Out of my 200 plus test sets 90%+ were dug from the front and that's with no backing or guiding as I didn't care which way they worked them and also no consideration to the wind. 4 of the last 5 five coyotes I caught were with the trap on the upwind side along with the last 3 coons and last badger. I will say when you bed a trap in front of a hole your percentage of holes worked the wrong way goes up and it's not because of the wind. And coyotes do know which is the easiest way to dig to get to the bottom of the hole.

Flat sets with low backings solves a lot of this sort of issue..... Blended well of coarse.

So I have found that there are times where your pattern dictates where the animal stands. A small trap sized dirt pattern screams here's the trap. Will a coyote stand out side of that small pattern and go to digging? Are some coyotes PATTERN SHY? or maybe just SET SHY.