I have heard of Coydogs but did not know that Coyotes had interbred with the gray wolf. I live in the Northern PA, the Coyotes we have seen are the size of a medium size dog, none were as big as our German Shepherd. Something new to watch for.
My dad is definitely not an easy man to spook but the sight of them just -staring- at him, as though they were deciding whether he looked tasty or not bugged him big-time.
He was on foot and the rifle was a hundred yards away in the truck.
He'd have never made it in time.
They'd already slaughtered every one of his hybrid cottontail bunnies and were probably getting pretty hungry.
He was breeding and releasing them because the now "protected" chicken hawks killed all the rabbits in our area.
The hawks don't seem to be very fond of eating squirrel [or they have a hard time catching them] so now the hawks are all starving, too.
You can see them sitting on power lines along I-70, looking emaciated and sickly.
We even found a hawk trying to kill my pet rabbit while he was in his grazing corral in the back yard.
[Booger is a big ol' bunny so he survived the attack and is fine, but still very nervous about being in any pen without roof, now]
The hawk-caused lack of rabbits has driven the coyotes and foxes ever closer to houses, in search of food.
You can't mess with one "balance" without destroying another.