[OldPossum]

Coyotes are extremely dangerous to dogs. Even a strong pit bull (a “nanny dog”) can be badly savaged by one. Dogs think about fighting for dominance. Coyotes think about killing for food, territory, or to protect a litter. They think of dogs as food.

If you allow your dogs (as I do) out in the backyard, be thinking about coyotes that might lurk in the woods beyond and have a handgun or rifle nearby to grab and frighten the critters away if they attack your dogs.

Coyotes are in every county in the U.S., I've read.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

The Interior Department put out a warning a couple of years ago. Though normally enemies, a cross-bred wolf and coyote had been sighted in New England. They decided that the mixed intelligence of the two was so dangerous that they should be shot on sight. Someone said it was like “the canine equivalent of a leopard.”

[afraidfortherepublic]

I saw a large coyote, or wolf/coyote hybrid, sauntering through my 12 acre yard just last week. I’m keeping a close eye on my Golden as a result.