My wife would give my "pet" coyote stuffed animals to play with. it carried them around and tore them up. Got loose one night. Next morning my yard was full of kids toys. I live in a small town and it had gathered every toy from every yard and brought it home. Including one of those big wheeled tricycles. We never did find out who all of them belonged to. It was 8 when it bit my wife so bad she needed medical care and coyote had to be put down.

Like I said Danny they love to hoard things and bring them back to their home or a special place they frequent a lot.

Keith is she spayed or still able to come in heat when she matures ? That is a new chapter when the time comes if she comes in season .

Bob, Katie is intact. She had sort of a weak heat last Winter. I would like to breed her to a Grand Champion or higher ranked mountain feist, if I can find someone who has one at stud, who would not mind doing it. I think that breeding may make a very good squirrel and other small game dog.

Keith

I would think you may want to condition her to a muzzle slowly to prepare her for the feel of it on her head. If you are going to breed her it may be a good idea to help protect the sire dog. If she isn't receptive she can put a hurt on it pretty quick.Being her first time.

That's a good idea Bob, thanks.

Keith

Except for the end that story made me laugh out loud... I would've loved to have seen your face when you saw all those toys in the yard.

Mike

I reread this whole thread, and have thought about the things you have told us about Katie. I've been around coyotes all my life, and while most I have experienced have been in a trap, one thing you can take to the bank, they are all different. Just like people! The personalitys are from, cower and pee down their leg to want to take your head off, when you approach them. The one thing certain that I have defined is, young yotes are not very brave. The older they get, the more sure of themselves. I believe Keith, as Katie ages, she will be more bold, and that some of the things thatbother her now prolly won't when she ages. I hope you keep us in the loop and report her progress in her life among humans!

[quote=KeithC]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
When we get a snow that lasts more than a week (rare anymore) I've observed yote tracks in two track farm lanes that would change sides when they approached a new object I'd introduced (urine post, vertebrae, etc.) for 5 or 6 days until they committed. This was always in late season after dispersal. Sometimes if farmer doesn't run an ATV on his place it may take a couple of days until they start showing up in snares and footholds. Again this mainly happens after dispersal when I'm mostly dealing with home range yotes.

This has been a very cool thread/discussion. I’ll stick to trapping them. But still very neat to watch.

Thanks for sharing.

Lee, I think you are probably right that Katie will get more confident with age. As a young pup, Katie was close to fearless. I worried that she could be deaf, when we first got her, because not even sudden loud noises would startle her. She would climb up on our couch just a few days after we got her, to be with me and would go straight up to anything moving, larger than herself, like us, the dogs and cats. I think she was imprinting.

She started showing new object avoidance at around 5 months. Katie does not act really scared of objects in new places. She does not flee. It's more like she is just very observant of novel objects and that she prefers to stay a safe distance. I think there are very few animals that can move as agilely as a coyote and with a 10 foot head start, a coyote would be hard to catch for the larger predators. Katie's ability to change directions, to avoid Althea, while playing, is amazing.

Pawbracelets7, as you observed, coyotes must have a pretty impressive spatial map of their home territories. We keep some buckets we use to carry feed, under our carport. If we place the buckets just a few feet out of place, Katie will turn her head and focus on them as we go past.

Coyotes are very smart, which makes them one of the most challenging and rewarding animals to trap.

Keith

Wife rearranged the living furniture. Our coyote would not go in there for several days. Had to take it out the back door. When it finally did it was at a dead run into a bedroom. This lasted several more days. I put it in my pickup to go check some muskrat traps on an adc job. It was fine till we met an oncoming vehicle then it would panic bouncing around the cab and then hiding under the dash where my feet and the pedals were. Had to give up taking it anyplace except in a covered crate in the bed. Then it was very nervous of the new location. Hyper alert kind of crouched down,. Didn't dare take it off the leash. Field trips ended.

Althea, our 9 month old, AnatolIan Shepherd/English Shepherd pup, also notices items like the riding mower, a bucket, the grill, the wheelbarrow, an animal, or air compressor in new locations. Our German Shepherd, Annie, did too. Canines must be highly aware of where things should be. They both reacted very differently than Katie does to objects in a new place. Althea charges and Annie charged towards the objects, barking aggressively and shying off from a few feet away if the object does not move, before approaching and sniffing the object with their heads down.

If the object was an animal, like a rabbit, coon, cat or opossum, Annie gave chase and did her best to kill it, if I did not call her off. Althea gives chase but with not quite as much drive. She has not caught anything larger than a carpenter bee yet. Althea barks and lunges at carpenter bees, which is pretty entertaining up to a point. I used to enjoy putting objects in the yard to watch Annie "defend us" from them. If Diane was out, Annie would act especially aggressive and keep herself between the object and Diane, until she sniffed it. I miss her.

Keith

At exactly 12:30pm Katie started scratching at her crates door to let me know she wanted fed. I was sitting in the room for over 30 minutes before. Katie obviously has a good internal clock, but I can't think of any obvious reason a coyote would need one, unless certain types of prey species are active and more vulnerable at specific times.

Keith

Here's some pictures of Katie from about 20 minutes ago.








Katie still mostly acts like a dog. She still avoids novel items. She prefers staying in the house, more than my house dogs do, which I find a little strange. She definitely does not like going out in bad weather. When it's time to go in, she pulls to the house hard. We still have not had any aggression problems with her. She loves wrestling my Anatolian Shepherd/English Shepherd year old pup, Althea. Neither have ever gotten mad at each other. They switch off who chases and catches who. Katie prefers affection over food. When eating, she likes to take breaks to be rubbed on.

I think she has given me a lot better understanding on how to trap coyotes. I think setting any large backing preseason would give coyotes time to adjust to a novel object in their environment. Katie likes to dig grubs and for fun. The dirt holes she creates are long and narrow. She is most attracted to holes that look like the ones she digs. She is attracted to and enjoys playing with plastic trash, bones, sticks, feathers and big weeds. I suspect that unless they are hungry, coyotes seek some sort of thick cover, in bad weather. Katie very much likes routine. I suspect wild coyotes likewise have a pattern of activity that they consistently follow.

Keith

Thank you for sharing your observations and pictures.

x2 Good stuff!

Getting bigger for sure.Nice pics.

X3, that's pretty cool Keith!

This is a great thread, Keith. Thank you!

And thanks to Bob for starting it!

Good read. Thanks. Good luck with her Keith