What is your experience when catching free roaming dogs? I live near a junkyard in SW VA which has about 4-5 dogs always on the roam into my property. Will complaining to my local DWR VA guy be worthwhile? I've caught 3 of the 5 this year and surprisingly all have been tail waggers and happy as heck to see me. Catch pole on, no resistance, out in less than 20 secs. Common response is to fly back down the hill to the junkyard. My neighbor told me I will get nowhere trying to talk to the dog's owner. Funny thing was my last caught dog after remake caught my first Bobcat that evening. The boss dog of the jumyard is an intact Pittie with a head the size of a bucket. I figure he can pull out of a Bridger #3 cause the loop of my catch pole isn't big enough. Thoughts? Supporters of SSS need not reply.

Hmmm, I use MB550’s and have held some huge dogs, 90+ pounds, so don’t think they’ll pull out of a #3.

Now I’m my neighborhood we have a trash can dumper. We have it on camera and even talked to the owners and followed the dog back to their house. Even with video evidence they deny it’s their animal.
We’ve contacted our Animal Control and they’ve come out and even with video evidence “can’t do anything” unless THEY catch it in the act. Even though multiple people have complained it still goes on.

My son did some research and told them to come trap the dog or we would. They said all their traps were being used and asked what kind of traps we had. When he told them foot holds, they balked at using those. When he told them we could use foot holds or a .22, they said a foothold would be fine, but to call them immediately when it was caught and they would come release it and take it away.

All my properties have zero tolerance for any feral whether it’s a K9 or feline. But they’ve all agreed that releasing is at my discretion. The very very few I’ve released, did not come back on the property. One was a huge dog like you’re describing with a fence type collar, guess it didn’t work. He was docile and let me release him with no issue or Even resistance. I released a Lab that jumped in the open door and rode in the passengers seat while I finished checking my line. He was wearing a collar so I got the number off it and met the owner. She assured me it wouldn’t happen again and it didn’t. Another looked to healthy to be a true feral so I released it and never saw it again. When I release, I’ll grab the rifle and start yelling and shooting in the ground to make sure they realize they aren’t welcome anymore.

I give the non feral type a “freebie” after that it’s on me. If I know I have a feral issue I’ll gang set an area…like 6+ traps. When one gets caught they all mill around so I want to catch as many as I can the very first time. Most I’ve ever caught at once was 6 out of 8 traps set in a 20x20yd area. You’ll know when you get a true feral, they’ll about take the catch pole out of your hand.

Just remember, don’t leave your truck door open, and never think they’ll pull out.

As far as if they “hurt” an area, I wouldn’t say they help. I know I don’t want to be resetting traps because of them. And I’ve seen trail cam pics of a pack actually in the landowners covered feeders eating protein. Another landowner had issues of them running deer.
I’ve never caught anything other than another feral after catching one. I would think a pack would keep coyotes and fox out of an area. Again, not sure. I know at one place I’d catch ferals, coons, and possums. The year after the ferals were removed, coyotes and fox were part of the catch totals.

I believe you are definitely correct they will at least make canines shy away I have this problem on a small property close to town. I also believe the coyote hunting with dogs shy’ s them in my area there is a lot of this but I get along with most everyone so none of this bothers me it’s just observation

Odd, I know a lot of good old time coyote trappers, and a couple current wolfers that always have a dog with them. Usually a male, that goes around and marks on every place a coyote peed, and then they will set traps there. Always thought the dog scent both lulled the coyotes to danger and caused them to investigate, not shy away. I know I've caught both coyotes and wolves on dog turds.

Those trappers catch their dog a time or two and they become very trap smart, I knew a couple old houndmen that back before tracking collars would ask the local trappers for a sample of their lures, and then make some sets with them and try and catch their dogs to make them trap shy. Very seldom will you catch the same dog twice, at least in a similar type set (I say very seldom, I had one of my cat hounds caught three times in one day in a trappers cat cubbies, she apparently thought that beaver meat was worth the little pain in her foot, but she was the exception).

If you are a little rough or scary with them (as Wanna Be describes) when you release them you are even less likely to have an issue with them again. Sounds like you only have one or two more to educate and probably won't have an issue anymore until the owner gets more dogs.

That’s interesting. I wonder if the fact you might be a little more “remote” in Idaho.
Dogs down here are pretty common, especially on plantations where we’re hunting quail on different courses throughout the property.
I’ve taken burnt logs as backing and stuck inside the kennel runs and left for a week for the dogs to urinate on and tried it with zero results on coyotes. I’ve collected their turds when cleaning kennels with zero results.
But collect coyote or bobcat scat from another property and take it to a new property and they’re all over it. Dog just has not worked for me for some reason.

I have only caught one dog and it was a young pup who ran off when the batteries on his collar died. He was fine and I found his owner looking for him shortly and all was fine. Right now a bill is in the works here in MN to cause one to lose their trapping license should they catch a dog. Hunters and hikers trespassing (knowingly or otherwise) are not held responsible for the actions of their dogs. If everyone would just take responsibility for their actions as well as their kids and/or dogs, things would be fine. I take my dog with me on the line and he has been caught several times when younger. If this bill passes then I won't be able to take him along, and if I do and he gets caught, technically I could lose my license.

