I haven't heard or seen any more about how it is doing and if all is going well with it ? Should be grown by now.

Last I seen it was good size and carried a lot of sticks!

Katie is doing good. She just turned 1. She loves sticks and loves to carry things around. I think a lot of the chewed up plastic trash and golf balls in woods was probably distributed by coyotes. She is very affectionate, much more so than I ever thought she would be. She is very kissy and flogs us with her tail when we pet her. She is more affectionate than any of our dogs and they are pretty affectionate. We have not had any aggression issues with her. Her teeth are very sharp and the dry dog food sticks to the outside of her molars, when she is eating. Her molars are made more for cutting than grinding. Every couple of minutes, when Katie is eating, she will put her head in my lap and turn her head one way and then the other, so that I can push the dog food off of her molars. She is very smart. She gets along fine with our dogs and house cats and tolerates the outside cats, that are supposed to be here. Other outside cats, not so much.

I have a 9 month old Anatolian/English shepherd puppy, named Althea. Althea has close to 50 pounds on Katie now and they will play and wrestle for hours if we let them, until they tire out and nap together. Katie is around 30 pounds. Katie is incredibly fast and nimble and can easily illude Althea when they place chase. Neither has ever gotten mad at or hurt the other.

The main difference between Katie and a dog is that novel people and experiences weird her out more. If something scares her outside, she runs to the house and scratches at the door until we let her into the house. She then runs straight into her crate and turns around and faces out.

If we rub Katie's belly, she will stand on 2 legs, on one side of her body and roll into us, so that we can reach it better.

Katie loves to eat nightcrawlers, grubs and flying insects.

Katie has been a good pet for us, but I would not recommend a coyote for anyone with young children.









I still very much support trapping and hunting coyotes. There is a huge difference between a coyote living in the wild and a housebroken coyote, born into captivity that has interacted with humans for thousands of hours.

Keith

Keith, did you get her before her eyes were open? I know from experience that makes quite a difference in most wild critters. Also the females are usually more accomidating in the taming department! Wondered if you concur! I had a friend years ago that had two male yotes, but got pretty wild by the time they were a year old! It amazes me that she will leave your cats that belong there alone, but will take out trespassers!

Thank you Keith. I have been thinking about how things are progressing for you and her. Lots of experiences you will have with her that will reveal interesting habits and characteristics of her behavior. They are very intelligent and observant. Good time to test some lures and odors for her reaction. They have an extremely keen perception of odor detection and reactions. Much different then what some would think. In time she will start to hoard and cache various items of interest in her selected favorite places.

Lee, I bought Katie from a breeder in Antwerp, Ohio when she was 28 days old. She was pulled from her mother at 9 days of age and bottle fed. The breeder put each coyote pup by themselves, at 9 days, in plywood boxes. Depending on when her eyes opened, Katie has probably never seen another coyote.

You're welcome Bob. Most new smells actually make Katie nervous and even some smells she has been around, make her uneasy. When Diane is wearing her goat milking clothes, Katie will not come out of her crate for Diane. Usually Katie comes straight out and gives a few licks, while rapidly wagging her tail. If Katie sees Diane when she is out, she will come running up, wagging her tail, but if Diane has been milking, Katie will shy away as soon as she smells goat. If Diane wears perfume, which she rarely does, Katie will hesitate to come out of her crate.

I think Katie recognizes us, our cats and our dogs, in large part by smell. She likes to push her nose into the cats fur and sniff heavily.

It would be interesting to put out a whole lot of different lures and to walk Katie by, to see her reaction. I think Katie would initially avoid many lures.

Katie also shows a lot of new object avoidance. If on leash, Katie will slow down and watch items like our riding mower, air compressor, a 5 gallon bucket or our wheelbarrow, as we approach, if they are in a novel place. She will speed up, while looking back, once she is past the object. On her own she will observe a new object and bobble her head before approaching.

Surprisingly loud noises do not appear to bother Katie, for the most part, at all. It could be because she is used to hearing loud TV and music.

Keith

Avoidance by coyotes in the wild probably occurs much more then we realize. In time they may accept something that has been there for a while and they lose their concern for it. Some are more spooky and cautious then others. Like I said they are very perceptive and survive due to their instincts and skeptical nature. Competition with other animals changes their behavior and actually can cause them to make a move they may not otherwise do.

