coydogs

Al and Kirby....About these coydogs.
Is it a regular house dog mating with a female coyote?
Or a male coyote mating with a regular house dog?
Most importantly what time of year does this mating take place?

I know you can't tell by simply looking at the coyote, but you gotta have an opinion.
 
R.Shaw, I was told sometime back the general opinion of some Biologists is. When a female dog mates with a wild coyote. Producing these wild hybrids.

I believe the opposite is most likely. As I've heard 1st hand from farmers, that seen their male farm dog playing with a coyote in the Springtime. I suspect those coyote were females. These same farmers have also told me, they've seen the dog fight a coyote/[males?] up near the farmsted.
 
Winter of 1981. I took one of my Bros & his [wife to be] coyote hunting. We seen a boatload of fox & coyote that day. I let my Bro do all the shooting, he never hit a one.

Anyway, the day was ending, I told them I have one more section that generally holds a coyote or two. I drove there & stopped on a high hill. Right away after scanning the hills, I said look at the size of that one!

1/4 mile away atop of a high hill, standing broadside in the wind. Stood one of the largest coyotes I ever seen. Coyote didn't look right, so I put my spotter on him & zoomed in for a better view.

This canine was huge, all gold[white belly]. But it's head/muzzle was wide & blocky, burly chest. Short very pointed ears & a short fluff ball tail.

I looked further, I then seen a pr of ears sticking up from a nearby dip on the same hill. I told Bro, there is a pr of them. I then made a plan for Bro to stalk in. He missed with his last bullet. Both canines hauled butt down a draw.

I cut them off, the smaller coyote cut back the other way. But the large gold commited to cross the gravel right in fron of me. Right in front, as he brushed my front bumper.

I could see him the whole while. I said out loud "What the heck is that!" That gold had dog in him for sure. I knocked him down as he hauled butt across an open field. He regained his footing again & I couldn't re-connect.

I tracked him a mile into an abandoned farmsted. Where he crawled under an old machine shed. He bleed like a stuck hog, most of the way. I never seen him again.
 
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R.Shaw, not really sure. I have always thought it was more likely when a female coyote comes in season and doesn't have a mate, but it could obviously be a male coyote with no mate who comes across a female dog in season. The biologists I have spoken to about this are of the opinion that nature takes care of controlling the numbers of coydogs by them not being born with the same instincts about coming in season as a pure blooded coyote, and the male offspring don't have the instincts to help a female raise pups. As a result, female coydogs come in season at odd times resulting in pups being born at a bad time for survival, and with no mate to help raise them, there is a high rate of non survival. I know I haven't seen many in my 18 years of hunting coyotes hard, so I have always accepted the biologist's theories.
 
10-4, Al.

Here is the largest my Bro & I killed. Never weighed him, but he was larger than my 50'lb'er. I est mid-50's or so.
Looked all coyote to me.

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Kirby, that's a cool photo, first I've seen like it. As for the big coyotes around central Ky., I only killed one over 50 lbs. my first 5 years of hunting. I have killed 16 more over 50 lbs. in the next 13 years. All of the heavier coyotes seem to be real long coupled. I am convinced that they have evolved to match the task at hand, which is killing bigger animals, both wild and domestic. They routinely do things now that was unheard of in my first 5 years. They haven't cross bred with wolves here like they may have in the northern states. Five or six of these big ones can take a big calf down easily.
 
Pic was re-sized to cut our mugs from view.

I'm not a fan of evolution. As for the large framed coyotes. I believe there is something else going on. Maybe dog or other wild canine somewhere along their lineage? Who knows for sure.

Once I seen an all Yellow coyote & an all Red one. Both were large & both had a white underside. Two of the strangest colors I ever seen. Hunted both areas hard the following Winters, never seen either again. Nor any off-spring with those two colors. Had I not laid eyes on either, I doubt I would've believed it.
 
I called in a large all red coyote last winter. It was day break and about -40. Was really windy and I was balled up against a bail of hay freezing my [beeep] off and missed the coyote coming in and finally seen him standing beside the caller about 50 yards from me. He was huge, probably around 50#'s and he had a wolf like face on him but red as a fox. Still [beeep] me off i never got a shot at him LOL
 
I was skeptical about coydogs or hybrids for a while myself till last year my dad called me and said some "coydogs" were harassing some livestock and had ripped down a rabbit cage. I thought it was just ferals for sure, then 2 days later i decided to wait them out near the barn and cut them off and nothing happend that night. The next day i went and waited like the day before but brought some calls with me just to try so after waiting and no action i tried some rabbit distress sounds on the second series of calls i hear what i thought was a deer busting through the corn 50 yards ahead and twards my left and instead of a deer comes 3 canines full speed i dropped all 3 of them one was all coyote the other two looked alot like the first two animals you posted but smaller. My brother shot a male coyote later that year with very different coloration that easily wieghed 50 pounds. Coydogs can and do happen in the wild.
 
