Coyotegods: Dorn Pups

Cal:

I'm convinced that many different dogs can get the job done; when you get right down to it denning isn't that terribly hard given a few factors going in your favor. If you can glass and find pups piddling around outside of the hole, or a sentinel coyote, or if you can get those pups to howl, or if you've got a den map, either on a chunk of paper or in your head, or a location from a spotter plane, all that you need is an approach angle and a dog that'll range out and away from you, and then return when those old ones drop on him; he really doesn't even have to "hunt" them, so long as he'll run for you when they start to bite his ass, and chase what's left after you start shooting.

I've loaned my copy of "Hoofbeats" to someone or other, so I can't reference it at the moment, but it seems like Dorn and/or O'Gorman mentioned that Border Collies broke down too fast when they were worked hard, Airedales were stubborn/stupid, and hounds wanted to scent-trail too much, among other things.

As I said, I think that there's a lot of other factors to consider; "Dogg'in Coyotes" will leave a novice breathless, but I know several Gov't trappers that just kind of snorted when they saw that video; the country that they work is thick with oak brush and timber, and their opinion was that any old dog will do to den in open country where they can see the coyote(s) coming; they only respected a dog that would wind up and go, or run to a howl, without having any idea where those coyotes were, or how many there were, and with a pretty good idea that he might be heading right into a buzz saw in that tangle somewhere.

Then there's the idea that I've heard again and again from trappers concerning differential aggression; some areas of the country just seem to hold those "long-toothed" aggressive coyotes, and some areas seem to have those "quail-hearted" shy retiring types, and that influences a denner's choice of dogs.

Then there's the more "advanced" techniques; I don't den all that much here in Arizona, so I'm content to use my Airedales and howl to locate when I'm trying to fix a problem, but if I were doing suppressive work I'd be mightily tempted to go to a straight trail hound and systematically work den trails backwards from water; there isn't that much of it in this country, and coyotes have to drink just like most other things (just to take one example).

I've talked to trappers that told me they'd empty dog pounds in denning season; they'd just take any old mutt into an area where they had isolated a den and cut him loose; if he'd dive for those coyotes that was all good; if he didn't work they shot him and went and got another one.

To my mind decoy work is sort of the Doctorate program for coyote dogs; without those pups nearby the coyote doesn't have nearly the imperative and urgency to fool with a dog, and as a result that dog better have a little artistry about it. I personally like a dog with a lot of range and desire; if I were a bird hunter I'd probably run a German Shorthair (unless I decided to train an Airedale for feathers) so that influences my choice of breed, but Tomas gets along handily with his JRT's, and more often than not those dogs are within thirty or so yards of him until a coyote shows up.

Most of the older trappers that I've talked to held the opinion that a dog in the Fall and Winter cost them more coyotes than they were worth, and they just left them home, but I think that's mainly because they had dogs aggressive enough to den, and those dogs didn't change their behavior at other times of the year, with the result that they ran a lot of coyotes off without a shot being fired.

My Athena was a slick-coated female that stood 22" or so at the shoulder and weighed 40-some pounds, and she was a lean leggy running machine with a twitchy darting passive/aggressive style that just drove coyotes wild; she'd twist them into such knots that I think they were relieved when they finally caught a bullet. O'Gorman has written that he thinks that a pale colored smallish bitch dog with a shy attitude is best for decoy work, and an Airedale obviously isn't pale or shy, but The Rat ripped them up down here until she died, and I think that in large measure it was due to the fact that she knew exactly what she was doing; she lived for the crack of that rifle and the sound of that bullet smacking that coyote. And Micky before her, and Lucy and Heather after her; once you get the idea hammered into that thick terrier head those Airedales just seem to glory in playing the game.

And for that matter my biggest male (Mad Max, who stands 25" or so and weighs 60-some lbs) is a pretty fair decoy dog himself; I started him denning in CO as a three-year old, and I flew so much fire out of him getting him to turn and come back that he's pretty diffident in the Wintertime, and he'll barely bump a coyote at all before he's on his way back to the gun. And it works; I'm pretty sure that the size of a dog is less important than the attitude of the dog most of the time, and if a coyote thinks that he's got the bluff in he'll keep right on coming no matter how big the dog is.

One of the few things that I know of sure is that people misunderstand the Airedale on a regular basis; when I got Micky seven years ago I was mightily puzzled; after a year I was pretty well convinced that she was retarded, and it took her all of three years to get me trained to the point where she figured that I was worth hunting with.

They're not for everyone, but I'm sure not sorry that I took the time to understand them; I've had stock dogs and hounds and mastiffs and various other breeds ever since I was born, but I wouldn't trade my Airedales for anything any more for general all-around field work. I guess that I'll own them when I die; I've always been a little on the stubborn side, and their personality seems to suit me get right.

John-Henry