If your animal is cautious in a human environment imagine how one would be in the wild with more tuned instincts. Gives us a look at how each animal can behave differently depending upon their learned experiences along the way and how their behavior and perception can be altered due to daily influences. Retreating to a safe place or towards such an area is key to understanding some animals when they are nervous.

This speaks volumes about the importance of arranging sets and pre-baiting well before the season. Just my thought.

Sometimes we forget that we are dealing with the most paranoid dog on the planet, I believe. The right conditions and before the ground freezes solid, sometimes they come too easy! I've caught a bunch of yotes out of an area before, and have people on snowmobiles come in and kill a bunch more. Now I realize that they filter in, but there are some out there that just won't play by the rules! I've caught them down and get a snow, where did those spooks come from! I guess the bottom line is.....we will never catch them all! lol

I suspect that a lot of objects used for backing or scent posts, like cattle skulls, bone piles, a large rock, rock piles or even a pile of hay initially alarm most coyotes, when they first see them in their environment. Putting out those objects early should definitely be to a trappers advantage.

Initial fear of the new, gives a definite survival advantage to a predator small enough to be preyed on by larger more dangerous predators.

Keith

It would be interesting to make a plain dirt hole with no lure on her home turf and c if shes cautious of it. I found a den Saturday with pups in it. I could see them moving in the back but couldn't see how big they were. I could see they were already coming out of the den, I could see there tracks. Was tempted to catch one as the den didn't seem to deep but I didnt.

JMO..A domesticated animal with the benefit of security by the handler acts much different than a wild animal without those amenities.

Keith, You could probably do demo's with your pet and put out different scenarios for her to encounter. Better yet a video on her home turf with just one person there filming so you could better record reactions without distractions. Probably sell a bunch with coyote prices the way they are at the moment. I'd buy one.

Does she run loose or do you have her penned and leashed.

ttt

Katie is loose in the house, when we are in the house and can watch her. Otherwise she is crated in the house. We mostly keep her on a leash outside and chain her to a pole to potty. We used to take her to potty on a leash, but if she got distracted, it took a long time for her to go.

We let her play frisbee or fetch with a long check cord. Sometimes she wants to play with the check cord more than with what we are throwing.

She has never tried to get out of her crate or took off on us. It's funny, but if it's raining hard, she's more hesitant to go out then our dogs and she wants to go in quicker. She greatly prefers being in the house to being outside.

I feed Katie twice a day, usually pretty close to 12:30pm and at 4:00pm. If I am off more than a few minutes, she will scratch the front of her crate to remind me. I always feed her in the house, by my couch, on a leash. I keep her on a leash because she's an easily distracted eater. She wants attention before eating and will take breaks for me to push the food off her molars and for more affection, every few minutes or less. She likes routine.

Keith

Having people she did not know at a demo, would likely make Katie nervous. My friend Pete had a coyote, that would ride in the front or back of his truck, that would heel him at swaps and pony pulls, with hundreds of people at them. Katie is not that confident. I don't know if she would have been more confident if we exposed her to a lot of different people, right after we got her, or not.

I animal wrangle for commercials sometimes and have thought about telling the ad companies I work with, that I have a coyote available. I have hesitated doing it because there are huge numbers of people working on even a small commercial,

Filming Katie working various sets and lures would be neat. I am out of memory on my phone and my tablet takes fairly poor videos, but if someone had better equipment and wanted to try it, I would definitely consider it.

Keith

I am sure Katie acts much differently than a wild coyote. I am sure wild coyotes in different areas act differently to, depending on the prey and predators in their environment, the terrain and experiences.

I still have learned a lot about coyotes from her and suspect she has plenty more to teach me.

Keith

Why cant you turn her loose outside?

I do turn Katie loose outside, with a check cord on. It's probably unnecessary, she has never tried to escape, but if something spooked her and she ran off, without the check cord, to step on, I would have a hard time catching her, before she was off of my 10 acres. She is very fast and agile.

If she was a dog, I would not worry as much, Katie would very likely come back, but since she is a coyote, she is likely to get shot. Many people in my area shoot coyotes on sight. I usually do too.

Keith