[sydneynicole]

Anyone have a coyote/hawk vest for their dog? Or some other kind of protection from these types of predators? I'm open to suggestions!

A hawk killed one of our chickens yesterday and it was a wake up call that I need some more protection for Oliver, especially now that we have the chickens which attract predators and we live in a heavily wooded area. I purchased him a CoyoteVest set up. In case you don't want to click the links, the vest has spikes, the hawk shield is kevlar to prevent talons from puncturing through, and the coyote whiskers are supposed to be a visual deterrent and also an annoyance if an animal does attack, kind of like a porcupine in a way.

https://www.coyotevest.com/collections/all/products/canine-spikevest
https://www.coyotevest.com/collections/all/products/coyotewhiskers
https://www.coyotevest.com/collections/all/products/hawkshield-2018

Assuming this fits well it should offer some pretty good protection from both coyote/fox etc and birds of prey. I'm also excited to have it while we are out on hikes. Oliver has recently graduated off of the long line and it will give me excellent peace of mind that should we encounter an unfriendly dog or a predator of some sort, he will have a layer of protection until I can intervene. And also that if he ever runs off and gets lost, he will have protection in that case.

 

[PatriciafromCO]

saw a news story about it.. The lady said it did deter an actual attack of a coyote jumping in her yard trying to do a quick snatch and run on her smaller breed dogs. My Breeder use to hang these big plastic statues of Horned Owls on the trees to ward off other birds of prey.. She had an outdoor puppy play area ..

 

[Lillith]

We used to have sheep on our farm, and my dad would hang worn shirts out in the pastures on poles. The scent helped deter coyotes and keep the sheep safe. Basically, sleep in the shirt for a couple of nights (preferable unshowered for a stronger human scent), then hang it around the edges of your yard. Change every once in a while, especially after a rain. It might not work if the coyotes are accustomed to human scent and don't necessarily attribute it to bad things happening, though. The ones on the farm knew a human scent meant trouble, so scent and a shirt fluttering in the breeze was often enough to make them look somewhere else. It really depends on how bold your coyotes are. If they have no problem trotting around in broad daylight in front of humans, it likely is not enough, haha. In that case, if you ever spot one near your property, be loud and noisy and unpleasant and scary as possible.

As for out on walks away from your property, I think the vest and your presence should be a good deterrent, unless your coyotes are extremely bold. Most will avoid humans like the plague, but I live in an area where coyotes have plenty of their own human-free territory to roam, and they will be shot at if they show up near homes. I don't think it's going to be much protection if he runs off and gets lost, though, unfortunately. All the coyotes have to do is turn him over, and they can figure out how to turn over a porcupine to avoid the spikes, so I don't think they would have much of a problem with a dog. I think a GPS tracker would be better, because you finding him before predators do is better!

 

[sydneynicole]

We used to have sheep on our farm, and my dad would hang worn shirts out in the pastures on poles. The scent helped deter coyotes and keep the sheep safe. Basically, sleep in the shirt for a couple of nights (preferable unshowered for a stronger human scent), then hang it around the edges of your yard. Change every once in a while, especially after a rain. It might not work if the coyotes are accustomed to human scent and don't necessarily attribute it to bad things happening, though. The ones on the farm knew a human scent meant trouble, so scent and a shirt fluttering in the breeze was often enough to make them look somewhere else. It really depends on how bold your coyotes are. If they have no problem trotting around in broad daylight in front of humans, it likely is not enough, haha. In that case, if you ever spot one near your property, be loud and noisy and unpleasant and scary as possible.

As for out on walks away from your property, I think the vest and your presence should be a good deterrent, unless your coyotes are extremely bold. Most will avoid humans like the plague, but I live in an area where coyotes have plenty of their own human-free territory to roam, and they will be shot at if they show up near homes. I don't think it's going to be much protection if he runs off and gets lost, though, unfortunately. All the coyotes have to do is turn him over, and they can figure out how to turn over a porcupine to avoid the spikes, so I don't think they would have much of a problem with a dog. I think a GPS tracker would be better, because you finding him before predators do is better!

Our coyotes aren't bold at all - I only see them every now and then, and almost always at night. The boldest thing I've ever seen out of them was running down the center of the road around midnight one night, but who knows why they were doing that, as it isn't common. I just know there are a decent amount of them from the tracks I see, and occasionally on hikes I will stumble upon a kill. They have a lot of wooded territory around and pretty much stick to that - but, a lot of our walks are in that wooded territory. There are trails right off of my backyard that we walk several times a week that are just woods for miles. I see fox out a lot more often and they are a bit braver, but still never get within 20-30 feet of me before running off.

I guess after the hawk attack, and knowing that we have so much wildlife right in our backyard, this is more of a preemptive strike type of thing. A chicken died and I'd much rather go overboard trying to protect Oli than be sorry I didn't try later after he gets attacked. There's a chance it will never happen, but who knows. The hawks/vultures/eagles seem like more of a threat than the other critters right now.

And he does have a GPS tracker! So I think I'm doing pretty much all I can do to keep him safe between the tracker and the new coyote/hawk gear.