I do not quite understand this seeming fascination with the idea of coydogs that some seem to be caught up in.. I have also been doing this for 40years and a have probably spent more time tracking and watching coyote than I should have. While anything is possible, I become highly skeptical of these repeated claims of coydogs being seen and taken again and again. Maybe it just does not occur here but I am not far from the where most of these pics come from. I have never observed a coyote and a dog here in any social exchange, nor have I ever seen tracks of both in the same place at the same time.I have taken very unusually colored coyotes but contribute it to genetic variation just like what occurs in humans and other species. The field pictures never seem to be anything conclusive to me as they are two dimensional and difficult to seen much detail. There are any number of biological reasons and social reasons that make this crossbreeding highly unlikely.If it were not the case the coyote and dog population would be so highly cross bred they would be almost indistinquishable from one another. Biologists tell me coyotes and dogs are hard to crossbreed even in a controlled environment much less in the wild... Oh well, everyone is welcome to believe what they wish.
 
Well smokem, call me caught up in it. I've hunted coyotes since 1968. These wild [odd] canines come from somewhere. Whether captive bred, then released or bred in the wild. If by chance you talk to "enough" farmers that have or had a farm dog.

Eventually you'll hear "a" farmer remark of his dog playing or fighting with a coyote. Like domestic dogs, every coyote IMO has it's own personality/behaviors. In the right circumstance a coyote & domestic dog will/may match behaviors. I suspect the main time frame of that occurance. Is during breeding season.

As for "seeing". Although I have plenty of experience of coyotes. It would be foolish of me, to believe I have seen it all. Not hardly, only the tip of the ice berg in reality.
 
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I should have mentioned that when using decoy dogs to lure coyotes in ,obviously interaction occurs but the decoy dogs are trained to do so. It is largely very territorial in nature and certainly not friendly enough for any kind of mating. Male and female coyotes often have an extemely confrontational courting relationship, not necessarily playful like dogs . The coyotes will send dogs back to the house.I did have a farmer tell me from time to time he lets his dog out of the tractor on a coyote. Shortly there after the dog is back in the tractor with the coyote on the ground teeth bared and hair bristled up. Had to mate with an attitude like that.
 
Well smokem, like your scenarios. I'm of the opinion most times, coyotes & domestic dogs don't or won't get along. But that does not discount people whom have seen otherwise.

Such as, a dog playing with a wild coyote. Or running with one or in a group of coyotes. Although rare, it does happen. Personally I've never witnessed either. But it would be foolish to believe it doesn't happen.

I started predator hunting with dogs as well. None of them got along with the coyotes
 
Hey smokem, does you wife know that you have been playing on the computer again? Just messing with ya.
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Good to see ya over here. I have never seen a coydog in the flesh. Killed a few black coyotes around here, I believe three of em but they looked pure coyote. Kirby has something different up there alright, but I see no coyote similarities in them. Maybe someone turned some of those wolf/dog crosses loose up there?
 
Rich , same here . I have killed coyotes with huge variations in color but all other characteritics are all coyote.Good to see your post.
Hard to think about coyotes and calling with out thinking of you from time to time.
This time of year I start reading these boards again and eventually can't keep my mouth shut.
Am thinking on an early fall trip to Nevada for some calling depending on weather patterns. Talked to a few here locally that are seeing numerous pups hit on the road. Good indicator of numbers and that pups are moving with the adults.. Doesn't last long as the pups learn very quickly to avoid vehicles. I swear the learning curve for a coyote is almost vertical. Hope to hear more of you.
 
Kirby-

They are good photo's but I have to rain on your "hybrid or coy-dog theory" If a dog such as a husky was to breed with a 100% coyote (Canis Latrans) the offspring would be sterile and unable to have offspring. This being the case, in the wild a domestic dog breeding with a coyote is extremely rare and by proven science would not support your local population of hybrids aka coy-dogs...
 
Theory? hardly think so LOL!. Take a closer look at the top of this post & tell me, that canine[that farmer is holding] is ALL coyote. BTW, please direct me to the Biologist opinion. A coyote/dog hybrid is sterile.

From what I've read the only [potential]problem with a wild coyote & a domestic dog breeding, is their varying? breeding cycles.

I figure both canines can take care of business[potential hurdle] if they have a mind too.
 
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I don't know how the biologists could ever prove that stuff about the offspring of a Husky and a coyote being sterile. They would have to repeat all kinds of cross breedings to attain a compilation of support data. I know a guy who had a female coydog that appeared to be a cross between a coyote and his female Gorky. She later had pups by a neighborhood dog. Seems to me that there was a lot of fertility in that deal.
 
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