Any Coyote Experts Among Us?

A Little Background:

Some of you may recall that I rescued a couple of female puppies a while back, in the first week of December, to be precise. Given the location where we found them--along the highway a few miles outside La Paz--at the time I assumed that these were unwanted female puppies that had been taken out to the desert to "sink or swim," so to speak.

At the time of my post, I was looking for new owners for the two of them. But after having the opportunity to watch them interact for a couple of weeks while we fattened them up, I saw traits in one of them that I have been looking for in a dog.

In recent months, ever since my daughter took her very good (guard) dog with her to the States, we have had problems with some neighbors who have taken to looking at my house as a place to "shop" in the wee hours of the night. Every time we leave town, for camping, etc., we expect to be targeted and feel lucky when we aren't. The dog that left was one of those who doesn't trust anyone not in the family, a good trait down here. My other two dogs, on the other hand, could easily be trained by would-be thieves to open the front gate for them, they're that friendly (and dumb, in the case of one of them).

So for the past four months I've been on the lookout for a untrusting dog, and I think I've found her. My problem is that now that I've gotten to know her a bit, I'm starting to wonder if maybe she isn't too untrusting. I've been feeding this dog for over a month now, and her first instinct when she sees me is always to flee. My property is pretty good-sized, so if she doesn't want to see me for anything but feeding time--and then, shyly, at that--she doesn't.

This puppy interacts well with my other two dogs (both females), and they take a lot of grief from her before enforcing the pecking order. But any time humans are around, she'll use the other two dogs as shields, always trying to maintain one between her and the person. She will play with me if I isolate her, although she's never quick to come up to me, even when I have a piece of ham to give her.

I'm starting to think that what I really have on my hands is a half-breed coyote pup. The two puppies might have been brought out from La Paz, or they could have belonged to a coyote who feeds on the outskirts of town and got knocked by a smooth-talking city slicker on one of her food forays. Perhaps what we found that day were a couple of coyote pups that had been shaken loose by momma. They had teeth, so they would have been at that age when momma would have gotten a little irritated at their approaches.

My question for those who know something more about coyotes than I do (I know I usually see their rears as they trot off into the desert when they become aware of me), can you give me some markers to tell for sure? While she's shy like a coyote, she doesn't have their big ears or bushy tail, but that can be explained by genetics. If she does turn out to be half-coyote, any advice on keeping her as a pet?

One well-fed coyote living off the offerings of an eco-tourist camp at San Ignacio Lagoon.


Here's a photo of my dog. She has some beautiful circles of black fur around her eyes.

I have a half-breed Coyote. He is 8 years old and I have had him since a pup. He is alot like your description of yours. He has never been one to snuggle, he keeps to himself and may or may not listen when I call him (he knows what I am saying). He is beautiful and does have the large ears and buff tail as well as the long legs.

He looks female and he is very sensitive. He doesn't bite, but he does bark and people stay away from him. He is unique. He has never bothered chickens, but absolutely LOVES chasing deer!

He's a good dog and I love him. He will come to me, when he wants, to get petted.

I'll attach a picture I took of him last year when we took a road trip to the mountains of Tennessee. He didn't much like the snow, but loved the deer!!
edited to say: his ears are laid back in the photo, but normally they look just like the picture of the Coyote above. Oh, and his name is a joke: (but don't tell him) Pelado (hairless)



[Edited on 1-14-2012 by Katiejay99]

RnR

This thread about coyotes is a good place to repost this:

Lucky the Coyote...his true story.



Due to the fact that I had very spicy tacos last night I am up early ..too early to do any scheduled work projects..so it's time for the story of Lucky the Coyote...of Coyote Bay, no less.


It all began because we have great neighbors who love animals. One older couple, Rae & Ken, in particular loved their 2 adopted Baja dogs, which they would dutifully take for a long walk through the desert near our houses every morning. It was a routine they had been doing for many, many years. Walk past on our seawall for a morning's greeting and brief visit, then off on their nature path.

Well, one fine morning they came back from their walk and were excited to show us what they had ..'found'.

It was a young coyote pup they had spotted it near a den and thought it might be in trouble....I really think they thought at the time that it was a pooch! Being fearful that the poor little thing could not survive in such a place, they decided to save it's life and take it home as dog # three.


I tried to tell them that this dog was no dog...that it was a coyote pup and they should have left it where it was, because now the coyote b-tch would smell human scent on the pup and probably abandon it in favor of the other pups that were surely in the den.

