Stinkypup

I could imagine- I thought that you were just teasing us with Spring

bats

It looks cute, I like the flower bed edging. I'd never thought of vertical posts for the fence they should make it harder for the dig to jump over. The people who lived here before had a four foot wire mesh fence that their retriever scaled easily. It was pretty ugly too so we we asked him to take it with him. I'm thinking cute white picket fence.

Siouxie

The wire mesh fences seem to be bog standard here. At my last house I removed it and put wood panels up instead.

dbd33

Removal of the Manhattan skyline edging is on a the list somewhere. It made good use of the 4x4 offcuts but is unweed-able.

Atlantic Xpat

Fred drifting somewhat.... We've recently acquired a new hound who is primarily Beagle with a dash of some other dog(s). So he is all about the scent and I fear will never be allowed off leash as he'll follow the scent and we'll never see him again. We're fortunate in a largeish yard with a wooded area at the bottom of it and he spends hours upon hours foraging in the undergrowth following the scents and chasing birds. The snow, or indeed freezing rain yesterday, doesn't bother him at all.

Back on topic - There are regular reports of Coyotes near where we live. I'm appropriately cautious and thankful for a well fenced back yard!

dbd33

Wouldn't the thing to do be to make yourself smell more attractive to beagle crosses than anything else in the world?

caretaker

I began seeing what I believe were coywolves around 1992 when I lived at the lake, and others had been seeing them too. It was already being reported how they were moving west. In 2010 a farmer I was buying pork from east of Regina saw 2 wolves trying to bring down one of his calves and he was able to get his rifle and shoot one of them, scaring the other one away. It weighed 90 lbs, a coyote weighs maybe 35. There's nothing coy about that one, that's a wolf. Animals change their ranges, and coyotes are so adaptable they can go almost anywhere. Trout Lake in E Van had coyote dens right in the middle of a dog park, (maybe still does, not sure since they cut the bushes back), and they travel the skytrain route, My friend is certain a coyote sneaked into his backyard through a narrow space along the garage and got his cat. The night after the cat disappeared he was out on the step having a smoke and saw a coyote trotting along the sidewalk, this near Kingsway and Vic.

Atlantic Xpat

Given his appetite for rummaging in the cats litter that would be cat poo. No thanks!

MillieF

I've got a Cairn Terrier who's a specialist at that Quite horrible.

Thank you so much for your replies. What fascinating animals, it is amazing that these things are adapting quite so quickly, in evolutionary terms, and living, practically, amongst us, in Toronto and Chicago. It was a really good documentary, but at first I thought it was pulling my leg like 'spaghetti trees', my son was convinced it was a spoof.

Really interesting. We have wolves in NB according to Google.

scrubbedexpat091

Dachshunds are about sent and hunting as well, if ours gets a smell of interest, she will take off, or dig a hole to find whatever it is she smells.

She isn't allowed off leash anymore after she decided to chase a smell and while she is small with short legs, she can run faster then me, luckily she lost the scent and came back, but who knows how far into the forest she would have gone if she kept on track of the smell, so best she gets now is 24 feet of retractable leash.

She is a good early indicator if there is a bear or something around, on a walk 2 summers ago when we were in Squamish I was walking her (in town no in the woods.) and she stopped sniffed the air, and her hair puffed up, I didn't think much of it, kept walking, turned the corner and a bear with 2 cubs not more then 20 feet away. Lesson learned, pay attention to the dog, she knows when bears are around before I ever would.

MarkG

Oddly enough, I was reading about coyotes in a hunting magazine yesterday. Apparently tracking studies have shown that about 70% are territorial and 30% are wanderers looking for a territory, so if you clear out your land, the wanderers will just move in to replace them.

We had one on our lawn a few years ago, but haven't seen any since then. Don't think it's legal to hunt them on the lawn, either.