Anybody have issues with coyotes coming within close distance of your house?? We live in Northern Wisconsin...out in the boonies so I am used to being on creature watch at all times. I've had just about every type of animal that lives up here in my yard at some point. Bears, coyotes, deer, fox, raccoons, porqupines, rabbit, snapping turtle, etc.

Monday night I had a scare. I was outside letting the dogs out for the last time before bed and I saw a glimpse of something in the woods. Where it was, I thought it was just headlights down the road that I caught a glimmer off......but as I looked harder...I realized it was glowing eyes. Once they knew I saw them, they stopped. 3 sets of eyes staring at me from the woods. Nallah & Morgan are off leash to potty and Remi seemed overly distraught on the lead...I think he knew they were there. Morgan was right next to me but Nallah was further off towards the woods. I called her and thankfully she came right away.

I got the dogs inside and went back out with the gun. I stayed on the porch with the lights shut off and couldn't see them. I was still looking further off the yard where they HAD been.  They were now closer to the house.......about 30 yards from me. Still in the woods......but making their way closer to the house. Talk about creepy. I fired a warning shot down into the river bottoms where I knew it wasn't going to hit any of them or hit anything else important. There are no neighbors close by. I just wanted to give them a little something to be scared of and run off. Had it been light out yet, I probably would have taken a crack at them.....but I don't want to take the risk of shooting at one in the dark and injuring it.

Its pretty obvious what their intentions were....and that makes me pretty nervous. This isn't our first encounter with them. I've seen them in broad daylight along the river bottom or on the ridge next to our house. I've heard so many stories about them taking on full sized dogs and killing them. I know its sad that they have no where else to go....we're crowding their living spaces......but I live in the middle of no where! Why do they have to pick on me?! We don't have anything out that would attract them......except for the obvious, the dogs.

This is at the edge of our yard....about 20 yards back is our house. The 'yotes were sitting just inside the woods shown here.

Well....I'm pretty sure they're coyotes because I've seen them in daylight before. I've heard that coyotes & wolves don't live in the same territories......there are for sure Wolves around here, but further north.

Remi is on a leash or lead at all times.....and Nallah and Morgan stick pretty close and have more solid recalls. Either way...not something to mess around with.

Ya ... we've had them in the woods near us. We were only REALLY worried about them when Raz was supposed to go into heat. Not sure genetically how close they are to dogs but we really didn't want to take a chance.

Last spring, Rich was going into the woods with both dogs and a couple was just coming out. On their way in their was half a fresh deer kill on the path ... they were gone 45 minutes, and when they came back, the carcass was gone. Rich decided not to go in that day

We have them here. We think one got my motherinlaw's cat. I have always had indoor/outdoor cats and one disappeared - I think one got her too. Also my other cat got hurt bad - big fight one night two summers ago - bite marks on her back that got infected and we had to put her down - not sure if it was a coyote or not. We have two canoes that are upside down on some saw horses. One day there were two bedded down under it - it was in the snow. Husband tried to track to shoot them after they saw me and left but it was too late by then and he never located them. We are in the woods but have pretty much the "burbs" right outside of our neighborhood. They are all over the place. Even on I95 a couple years back one showed up at a McDonald's rest stop. It attacked a woman. Ever since I lost my cat I will not let the cat I have now out at night. When Windsor goes out in the dark to do his business I go out with him or he's on his lead for a short period of time and I'm close to the door.

 Like.

Agreed - when it comes to protecting my dogs, I shoot first and worry about the law later.

But don't get too overly paranoid immediately. Coyotes are opportunists, they aren't necessarily coming to kill your dogs. They are also smart and quickly learn that where there are dogs, there is often dog food. At field trials, they are known to come through at night after all the dogs are put up and clean up partial bowls, dumped out food and get into dog food bags that are outside. Creates a hell of a ruckus in camp...

Jean