Well, that was out of the question, Rae says, she knew she could give that youngster a good home and everything would be just fine. Besides, it looked so much like a smallish collie or shepard, didn't it? "We are naming him Lucky."

'OK,' says I, 'Good luck with Lucky.'

Lucky grew rapidly on the diet that Ken and Rae provided for it...they doted on him as they did with all thier pets. They would come by in the mornings again...2 dogs out front and Lucky going everywhere he could on a leash..round and round...winding up the couple in the rope every minute or so. It was hilarious with our coffees.

Some time passed and Lucky became full grown...now he knew how to put a half-hitch in that leash and could really get the couple trussed up good. The other 2 little dogs gave Lucky a wide berth...as did all the other pets in the neighborhood..including a certain cat belonging to NOLS, our local kayak school.

The story goes that Lucky had got loose and was trying to make a meal out of the fat cat that lived next door at NOLS. That cat must have used up 8 or his 9 lives to survive. 'Lucky' may have already accounted for a couple of other missing fursnacks in the area..Rae & Ken's friendship with other pet owners was getting a little strained in Coyote Bay.




The Coyles began to see that taking Lucky back to Palm Springs with them might not sit to well with their neighbors there either...those lazy Palm Springs poodles would barely whet Lucky's appetite for slow food.

After the odd pet collar found chewed up here and there, the residents of Coyote Bay finally had had enough of Lucky chasing everything up a tree. It was time for him to go... Rae and Ken reluctantly said OK..sniff, sniff...loaded up their 2 dogs into thier motorhome and left for California...leaving the rest of us to decide Lucky's fate.

We all get together and plot.... "Jeez, how do we get rid of Lucky? We can't just shoot him...or can we? NO..NO, after all, he is..was..a pet. Besides, I doubt the police would think it legal for foreigners to begin blasting the wildlife. "

'Well, why don't we tranquilize Lucky with some valium ...and first catch him, then cage him, then recage him, and haul his burro to Timbuktu...then he can do whatever he wants.'

Sounds like a plan! Who's got valium?

And...as fortune would have it, one of the wives was an ex-nurse, had some valium, and would part with some to get rid of Lucky. We decided the best way to get Lucky to eat the bad tasting stuff was to stuff one into a weiner and toss it to him as he came by chasing somebody's poor little kitty.

Carumba!..That damn Lucky ate all of the weiners and all 5 valium that we had stuffed into them. We followed and chased that coyote all over the place but he wouldn't slow down for nada. Then finally he sits down ...and yawns. Aha! Now we gotcha!..But No!,.. he's up and running again when we close in with my salmon net. ( Did I mention my brainstorm of using a salmon net? Didn't work.)

Then I remember my old parrot cage...large enough for twenty Luckys!

Idea: 'Throw another weiner in there and have a person standing by with a pull rope on the door to trap that wiley bastard.'

Well, by Golly, it worked! We had him .. at least in the cage.

Now he went a little ballistic when he found himself in solitaire..jumping and carrying on like we were gonna skin him. How that coyote could have so much energy with all that valium in him I will never know. So far, we had been at this coyote-catching event for hours...it was getting close to c-cktail hour and nerves were tense, needing some relief.








NOLS people bring over a smaller cage suitable for transporting Lucky to his new home. We shoo him into it with some inventive rug flapping and more weiners...from my fridge this time.

Lucky was driven damn near to Loreto..cuz nobody wanted him to find his way home again very soon. He was given a large container of dog food, water, and a 'Lucky, you are on your own! Adios forever.'

I glanced at the rear view mirror several times on the way back home...




Every now and then when I hear a coyote howl nearby I check my supply of weiners.


(Never a dull moment in Coyote Bay..)



[Edited on 1-15-2012 by Pompano]

Roger,
The ghost of Lucky still haunts the beach at Coyote Bay. The good ghost of Coyote Bay, Rae, still watches out/over and protects all of its inhabitants and animals too. Believe me, here presence is always looming there!

Well, I just flipped through my Gardner books... and I found a couple photos in a chapter called 'The Lonely Coyote' in his 1948 'The Land of Shorter Shadows'...

Very good story, Pompano...... . I must say, you have a real gift of gab there ( or is it B.S.....). I think you missed your calling somewhere.....

[Edited on 1-18-12 by KASHEYDOG]

I am an expert

Get me $5000 and I will get you into the country

Quote:

Originally posted by CortezBlue I am an expert Get me $5000 and I will get you into the country

Good One!