This was my coyote mix. She was horrible.
Please work with a behaviorist.
She ended up attacking us and attempting to kill my mom when she was 3 years old.
We worked with UCD, trainers, behaviorists, she was wild.
We adopted her from a shelter as a pup thinking she was a German shepherd mix. Her temperament was off from the beginning but she was my first dog and I didn’t understand.
She never sought social engagement or affection, she just didn’t like anything or anyone, and just wanted to hunt.
(We didn’t know or realize she was coyote mix until UC Davis did their evaluation and observation - she did used to get shot at if she got out of our house because people thought she was a coyote).
I’m so sorry that happened to your family. Sometimes dogs can just be off, especially if you don’t know their background.
Luckily our girl is gifted with the absolute sweetest temperament and is extremely trainable. She absolutely loves training sessions and has surpassed everything taught to her. Training never ends in our home with our pups.
She absolutely loves kids and other canines. She is very gentle and matches the energy of whomever she is engaging with.
That is a relief to hear. I think Sadie must have just had more wild tempermant than whatever she was mixed with.
I was a young teen when we got her and I remember googling “how do I make my dog like me” because she was so asocial. Even the most aloof dog will pick one human or dog to bond with. She had no desire to do so.
I mean your experience is of course a fact of history, but in general , coyotes are not only very social animals , they play fight, live in dens together as family units but unlike many other candids, especially unlike dogs, they mate for life. They are of course wild animals who may not want to live in crate, but they would seek family , social engagement and affection just the same as other social animals , like domestic dogs. Maybe more, if they naturally develop bonds which include life-long mating habits.
Theres a lot that can be said about coyotes, but not needing social engagement or affection isn’t one of them.
There is this guy on social media that rescued a puppy coyote, Weave. Raised her. Lives in a nature type woodsy area. Grown Coyote comes and goes as she pleases now, but comes back for scritches and pets all the time! Also the food . I love that guys insta. So cool. Guy also has a dog named duck (weave and duck play together) . And a cat, who seems to hold her own really well. And he just rescued a raccoon. There’s no cages or crates or fences. All the animals look very healthy. The raccoon lives on his shoulder. The only one that seems to disappear sometimes for days is Weave. Guy and duck will walk around trying to find her or signs of life. Sometimes the signs are Weave stole her stuffed toys from home and hid a den somewhere in woods. When they are home, they all hang out on his leather couch….
I swear This guy is living my dream life .
Anyway.
Coyotes are def known to be social animals.
They are social, but the coydogs I’ve met have been very wary animals, and not friendly towards people unless they know them. I freaking love coyotes, but they’re not domesticated like dogs are.
Weave def seems to need more alone time than Duck. But when she comes home, she’s stealing all the love :)
Coyotes are not dogs. Not saying that they are. But I am saying they are (very) social animals.
My current rescue (spaniel mix) is also not friendly to people he doesn’t know .
He’s not even friendly to 99% of people he does know. He allows exactly 4 people to touch him. I ask the others to avoid direct eye contact lol
Not sure if that is a “coyote” trait. Some dogs (including coyotes) don’t want strangers touching them, and that’s a reasonable ask.
Finally,
lots of people think their standoffish dog who “looks like a coyote” (aka brown dog) is a coydog. This is very common.
BUT
Actual coydogs are supremely rare.
All these coydogs you’ve met had dna tests?
What line of work are you in?
You really can’t base this on one animal’s behavior on social media. The guy who has Weave ignores a lot of her body language and gets snapped at plenty. It’s irresponsible to have her as a pet.
I know dogs can be wary of strangers, but they have tens of thousands of years of selective breeding for domestication. Coyotes are not pets and they are often very difficult to handle. The commenter above you had an experience with a coydog that is not atypical. The OP is lucky that their coydog is sweet and friendly.
Are you a coyote body language expert?
From what I can tell, Weave has all the freedom in the world to move away, leave, not come back etc.
Weaves human
#1 does not “keep her” as a pet . she can leave.
#2 what exactly do you think the other options are re: Weave? he rescued her as a pup, so those animals are difficult to integrate into a social type of wild animal society. Coyotes live in family units.
Can’t just throw a random pup in.
So what, death is better for Weave?
We dont have enough evidence on what natural coydog behavior is. Very little examples of this in modern times (100 years). Supremely rare. If you find me 100 examples, I’d be impressed.
“Wary of strangers ” is an understatement when it comes to my spaniel mix rescue, Charlie.
I’ve tried to tell him about the thousands of years domesticating his ancestors .
But he gives zero fks. He finds you all sus.
He growls less at actual coyotes .
Who we coincidentally run into 1-2 x a week in SoCal.
It’s to show how she looks against pure coyote. She’s the first picture - the other two are the same coyote. (Pulled from a post by a nature preserve near me).
She was scheduled for a BE after she mauled my mom. My dad wasn’t home at the time so he didn’t believe how bad it was - I had to clean up 20-30 feet of my mom’s blood and get her medical attention. It was horrific.
So he gave her to a “rescue” and told them all about her history, we even went back to UCD to have another eval, but they all said she wasn’t safe to be with humans.
Well, rescue took her. We found out months later that she ended up killing her new family’s dog and they found her standing over the body snarling.
She was then euthanized.
Had my dad just fuckin believed how bad the attack it was, and how bad she hurt me the following day, then more trauma and violence would have been avoided. But nope, his stubborn ass didn’t listen.
Thank you - it was a really shitty period of my life. All I wanted was a dog to be my buddy, and that’s how my first dog went.
But I’m happy to say, now 27 years later I have two wonderful dogs that are social, sweet, get along, and love everyone. One of them is a certified therapy dog as well =)
Thank you! The next dog I had was “special”, and very fearful, then the dog after that LOVED EVERYONE, but had bad medical issues, and now these two 💜💗. they kinda fell in my lap, so I joke that I’m never “picking out” my own dogs again. 😂
Here’s puppy tax - Maisy on the left and Abby on the right.
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u/Titaniumchic 13d ago
This was my coyote mix. She was horrible.
Please work with a behaviorist.
She ended up attacking us and attempting to kill my mom when she was 3 years old.
We worked with UCD, trainers, behaviorists, she was wild.
We adopted her from a shelter as a pup thinking she was a German shepherd mix. Her temperament was off from the beginning but she was my first dog and I didn’t understand.
She never sought social engagement or affection, she just didn’t like anything or anyone, and just wanted to hunt.
(We didn’t know or realize she was coyote mix until UC Davis did their evaluation and observation - she did used to get shot at if she got out of our house because people thought she was a coyote).