Bergdoll (evandjim@klink.net), September 20, 2000.

This post should be skipped by animal lovers!!!

The reason coyotes don't crossbreed with dogs with no pack would ever let a male dog service one of their females. On the females, well, let's just say the coyotes would rather eat them than service them.

Two kill methods are used locally.

A good-sized treble hook is attached to thin, but strong, wire. It is baited with something like a chicken leg and hung from a springy tree branch about 3-4' high. You have to be careful to not leave any human scents.

Obtain several blocks of the form florest use to put in the bottom of vases. It is designed to hold moisture. Cut into strips about 1"x1"x6". Find a source of fat scraps (try your local supermarket or a custom processing plant). Fatty bacon will also work. Boil the fat for a while. Now soak the strips in the liquid. Place these where the coyotes are known to enter your property. What happens is the coyotes (and also dogs) will gulp them down whole. The foam is not digestible and it blocks up their digestive tract. This will not affect an animal which chews it food first.

I don't know if human urine has any effect. Just leave a gallon clorox jug in the bathroom and let the fellas use it. When full, pour it here and there. The urea in it is also a good nitrogen fertilizer.

On bait on electric fencing, I'm told globs of peanut butter also work well.

I sort of have a truce with them. As long as they leave my stock alone, I leave them alone. However, hunters are welcome to use them to scope in their rifles.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), September 21, 2000.

I'm kind of more in line with Hendo and Dee (and others). Good fencing! I know it's expensive, but if you pro-rate it for the amount of time you expect to be raising sheep, etc., you might see that it could work. However, no question that it WILL cost initially.

Our neighbor saw a coyote try twice to go through our Gallagher New Zealand hot wire fence (7 strand) to get at lambs. First she (coyote) got shocked and backed off, and then she got shocked again, and took off. I saw the neighbor's dog hit the fence once before, and take off howling.

You can build these fences yourself. I think you can find a couple of websites for it. There are also fence components that you can use for portable/temporary fencing, which might allow you to expand some secure pasture area, and/or add on at a later time.

I lock my sheep up in a barn at night except in summer, but during the day, they have pasture access. Of course I have nowhere near the acreage that you have! We have mountain lions around here, which could easily clear my fence, but fortunately seem to find easier prey elsewhere. We also lock up our cats in a kennel in the garage at night, chickens in the henhouse, geese in the barn. Poor ducks are on their own!

Our geese let us know something is up, but I still have to go out and see what it is! We don't have a dog and keep debating about getting one. I need one more for cutting sheep than protection at this point, and I don't need one for cutting that much! Good luck to you.

p.s. I can hear the coyotes at night now. Getting closer in again. What a primal sound...always gives me the creeps!

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), September 21, 2000.

Wow, there are so many comments here that I just gotta jump in...

Coyotes "dont" attack humans. If your husband was in any way actually threatened by these beasties then they are rabid or were raised by a human. In either case, normal methods to deter them are simply not going to work. If a pack has actually formed (in and of itself not considered normal except for some limited areas through the west)that has no fear of man then your only option is to kill them using any method at your disposal. This of course could could get you in a whole heap of trouble with local wildlife administrators like the DNR. You cant just let these things roam if they are going after a full grown human. If you cant do it then Im sure that your wildlife agency will deal with them the same ways they deal with "problem" wolves and bears.

As far as geese against normal coyotes (or foxes), I believe that its an issue of ratio and breed. I have 6 chinese geese presently in my flock of 30. When something shows up on the farm that doesnt belong there, the little chineese start honking up a storm and doing their "battle dance" which is a quick walk alternating with a very slow step and a head skimming the dirt movement. At this point the rest of the geese, Legarth Embdens and Giant Dewlap Toulouse some of which outweigh the foxes, all come running and join in with a chatter that sounds like a dolphin that swallowed a trumpet. Foxes and dogs and such (even a couple small children) get so confused and scared by being attacked by this noisy sea of swaying heads normally take off.

Llamas...despite the stories Ive heard like the one about Coco the super genius anti- aircraft spittin ninja llama...Ive seen myself and heard too many stories of what an expensive way they are to feed predators.

I always thought donkeys were cute. That sums up my donkey "knowledge".

Dogs...There certainly are a lot of good guardian dog breeds. I have come to find though that you can teach just about any dog to preform admirably in any task where for any reason that particular dog has a predisposition for a similar behaviour. I presently have a pair of thundermutts, or St Bernards as most people would say. My St Bernards seem to have a desire to heard and make excellent guard animals. I didnt teach them this stuff. They just started doing it. I cant imagine an animal capable of guarding any better despite the fact that they arent considered guard dogs. I guess thats the point though. Anyone will tell you that St Bernards arent guard dogs and that they are all cute and cuddely, I of course will remind those people of that as they flee from my property on their spurting stumps. They understand which animals belong here and which ones dont. I introduce them to new animals when the new animal arrives and then they just understand that that animal belongs on the farm, no problems. Uninvited animals are in for a rather rude surprise. My little female Hannah (28" 130lbs) will close with, engage, and detain any and all invaders until her brother Hans arrives. When Hans (32" 200lbs) finally makes it to the scene its "game over." Ive seen him wade through a pack of 70-80lb feral dogs like a prizefighter in a preschool. Once, when we were still in town between farms, he put a pit bulls whole head in his mouth and all the "deadliest of dogs" could do was cry and wiggle. Im not suggesting that St Bernards are the right answer for you, Im just saying that real dogs do real damage to real predators. Any of the big breeds are capable. I heard that coyotes were eating poodles and similar bait animals in California a few years back, if scabby little coyotes are eating your dogs then you have the wrong kind of dogs to leave out were the coyotes roam. Did you ever wonder why ancient peoples had dogs and wolves and not guard donkeys? They didnt have time to horse around nor could they risk a loss so they used dogs. Not viscious pigs or ninja llamas but dogs.

Other thoughts...
Urine and human hair work to keep most things away most of the time. It doesnt help at all to keep female foxes with a litter from your ducks and it isnt 100% against racoons and possums but my experience is that it helps. I never left dead animals around so I dont know if it does any good.

Any way, I must be doing something right. My poultry often free range to nearly midnight and I smell the foxes and see the possums/racoons/coyotes all the time but dont have any problems. I used to lose animals to attacks but havent lost any thing since I accidentally put together this thundermutt/goose combination.

-- William in WI (thetoebes@webtv.net), September 22, 2000.

William-These coyotes were not raised by humans nor were they rabid,they were defending their pups when my husband inadvertantly got too close.If you research coyotes on the web you will find quite a few instances where they have attacked humans.From what I could find only 1 death has been reported.Our territories(humans and coyotes)are becoming so intermingled in some areas,such as ours,that they are ,quite frankly, not as scared of us as one would think they should be.

-- nobrabbit (conlane@prodigy.net), September 26, 2000.

If anybody has problems with coyotes in the mid and southern California area, please contact me.

-- Capt. Rick Barbarossa (captzen2000@yahoo.com), October 04, 2001.

I don't have any answers. I was told that coyote urine will repel coyotes? We have at least one in our neighborhood. This is a residential area at the base of the foothills near San Jose, CA. A a pet cat was found on my next door neighbors lawn yesterday morning. It had been completely gutted and obviously eaten. What can be done?

-- Linda Atherton-Allen (ather777@aol.com), October 10, 2001.