I just don’t trap anywhere I even think a domestic dog might be. Chukar dogs and lion hounds are the only ones I worry about but I have never caught one yet. Lion hunters around here pretty much expect to have a dog caught every so often.

If I’m scouting and find a domestic dog track I move on. This country is plenty big enough, I let the hikers and dog walkers have their trails that they like.

Now I’m talking about public land, but if they’re coming onto your property that’s a whole different ballgame. Call animal control, get an officer out to pick the dog up when you catch it. Then at least you have a paper trail if it is still a recurring problem afterward. Find out what can be done from a legal standpoint and go from there. I suspect though that after you’ve caught them a couple times each you won’t catch them anymore, they’ll steer clear of your sets. Lots of trappers in the west use dogs on the line to locate animals on drags, and they’ll get caught a time or two and wise up and they’ll never get caught again.

Many counties in rural Georgia do not have an animal control officer.

KPW watch your 6 when deciding how to handle feral dogs...can be a dangerous situation.

Dealt with one this year.
When they are on camera for months and harassing deer and elk, they must go.
Keep your dogs on your property.

It does not do any good to talk to the game warden. They, by law can't do anything. Dog owners in va know it and have become the most unethical people on the planet. The only thing you can hope for is that a coyote gets it.

Very true!

Bearcat2 is100% correct. I personally know 1 USDA trapper and 1 private trapper that have dog on ground on line. They both catch 500 or more coyotes a year. Del Kramer himself talked about a friend that used bird dog urine He took 300 coyotes in a season

KPW123. Be careful with pitbulls IF you catch 1. !!! I had a BAD experience about 20 years ago with a large mixed pitbull. Released him. He wouldnt go away. Came at me hard!!! Would NOT let up ! Talking about 80 lbs dog. Biting and jumping and im backing up pushing him off wiith catch pole. 2 things I am great fully for that day. The dog didnt hurt me because my 4 year daughter was in the Toyota. And I had a 1911 in my back pocket cocked and locked.

I hate thinking, but since it didn’t work for me, could it be the fact the dogs urine/scat I used was because they are used to it? We hunt every weekend sometimes 3 day weekends. We run 2 dogs for an hour then swap out going through 6 dogs during the morning then 6 in the afternoon hunt. We’ll do the same the next day. So these dogs all relieve themselves throughout the hunt. How do I know? Because every time one stops to go a client always yells “point”, lol.
So with these dogs running all 6 courses through the plantation, could the predators just be used to their urine and scat scattered all over and not pay it any attention?

Wanna Be. What works great 1 place dont work in another is the possibile answer. Just like people say = you can = bump coyotes and make them leave ? In the south? With the exception of certain times a year around dens ? NO you want bump coyotes. To many vehicles. To many people around. Logging crews. Road crews. Hunting club leases. Coyotes are acustomed to some noise. BUT •= New Mexico ? Or West Texas ? On a ranch road that never but maybe 2 times a year sees a vehicle? You start driving on those roads and watch the coyotes leave

I could definitely see fox and coyote vacating an area occupied by a dog pack. Here, when the wolves are around, the coyotes are not! They go away no doubt about it. When I'm checking wolf gear and see coyote tracks I know the wolves are not around.
Taking a dog on the line wouldn't run coyotes off since they know he's not around and a single dog they could probably take him out anyway if they wanted to.
Dog mushers haul straw to bed their dogs when taking breaks. The dogs pee and maybe crap all around. Trappers set wolf traps in the loose straw. It's called the Iditarod set.

We have no feral dogs here, that seems to be an eastern thing, I've never heard of a feral dog out west. So free roaming dogs means either you are close to houses, hound hunters are in the area or cowdogs (most public ground here is open range in the summer and they are often rounding up cows in the fall and sometimes into the early winter). I've had quite a few hounds caught in footholds or snares over the years. All were fine, snares make me a little nervous but never had a problem. Only thing I really worry about are 330s or power rams, and most trappers have enough sense not to use those where there might be dogs.
The new thing over the past couple years for the yuppies to do is cross country ski, and they all have a couple dogs with them. But there are only a few places where they cross country ski, so it is pretty easy to avoid them.
Only time I haven't had dogs wise up after being caught are the example I gave above, and years ago hunting in beaverpeeler's country there were some guys cat trapping, making pee posts with bobcat urine. I was bobcat hunting, on dry ground, and had three or four dogs caught in one morning. Finally ran into the trappers and talked to them, figured out what they were doing to keep catching my dogs, and asked what areas they were trapping so I could avoid their traps.

Drasselt,
I've heard that a lot about the coyotes here also, but I haven't seen it from my experience, coyotes will come in and eat on a wolf kill when the wolves leave, and will answer the wolves when they howl. They just give them a few hundred yards berth. Now sometimes the coyotes will mark a wolf pee post, but other times I have seen them leave the trail to avoid a wolf pee post. Not sure why that is, but different coyotes act differently, and animals act different in different areas.