Toby and the Coyotes Part 2

Coyotes and a Great Pyrenees Part 2

I've written about being chased by coyotes before. This is part two.

A quick caveat. My partner, Laurie, told me this story because it happened early in the morning, and I slept through the entire incident. (not a morning person, am I)

We live in a Pińon-juniper woodland and have a large fenced yard. The fence is 6 feet high, with metal fence posts every ten yards.

This morning, our two dogs were out in the yard: Maisie, a twelve-pound chihuahua-terrier mix, and Toby, our laid-back Great Pyrenees. Tobe is about eighty pounds.

Laurie was in our laundry room when suddenly Toby opened the door from the garage and burst into the laundry room. Laurie said he was covered with fur (not his) and drool. Laurie peeked in the garage and noted that Toby had also opened the side door to the garage. It is scary knowing that your dog can open doors.

Then Toby (and Maisie) sprinted through the house, through the dog door, and back into the fenced yard.

And Laurie followed them and heard barking. But it wasn't just our guys. Two coyotes were also yapping away close to the fence in the trees.

Typically, according to Western wisdom, coyotes bark when protecting their pups, territory, or calling their pack.

Laurie began yelling at the coyotes, Toby howled, and Maisie barked. The coyotes split.

Then Laurie noticed the fence was bowed out, creating a gap: Toby. When a Great Pyrenees sets their mind to it, they will get out. He's jumped over a five-foot fence, gone through a screen window, and pushed out the fence in several places.

We reconstructed what happened. The coyotes had gotten too close to the fence, and Toby bashed through it to get them. He got into a tussle with them (Thus the gray fur and slime on his neck). Once they were driven off, he hightailed back into the house.

This is nothing like the story of Casper, the Georgia state Great Pyrenees who, in protecting his herd of sheep, went after and killed eight coyotes last December (2022), but still, the events of the morning echo.

What struck me (after I woke up) was Toby's demeanor afterward. He wasn't shaking or scared. He was just. . .chill. That's my job; I know what I'm doing. He jumped up on the couch (after being wiped down by Laurie) and stretched out for a long nap.

Moral of the story: that dog lounging on your couch or asleep at your feet will instantly go to "mach-two hair on fire" if they sense a threat to you, their family, or the herd of goats or the gaggle of geese they are protecting.

They — at least some dogs — are like first responders. The page goes off, they get ramped up, go to the call, deal with sometimes horrific scenes, and then come home and wonder what's for dinner — or they take that nap.

So Toby, even though we do everything possible to prevent encounters with wildlife, gets the badge for Hero of the Week.

Love the Woof!

For part One of the stories, check out “Dog Lessons: Learning the Important Stuff from our Best Friends”